Hi,
I am using like most bedroom producers Vsti Synths. But if your ears still remember how Analog Deep Bass sounds and vibrates, you might also so be missing something. When I listen to some old vinly Techno / Tech-house / Punk Tracks, immediately I think, wow that baseline sounds evil (I know there is also the vinly factor there, but the digital version also sounds better). I know the Vsts have improved extensively but somehow they still sound not analog enough.

I am questioning myself, is it my fault? Have I not created the best analog sound on the Vsts like Massive Sylenth...the closest I got is with Arturia Mini V3.

I have downloaded a lot of Preset Packs, followed Tutorials on how to create my own. But I never get that analog sound, most Presets Packs are crap...they all sound similiar...digital and plastic.

If you know better or have a secret weapon or tweak please let me know...I am really contemplating to go Hardware but not sure that it will make a difference on my low budget.

 

your overthinking it.

have you ever sit in the room and feel how that analog sound actually feels like on your owne skin?

if not,

then what you are doing is comparing 2 very different things to eachother than has no relation to eatchother. only labels.

your comparing A, to B, but you dont know what B is sounding like or how B feels. you only have refferences to someone else talking about it. And even than person might not have ever tried a "real analog" before, but always have been using emulation to falsely compare to "the real thing"

so, maybe you should not worry about it at all. and just try your best and really listen and feel the sounds you've created, or the instruments you are playing. listen with your eyes closed. really listen. absorb it thru your ears and body. really feel it.

 

I have the same issue... they say Diva Repro etc. sounds very analog but it's nowhere near a sub 37 bass whenever I try, the analog of top artists tracks is more juicy, aggressive and has more attack and grit, maybe I'm doing it wrong of not using the right effects / magic sauce plugins on it.

 

Old analogue synths = mostly poor filter design and distortion along the signal path. And most synth replicas and reissues do this - so it's not about analogue, it's more about what you think it's analogue. That's where the "aggression" comes from.
Well designed modern poly analogue will sound like a high end vst (Dune3, Massive X etc).

 

@reliefsan yeah, not really on your plane of existence...happy you are hearing the "analog sound"...good for you XD

 

analog sells ...

but analog is circuits and voltage and cables and knobs and no cpu. its nice to make stuff afk.

if you start with modular for example then you can just buy one module sometimes and dont have to pay like 2k at a time and can make your own instrument that fits your needs.

bought 3 moogs and barely use them. plugins are just way more practical if you are lazy...but if there will be more lockdowns i will make something with those maybe. its really time consuming.

really feel attracted to analog drum machines tho and never would give them away

tried monomachine too but that stuff is more or less just laying around

also thought about "analog heat" from elektron. but somehow its crazy to spend 1k on a device just to saturate a bass sometimes and ppl listen to that on a cell phone speaker that is actually crazy

https://www.elektron.se/products/analog-heat-mkii/

if you make a preset pack just write "analog" somewhere in the title...

ï can not send you the synths but i could sample those i have and make a oneshot pack. but i have no idea if that would sound like a vst or if we would hear a difference or if this makes sense at all. once i really thought man i should sample some moog bass and make 808s out that... but i use 808 plugins anyway haha

bro don't question yourself. question the market and the trends and the industry and the whole damn system if you ask me.

 

So you are saying the mistakes made them better? Like Hawking said, without imperefection neither you or I would exist.
I have had vinyls from the beginning, later I switched to 2 Timecoded Turntables with Virtual DJ / Serato. My Laptop broke and I plugged my Turntables directly and played a Vinyl Set...with the 1st Record I was shocked by the "analog" sound... I could not believe how my ears had gotten used to the digital crap. I can hear it, I dont how they do it but some producers have fat analog basslines and brass sounds.

 

So you did not hear any difference between your Moogs and your Vsti? Which Moogs do you have? I can take them of your hands for free to make more space for you XD. If I had money, I would get the Elektron Analog Four MKII but maybe its gonna be a Moog Sub Phatty.

 

A) My Bass Synths are not analog enough...
B) are you using VST Synths?
A) yes.
B) ok.

