BASSYNTH - Organic Low End.

[BONES]

OK, I've had a quick play through the presets and my first impression is that it's a bit of a mixed bag. There are some really, really good things in there but there is also a lot of stuff you could manage easily enough in any decent V/A or ROMpler. Presence XT, in Studio One, could probably do half of what's in BASSYNTH. But for me, the other half is more than worth the (discounted) price of admission.

From the sound demos I got the impression it was a lot like Substance but the two things are quite different. BASSYNTH is very much an instrument you play, where Substance is more textural. There is a bit of overlap but nowhere near as much as I'd expected. Most of the time, moving the X-Y puck around didn't do a whole lot but I'm sure it can be made to do more.

The kicker for me was throwing Linda Rockstack into an Insert slot and hearing the difference it made to some of the presets. I love the way Rockstack even simulates the crackle of plugging in when you switch it on. I just used one of the "clean" presets and I was getting some really unique things from the quiet tails on some of the BASSYNTH presets. Amazing stuff I can see myself using quite heavily in whatever we do next. This is 100% a keeper for me and I am really looking forward to getting stuck right into it come the weekend.

[BONES]

This evening I've been digging into BASSYNTH a bit more and it has surprised me quite a bit, in a good way. It is a lot more like any other synth than I thought it would be or, more correctly, more like any other four synths stacked on top of one another. I'd seen that it has wavetables as well as samples but I hadn't realised that it has hundreds of wavetables and a powerful engine to get the most from them. There are some very complex wavetables and what looks like around 15 different warp types. You can also run the wavetable engines in lo-fi, medium and high modes to match your CPU. With 8 voice unison in high mode, I can easily get 25% CPU from a single note on my hexa-Core i7, so it can be a bit of a hog. It sounds f**king great, though, so well worth it, and medium mode sounds fine to me.

There are half-a-dozen different filter styles/types but to my ears the different modelled LPFs are just slight variations on a theme. They work well enough, though.

Modulation is good. Apart from dedicated Amp ADSR's for each engine, there are three more plus 4 LFO to share among them. Both the LFO and ADSRs can be synced to the song tempo, which is kinda cool for an envelope. Destinations are a bit limited but all the important things are covered. There are also the 8 macros, which can be linked to the XY-Pad, which in turn can be linked to your Mod Wheel. The macros are a bit intrusive - once you assign something to a macro, the macro panel is the only place you can adjust it. Easy enough to get used to, I suppose, but a bit weird at first.

Overall I am very happy with my purchase and I think it's a good deal at the current price. I even managed to talk my bandmate into it, so I'll get to use it a lot more than I might have otherwise.

[sacer]

i am also very happy, i got a 25% voucher together with the half price action, and for this money i am realy surprised.
The demo isn't comparable to the full version, realy nice presets ....

[revvy]

Presumably as this is Kontakt, the GUI is limited in terms of size in the same way as other (all?) Kontakt instruments?

[BONES]

Kontakt instruments can have different size GUIs. BASSYNTH is about one-third wider and one-third higher than Substance, for example, and my Heavyocity instruments are a different size again. You can't resize them but they aren't all the same size.

[revvy]

Thanks bones. In that case will check out the demo. Sale ended but I could catch it next time.

[ReviveLin]

Demo download available?

[psynical]

yes, there's a demo available on the product page.

[AnX]

OK, I've had a quick play....

was it good for you?

[BONES]

Oh, yeah!

[Ohlson_M]

Overall I am very happy with my purchase and I think it's a good deal at the current price.

I’ve always believed I would never need a synth purely for making bass patches, as pretty much any synth (in my case: Avenger, Serum, Hive to name a few) can create these sounds for me. And too many tools available is not good for my productivity.

Maybe it’s just my GAS playing tricks with me, but there is something about this synth that appeals to me (not just the sound) and I can really see myself using it regularly. Played with the demo and I was really liking it.

[BONES]

The thing with any of these instruments is that they can make it to be a bass synth but that doesn't mean you have to use as a bass synth. Using it for bass is actually the furthest thing from my mind and it kind of annoys me that so much of BasSynth is given over to simple bassline sounds and not to more of the big, weird, brassy pads and things like that, because that's the good stuff. As you say, you can make bass patches with anything.

[Jkist]

Thanks bones. In that case will check out the demo. Sale ended but I could catch it next time.

Sale has been extended until the 11th it appears.

[revvy]

Thanks bones. In that case will check out the demo. Sale ended but I could catch it next time.

Sale has been extended until the 11th it appears.

Thanks! I looked yesterday after bones replied and I'm sure it was back to full price. Gonna DL the demo now.

[Jkist]

Haha, you're not wrong. I looked too and saw the same. They must have decided to extend.