Ableton Forum

Remove conflicting low frequencies in other tracks. i.e. Highpass EQ everything except your bassline and kick. Also, compress the bass.

but i must wonder -- why would analog bass be superior to digital? Low frequencies don't alias as badly as high frequencies; they have longer waves and therefore are rendered in higher resolution, if you will. Digital nearly equals analog in its ability to move long waves of air. High frequencies are where sampling and virtuals fall short. So if you're talking about the textural side of bass, the harmonics and high frequency timbre complexities, i'm with you. My Juno has a ripping filter (and yes, i love the real controls). But I tend to use a lot of digital basses when I want a simple sine or saw foundation.

Am I off the mark?

yep, a sine wave does indeed make a great bass line and is something that digital synths can achieve easily.

However, even though a sine wave SHOULD be just one frequency, one simple tone, that isn't always the case with analog gear... Which is why the sine wave of something like an eml electro comp 101 sounds somehow nicer than a digital sine wave. Its cause the electrocomp's sinewave isn't perfect.

For using saw waves, yeah, the digital synths can handle generating a saw wave no prob. But then if you're using a saw wave you're prolly gonna use a filter too. which analog stuff still has the edge over digital...


y'know, the sound difference is nit picking at this point, i do think there have been major advances in soft synths in the last few years, but control is soooo important to being inspired. The controls on analog synths are actually laid out in a way that make sense and are 100% smooth. A midi controller just has a generic lay out and is not smooth.


-LM

I bought a roland juno 106 in january for $300, so if you are looking in that range, that would be perfect. You can make all the analog bass you want with on, save patches, sample them, just record them into live.