i use synapse hydra, v-station just doesn't do it for me and of course layering

Lots of vsti can create good basses and each will sound different so don't use the same instrument.
Fm7, Vstation, Albino, z3ta+ and a lot more can be used..

ReFX's VSTs works great for basses

Can anyone explain "layering" to me? what does it mean?

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Layering bass is when you have a bass which plays some range of frequencies and another bass which plays another range.
You can layer Low-Mid , Low-MidHigh , Low-Mid-High
Dont really need to have more than 3 layers.

What about Spectrasonics Trilogy?
Is it worth that money?

Whith Trilogy maybe 3/4 of the samples are from Accoustic Basses.
The samples from hardware synths sound good but you can't really experiment with them and, in fact, you can find a lot of them in Atmosphere too ...
I think Trilogy wasn't made for trance producers, buying Atmosphere would be a better choise.

I dont have trilogy, but if its as good as Spectrasonics other instruments, it's probably worth the money. I heard people say it has a very good sound, but I have also heard it's better for "real-sounding" bass, for synthetic basses often used in trance other instruments are probably better.

I prefer Audiorealism Bassline, it's excellent for 303-type basses deep and razor sharp at the same time. If you produce Psy or Techtrance probably the best choice.
I also achieved some quite good results with ReFX Vanguard, you can make quite unusual basses with it.

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I mostly start from the bass boss ensemble in reaktor and then tweak it till it sounds nice enough..

lol, why use VSTs when You can achieve great things with just FL Studio's native 3xOsc. with proper FX it produces amazing Trance basslines. everything depends on the Cut, Res and FX. because essentially every synth is a sine wave, which is tweaked with proper FX and other parameters, eve Z3ta, and FM synths like Sytrus.
I suggest practicing the FX, instead of using the OMG-FLASHY-AND-BEAUTIFUL VSTs, not that the VSTs suck, but it is the matter of understanding the technique behind the music!


Respect!

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In Trance We Trust!

and it gives excellent results when layering a Sine sub-bass with a saw/square/pulse high bass

Cheers!

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In Trance We Trust!

I use Sytrus for basses / sub-basses, it's a great vst.

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