Hi all,

I have the following questions, really hope someone can point me in the right direction, your help will be greatly appreciated. I am new to this but I am totally serious about it and want to achive professional quality psy trance (GMS, hallucinogen, infected mushroom, alien project, rinkandink, etc.

Here are my questions:

1)I have an Akai 6000 sampler, is that enough to get my trance bass sound by using some bass samples or do I need a synth?

2) In case I need a real synth I am wondering if I can use the Korg MS2000 which is also in the studio. The reason I ask is because
just from playing with the bass presets it over a beat they all sound really bad, none of them seem to fit for trance, it sounds terrible. The lead sounds all sound good but the bass presets it has dont grab on to any beat so easily. Is this synth just a bad idea for trance BASS sounds?. Or is it maybe that I need to know more how to use it well? I mostly use the presets and then just play with the knobs like resonace, cut off, the oscillators but all from ear without much knowledge on technical part of it. I mean I don't really even know the types of waves there are, I just press the buttons and knobs until something sounds ok. But for bass sounds the korg ms2000 just nothing really grabs on to the beat. If anybody has this synth it be great if you can give me some pointers on how to get a trance bass sound.

3) In case the korg MS2000 sucks for trance bass, which machine should I get for BASS? would a used Nordlead 2 do the job for top quality bass?

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide,

Locochon

You should probably learn how to program the MS-2000 before you start looking for other synths. I don't see why the MS-2000 is supposed to suck at bass sounds, its a VA just like the Nord Lead, wich allso needs programmings skills.

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Waldorf Q, XTk, Pulse
FTW

An akai has pure square, sawtooth and sine waves onboard, as well as the required filters and ADSR envelopes you will need to create any bass sound... layer it with some samples of whatever and you are sorted.

What? Does the sampler have a built in sound generator??

Locochon, you could actually have a look at the classic techno bass machine, the Juno-106.. Ok, it's not advanced at all but it makes great bass sounds..

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Waldorf Q, XTk, Pulse
FTW

yes- Akai S series samplers have in built pure waveforms - assignable and editable just the same as any sample you care to load in or record.

Juno 106- very very good, and with midi too!

Aah, cool.. I didn't know that.. And when samplers are getting cheaper and cheaper the Akai 6000 might get in my price range soon.. You can get an ESI-6400 with ZIP drive and CD for like 250$ here in Sweden.. Thats kind of insane..

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Waldorf Q, XTk, Pulse
FTW

first off, hallucinogen is amazing. i rather like infected mushroom too. you should check out cosma's non stop. and OTT hallucinogen in dub. both will have your jaw on the floor.

next. NEVER assume that by flicking through the presets on a machine that it is in any way indicative of the sounds it can produce. the ms2000 is a great synth. its not quite as forward as a virus or a nord but as with most synths these days that enjoy huge critical acclaim, im finding just 1 of these instruments offers a mind bogglingly complex array of sounds. my advice to you is to learn how to program the ms2000 before you go looking for other synths. the nord lead 2 has a tricky filter when its set to 24dB. i dont know why but alot of people notice it. as long as you dont use it you'll be fine for thick basses but that filter has a habit of making the sound really thin. other that that (which i think is a glitch) it was a fantastic instrument but again - mind bogglingly complex in terms of the array of sounds you can make on it (and i assure you this is one of the easier ones to program). as with anything though, you can circumvent that problem by layering sounds over each other and filtering/EQing parts into the front move them into the rear to achieve the desired timbre. music really isnt just about slapping down a kick drum sample and using a bass preset - you have to create your instruments. ideally i like to start creating them from scratch because you have to most control over the sounds you are making. you should never be in a situation where you are trying to fit your song around a preset on a synth. you will find that no matter what synth you buy, the presets will never do the synth justice. the virus presets dont even touch on what that synth can do. the nord lead demos on the clavia website are nothing compared to what ive heard people do with a nord lead. how many multi-timbral parts does the ms2000 have? trust me on this one, it'll take years to get the most out of that instrument. take the time out and really get underneath it if you can but either way, if you want to make music like hallucinogen does, it will dominate your life - no 2 ways about it.

Yeah Simon Posford (hallucinogen) is amazing, I guess the acid did him well.

Well thanks to everybody for the advice, I am following the general consent to try and learn more about the korg ms2000 and the akai I have before I get anything new. Today actually some decent bass started coming out although it all sounded like house rather than trance, so I figured I might as well try out some psychedelic house while I figure out the trance bass.

Anyways, thanks everybody for your comments and help.

cheers,

Locochon