Ableton Forum

I love the type of bases stephan bodzin uses...

examples: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtMZjfbVSgE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaxFuXpcQmE

They sound very:

wide
full
harmonic?

So My question is.. do you think he uses like one oscilator set to 0 and others set to +2 or +3 semitones?


And.. if so ,is it ok to use basses like that.. becuase in theory that would be a kind od chord...


Of course rules are made to be broken but...

Whats ur experience or opinions ? thanks!

You nailed it with your assessment - full, harmonic, wide - boom!

I don't think he's using chords, mate, but he's definitely got some nice harmonics going on to widen the sound. He might have a few oscillators going on - maybe not quite sure of the tuning, though - I only listened to the first one and I don't think the tuning is as much as that (although I could definitely hear a sub in there, which could be a sub-oscillator which is likely pitched -12 semitones down).

The oscillators could be pitched a few cents apart, or he could have some un-synced oscillators widening the sound (or both). He could be running some widening FX on there, like a subtle chorus - man, could be doing many things.

It IS a nice sound, mate!

Personally I've never used chords for bass - to me it makes the low-end sound muddy and messy - awash with too much low-end energy.

Hi,

his bass pad is very unique sounding and probably comes from his Moog Sub 37. From what I can hear: He uses three oscillators, one sub and two saw oscillators detuned against each other (could also be saw/square mix as the Sub37 can do that, and the sub bass could be a different patch). The true magic in the patch comes from a very nice balance of resonance and feedback which is not easy to replicate on many synths. I also suspect a modest amount of distortion and chorus, and he does automated filter sweeps (a lot).

The closest I can get to this sound is with the incredible Diva VST and OSCs and Filters in Minimoog-mode. Diva has the filter feedback that I think is essential. I detune two oscillators (-6...+6 cents), add a triangle sub. Then I stack this, making it a duophonic sound, and detune the stack voices against each other (The Sub37 can do this as well I think), and detune them +3...-3. This results in a really, really fat sound, but does not yet nail it perfectly. Attack on VCA is close to 0, no decay, legato mode, glide set up to get some nice move between notes.

Hope this helps a bit,

K