A) My wife is always angry and unhappy...
B) are you having sex once in a while?
A) no.
B) ok.

 

Two words for you, my friend. "Saturn" and "Volcano".
Perhaps some RC-20 too if you feel fancy.
Oh, and learn to compress.

 

I have the same feelings about it as you. Always something about it, not quite "there" somehow...

I have a secret weapon though: Acoustica Nebula. While it isn't specifically about synths, it's a way of sampling hardware that preserves 99.5% of that evil, life, and niceness that you get in analog. It took forever to get to grips with Nebula, but that's how it goes with secret weps. The results you can get with it were exactly what I needed. I'm returning the evil back into to synthlines by passing them through sampled emulations of ancient mix desks from the 60ies, moog line outs, weird ass EQs/compressors etc. Working great!

Although it isn't perfect either, sometimes Nebula noticeably messes with the sub freqs, so I'm having to painstakingly isolate those from the nebula submixes. Other times the mess it adds in the sub area actually feels good to me.

If you can't be bothered seeking out the Nebula arcane knowledge, I recommend checking out one of their standalone products, especially the Pink3 set and the Ultramarine set. Same tech as Nebula but without the huge learning curve. You get EQs, comps, pre's and I think a reverb even, with those. Pre's are like "just pass through the device, no changes dialed" programs in Nebula world, so that's relevant to your interests here. Pink is old API gear, great for putting the venom back into synths and general mixing. Ultramarine is vintage Fairchild stuff, dark and evil and lush and velvet sounds there.

Here's a vst synth from some recent work, I think it was a Polyvox shareware synth - nothing to write home about, but I fed it thru Pink3 (and maybe other nebula stuff, can't remember):

https://clyp.it/20tfjzlb

 

Last edited: Jun 12, 2020

I think you should worry about everything else first. Proper gain staging, shaping your sound using eqs, compression, saturation, overdrive, multiband dynamics and separate processing for the different bands, proper side-chaining , maybe some analog simulations and layering.
Just prepare it as good as you possibly can. It should be good enough to score you a hit so you can afford to buy a decent analog synth afterwards. I guess if you don't get it to sound decent using what you have, a analog synth might not even help you achieve that.

 

You can also feed your VST synth (or what you want) into an external hardware. Even some cheap guit/bass pedals, cassette multitrack do the job to add grit, life poetry to the sound.

*A nice trick: buy/or get a portable tape recorder (microcassette or normal depend of the model or even a walkman), play your sound which goes out your speakers, take the tape recorder in your hand, his mics front of one studio speaker (or even your laptop, why not?) . You'll need to be not really at exact middle point of your speaker in line, just a bit on the side, then move slowly the recorder during playback of your track (of course rec also on the tape recorder).
After you will just need to add what you have just recorded on a new track on your session DAW and mix it with the original. Adding whatever process (or not) you'd like on one or both track, (check phase in case) that will help for sure. 'lil tape recorder as filter/modulation colour palette system.
I'm not even talking about half speed gem
cheers

 

Last edited: Jun 12, 2020

There's this "Analog Obsession" commercial plugin company. Well, ex-commercial. Went broke a while ago, now they give away their plugins for free.
Karma's a bitch

I know this has nothing to do with the topic, I just felt like sharing it

 

Yes.

It's not about the lack of 'anologueness' in your bass sounds, or even the bass sound overall per se. It's about how it is used and the context it is used in.

 

from a another pov:
analogue=real, "depth/3d"
digital=mirror, "flat/2d"

 

Thx, I will check it out. Nice bassline.

 

My Ableton template comes with EQ and Comp+Side Chain and LFO Sidechain, I do use saturation and layering. But I am not a pro, I learn and copy people then tweak to my liking.

 

I have seen on some Hip Hop and Techno Documentaries, where producers were going outdoors to find structures like Tunnels...to play and re-record the samples like Kicks, Claps, Bass, Hihats anything. I guess the speakers woudl impact the Output greatly.

 

Thanks, found this, will check it out, seems like its increasing the drive / gain. Have to see how it sounds with Arturia Mini V3.