The Oscillator For bass sounds, you can use any of the first three wave forms.
Using triangle waves will result in deep, sine-like sounds, great for R&B and soul.
Sawtooth waves will get you a more solid, defined sound, good for funk, techno and dance sounds
as well as for emulating original bass guitar sounds. If you're trying to create an
electro-like bass sound, the square wave form is just what you need.
The Envelope Generator A good start for bass sounds as well as lead sounds is setting the attack, decay and release fairly low, the sustain
value quite high and the hold time off, resulting in a 'snappy' envelope. When your sound needs
to have a sharper attack, lower the sustain value.
The Cut-off Filter Using the cut-off filter really is essential when creating
bass sounds. To get warm and deep sounds, start with the frequency and peak values around
position 5. For techno and dance sounds, turn the peak value up to get those freaky filter
effects.
Modulation One thing that definitely works great with bass sounds, is
modulating the cut-off frequency using the envelope generator (the EG knob in the filter section). Slightly modulating it with the modulation
generator (the MG knob) works quite well for moody, deep sounds.
The Finishing Touch Adding a bit of portamento often works great for funky and
analog-like sounds. Also adding just a little bit of pink or white noise can give good results
in combination with the cut-off filter. It can be very worthwhile to experiment with the filter
modulation EG value and with keyboard velocity modulation.
