Music Tech Magazine: Heavy Weight Analogue Subs
Sub bass is arguably one of the simplest sounds in a club track but also one of the most difficult to get right. The tiniest mistakes made in the frequencies, harmonics or in choice of accompanying kick drum can ruin the impact of a track when played through a big club PA.
Although you can get reasonable sub sounds with today's soft synths, you can't beat analogue kit for generating a giant, warm Low end. For Heavy Weight Analogue Subs, the producers from Monsters Sounds have compiled a library of hits and multisampled bass instruments made with the Roland SH-101,Yamaha CS5, Korg MS20, Novation BassStation, Roland 808, Juno106 and Clavia Nord synthesizers.
The pack contains around 200MB of 24-bit audio comprising 83 sounds in total, with accompanying sampler patches for Kontakt, NN-XT, EXS24, HALion and Sfz. Everything here, down to even the simplest sine bass, has come from an analogue source or been passed through high-end hardware compressors and preamps. You might think you don't have a need for 83 different sub bass sounds, but when you explore in more detail there is a surprising amount of variety. From tight kick drum-style whomps and dives to longer sustained subs and resonant analogue saw waves, there's something to cover every task. You can use rich filtered waves if you want The bass to come through on laptop speakers or opt for one of the cleaner sine waves if you're aiming your bass solely at the dance floor.
For certain tracks you may just want a deep low end so that you can add your own top bass layers. These kinds of sound form the bulk of the pack, and loading up a spectrum analyser reveals multiple versions with varying levels of lower-mid harmonics and octaves. To make things interesting there's also a handful of slightly more elaborate wob sounds and modulations which would stand up in their own right without the need for layering.
If sub bass is important to your style of music this is an essential purchase that's guaranteed to get your speakers — and the crowd — moving.
MTM Verdict
A great-value pack that does exactly what it sets out to do. A large number of speaker-rattling basses and subs with a round and warm sound. 10/10
