Bass Machine – Hideaway Studio

Bass Machine was in essence an attempt to revisit a commonly used trick of the trade whereby the warm roundness, power and motion of the Minimoog’s bottom end was blended with the bite and clinical accuracy of FM bass. The result is a nice example of where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts…

In order to capture as much of the Model D’s character as possible, four patches were dialled into the instrument complete with a filter envelope. Since such a process would probably have rendered rather inflexible results another four patches were captured with the filter wide open. Every white key was captured as four random round robins resulting in over 800 samples from Hideaway Studio’s beloved 1976 Minimoog No.7751.

Eight patches were then dialled up on a classic 4-OP FM synth. Four sounds were lightly tweaked and four were programmed to offer a wide range of sonic palettes that suitably complemented the patches from the Model D. Over 280 samples were captured from the instrument on every white key.

Dual Voice Synth Engine

At the heart of the Bass Machine is a superb dual voice synth engine which was implemented by Stephen Howell (Hollow Sun) and scripting guru Mario Krušelj thus permitting samples from each instrument to be layered completely with independent filters, envelopes and LFOs for each channel.

Over 50 example patches were programmed during the course of the project and are bundled with the download.

Performance/FX Page

As well as a useful array of effects including saturation, Bass Machine features a number of functions well suited for bass timbres. The unison control permits several voices to be stacked with variable detune and spread. Similarly, the glide functions with legato and retrigger switches is ideal for recreating various performance styles.

Bass Machine also features an extensive velocity mapping and routing function. The user may set up a velocity map based on exponential, linear, logarithmic or S-curve laws. The remapped output is then routed in varying degrees to overall volume, filter amount, filter attack phase and VCA attack phase.  In conjunction with the significant degree of movement already present in the Moog’s triple free running oscillators and the round robins, the performance functions really help to breathe life into live performances and programmed sequences.

Several of the demo patches also make use of the mod wheel via the LFO mapping function to bring in various vibrato and filter effects.

Features

• Bass Machine Dual Channel Synth Engine
• 8 Model D Multi-Oscillator Waves (sampled on every white key with 4 round robins)
• 8 4-OP FM Oscillator Waves (sampled on every white key)
• 1104 24-bit Samples (**and one other!??)
• 52 Editable & Savable Example Patches