Favorite "traditional" synth bass tracks

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philbrown
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Favorite "traditional" synth bass tracks

Post by philbrown »

My wife plays bass in our live trio. She’s got a keyboard background though, so to make a long story short we’ve got a Moog Sub 37 on its way which we’re both super excited about. We’re playing all originals now and we’re excited to work in some synth bass on some of our songs. So anyway I started combing Spotify for some classic ‘traditional’ synth bass (as opposed to dance music or Tangerine dream/Kraftwerk, etc).

Gary Wright’s Love Is Alive is cool (and definitely a classic) but it’s a little bombastic for my personal taste.

A few of my favorites:
Stevie Wonder - Too High, Golden Lady and a bunch of others
Jan Hammer Group - Peaceful Sundown - LOVE that track!
Gino Vanelli - People Gotta Move and lots of others
Best concert sound I ever experienced was Gino Vanelli in 1977
ELP - Trilogy @ 3:03 just slays me. OK it’s bombastic, I admit.
And just so I’m not a complete geezer I like the stuff this guy is doing in (the band) Phoenix:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Koyh3F6kicY

What are your favorites?
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MIDI Life Crisis
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Re: Favorite "traditional" synth bass tracks

Post by MIDI Life Crisis »

Wow. We soooo live in different musical worlds. I just want you to think I'm ignoring you. ;)
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philbrown
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Re: Favorite "traditional" synth bass tracks

Post by philbrown »

MIDI Life Crisis wrote:Wow. We soooo live in different musical worlds. I just want you to think I'm ignoring you. ;)
:?:
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Re: Favorite "traditional" synth bass tracks

Post by MIDI Life Crisis »

I don't know quite a few of the references. I kind of left "pop" music behind when disco came out (like 1974?) so I know the ELP reference (couldn't name a single tune on it) and some of the other artists but your post made me realize how far removed from each other we (the editorial we) can be in our musical preferences and historical/cultural knowledge. That's all.
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Re: Favorite "traditional" synth bass tracks

Post by mikehalloran »

Open up GarageBand in iOS, iPhone or iPad. You will find many of the classic (others might call them overused) synth basses of the '80s and '90s under Instruments/Smart Bass along with four electric basses and an upright.

I access those from my Line6 Mobile Keys or just tap on the glass when performing live. There are a couple of songs where I go to the synth basses. Cool? Hell if I know. Fun? Oh yes.

I'm not going to list songs. I was touring the world playing folk music and didn't pay that much attention to synth pop during that era but I do recognize all of the sounds in GB Instruments.
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Re: Favorite "traditional" synth bass tracks

Post by Tritonemusic »

mikehalloran wrote:Cool? Hell if I know. Fun? Oh yes.
That is a quote worth repeating.
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Re: Favorite "traditional" synth bass tracks

Post by bayswater »

I agree about the bass sounds in GB. There's a lot of useful stuff there. I find it needs to be layered to get what you want. I often start with Liverpool and then add in one or two other bass patches to round it out.

My favourite bass sounds are still from old synths. I had a Roland D-110 with a patch called D-50 Bass (which I guess was copied from the Roland D-50). Loved that sound. And a patch on the K2000 called Bright and Fat based on 12 sawtooth oscillators with a lot of detuning and modulation. A filter was assigned to the data slider on the K2000 to get a really full bass sound. I've ported that to Mach 5 using AutoSampler, but it's not really the same.
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Re: Favorite "traditional" synth bass tracks

Post by HCMarkus »

I have gotten some fantastic results with MOTU's bass VI.
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philbrown
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Re: Favorite "traditional" synth bass tracks

Post by philbrown »

Maybe someone should start a thread about bass VI's etc.

Michael Jackson - Man in the Mirror
Chromeo - My Girl Is Calling Me
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Re: Favorite "traditional" synth bass tracks

Post by Dwetmaster »

I bought a sub 37 for the exact same reason as your wife. And I would never go back. I don't have any plugins that sounds as thick and juicy.

And Moog recently released a very thourough editor that make editing and managing patches a breeze.

You won't regret it. :wink:
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philbrown
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Re: Favorite "traditional" synth bass tracks

Post by philbrown »

Dwetmaster wrote:I bought a sub 37 for the exact same reason as your wife. And I would never go back. I don't have any plugins that sounds as thick and juicy.

And Moog recently released a very thourough editor that make editing and managing patches a breeze.

You won't regret it. :wink:
Ours just got here a few minutes ago- hooking it up right now.
We're both totally excited! Thanks for the extra juice Dwetmaster!!
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Re: Favorite "traditional" synth bass tracks

Post by Phil O »

Perhaps this is a stupid question, but is there a way to play the GB sounds directly in DP?

Phil
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Re: Favorite "traditional" synth bass tracks

Post by bayswater »

Phil O wrote:Perhaps this is a stupid question, but is there a way to play the GB sounds directly in DP?

Phil
No. But MOTU issued a tech link a few years ago on how to access the sounds. It looks like it's gone but still exists as a PDF in Google if you search for garage band in digital performer The same general approach works for Logic and Mainstage.
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Re: Favorite "traditional" synth bass tracks

Post by Phil O »

Thanks, B. I'll check it out.

P
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Re: Favorite "traditional" synth bass tracks

Post by mikehalloran »

MOTU issued a tech link a few years ago on how to access the sounds. It looks like it's gone but still exists as a PDF in Google if you search for garage band in digital performer The same general approach works for Logic and Mainstage.
Ha! :rofl:

Not your post but the fact that I never considered looking for those sounds in GarageBand on my Mac. Duh... There are 28 synth bass patches in the current version of GB for Mac; only 4 in the iOS version.

I can't post a link to the .pdf (weird) but entering garage band digital performer in Google brings it right to the top of the list.

An EXS24 player such as MachFive 3 is another way to load them into DP.

In addition to the GB synths, the full 13G ESX24 libraries come with MainStage ($29.99) or Logic Pro X ($199.99). I counted 75 synth bass patches just now.
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