In this guide, we’re rounding up the best bass instrument plugins on Plugin Boutique. From analogue synths of the 60s with a vintage tone, to modern sub bass generators and more besides, we’ll fill you in on what’s best for your bass frequencies.
It’s a rule that holds true in music from drill to orchestral: at the foundation of everything is bass. It keeps us grounded, providing a solid root that chords and melodies appear to stem from, whether it’s coming from an instrument, a virtual instrument or a simple sample.
Oh, and there are two free entries to spot among the rest of these low-liers!
12 of the Best Bass Synths for 2024:
- Excite Audio Bloom Bass Impulse
- Future Audio Workshop SubLab XL
- Softube Monoment Bass
- D16 Group Phoscyon 2
- Iceberg Audio The Sub
- Kilohearts Phase Plant
- Native Instruments MASSIVE
- Cherry Audio Miniverse
- Arturia Mini V
- Softube Model 72
- BLEASS Monolit [Free]
- Newfangled Audio Pendulate [Free]
Excite Audio Bloom Bass Impulse
First on our whirlwind tour of the best bass instruments currently on the market is an entry from Excite Audio, whose Bloom instrument series has taken the industry by storm since its introduction over the past several months. Bloom Bass Impulse targets producers looking to create contemporary bass sounds, and boy does it produce some results!
Utilising an array of high quality one-shots and loops as the basis, Bloom Bass Impulse offers virtually endless options for modulating and adapting its original sound sources to suit the sound you're looking for. With various powerful effects and processing parameters crafted intuitively into its beautifully-designed interface, Excite Audio's offering to the bass instrument market provides true versatility and power at every turn.
With the ability to adjust samples intuitively to the user's defined key alongside automatic bpm syncing, there's very little you'll actually need to do to get this instrument sounding great.
Of course however as with all of Excite Audio's plugins, the simple UI belies this bass-laden behemoth's true capabilities. The capacity to layer up to 8 individual sounds from the plugin's extensive library, as well as a separate Edit page providing deeper, more granular options for editing and further modulating the audio sources proves Bloom Bass Impulse to undoubtedly be one of the big dogs in today's bass instrument world.
Future Audio Workshop SubLab XL
Next up is Future Audio Workshop’s supersized successor to its hugely popular SubLab. From hard hitting 808s to grizzly, otherworldly distorted basses, and everything in between, SubLab XL does a lot more than it says on the tin.
The instrument packs three sound sources; Synth, Sample and its own X-Sub engine. Synth gives you a choice of the standard waveshapes, plus a ‘Super’ oscillator that stacks a number of saw waves on top of one another for huge supersaws, perfect for Reese basses.
Sample puts over 300 of the most widely used kick and bass sounds at your fingertips, including sounds from the Roland 808 and 909, Jomox, and much more. You can even load in your own samples to create bespoke bass patches. The X-Sub engine is Future Audio Worksop’s own psychoacoustic sub bass oscillator, perfect for reinforcing your bass sound with pure and punchy sub bass.
Add to that an inbuilt mixer, filter section, modulation matrix, tone control, assignable macros and a comprehensive modular effects section, and you’ve got a bass plugin capable of creating just about any sound you can dream up. SubLab XL ships with a ton of presets, but you can of course save your own and download new packs to keep things fresh.
Softube Monoment Bass
Softube have built up a well deserved reputation for having some of the most supreme analogue-flavoured plugins on the market, and Monoment Bass VST is no exception. The plugin boasts a simplicity that is missing from some of the other plugins on this lineup. Choose from a whole host of source sounds that have been meticulously sampled from some of your hardware heroes, and layer them to create your own unique brand of basses.
As a core component of subtractive synthesis, a filter cutoff dial and its visualiser take pride of place in the centre of the GUI. There’s a dedicated noise section for adding dirt, grit and flavour, designed to add some analogue-inspired imperfections to your basses.
The plugin’s modular effects section gives you the tools necessary to polish your sound off. Drive, Ambience, EQ, Multiband processing and Spatialization let you take your sound to new dimensions, plus you can use each of these effects as independent modules, so your sound design options are truly endless.
D16 Group Phoscyon 2
If you’ve been listening to electronic music in the last 40 years, inevitably you’ll have heard the indistinguishable squelching basslines of Roland’s TB-303. After finding its feet in the world of Acid House in the 80s, the 303 has become a staple of electronic music. Sadly, owning this original piece of music history is outside the scope of possibility for most of us. Thankfully, there are a number of remakes, one of the most highly regarded being D16 Group’s Phoscyon 2.
The original 303 was relatively simple in its design and features. With just one oscillator, switchable between a saw or square wave, the synthesizer’s renowned character stems from its low pass filter and sequencer. D16 Group have managed to harness this character in its second incarnation of Phoscyon, and have added some features to bring it up to speed with the modern world.
You can access the inner settings of the 303, ordinarily reserved for Roland engineers, including filter calibration and other tweaks. Phoscyon also adds vibrato to the mix, along with re-orderable insert effects including reverb, parametric EQ, delay, chorus and limiter. D16 describes this plugin as the definitive TB-303 emulation, and it’s clear to see why.
Iceberg Audio The Sub
The next bass synthesizer on this list takes simplicity to the next level. The Sub by Iceberg Audio sets out to do one thing with this plugin, and one thing only. By focussing purely on sub basses, Iceberg Audio have created an extremely powerful device with only the essential controls.
You get a source sound selector, one-knob drive and glide controls, and an ADSR envelope. There’s also an Extra Attack button which emphasises the transient of your sub. While it might not sound like the most feature-packed plugin we’re looking at here, for sub basses, you don’t need much. The Sub is also one of the cheapest synthesizers on the list, and there are a tonne of expansion packs which gives the synth even more bang for your buck.
Kilohearts Phase Plant
By contrast to the previous synth, Kilohearts Phase Plant is the goliath of the synth world. While Phase Plant isn’t specifically a bass synth, its comprehensive functionality makes it possible to conjure up just about any sound you could possibly imagine. The plugin’s semimodular architecture means it can be adapted to your desired configuration, making it one of the most desirable plugins for producers and sound designers alike.
Choose from a selection of included wavetables, samples and noise generators, or import your own. Phase Plant’s inbuilt wavetable editor even lets you design your own wavetables, for infinite sound design options.
There are frequency modulation capabilities, MPE functionality and a modular modulation section for creating rhythmic, morphing basses. The plugin also comes with Kilohearts’ Essential Effects bundle for use within their proprietary Snapin system. And if all that’s not enough, you can download a premium effects bundle to take Phase Plant and its capabilities even further.
Native Instruments Massive
An absolute don of the plugin world, and one that seemingly spawned entire genres thanks to features like its wavetable scanning and its modulation system, Massive may not be a spring chicken, but it demands your attention – especially for its ability to conjure up aggressive, animated bass sounds.
Three Minimoog delights
The Minimoog was a little instrument that changed synth history in its path. Previous synths – including previous Moog synths – had been huge and hard to understand, but the Minimoog boiled everything down into a useable and comparatively portable instrument. Oh, and what’s more, it sounded great, especially for bass.
The Minimoog was so successful that it became the blueprint for synths, with practically everything released from the 70s onwards being able to trace its philosophy back to this legendary design and its legendary sound. Here are three instruments that model the original…
Cherry Audio Miniverse
Miniverse takes on the original instrument with its three oscillators and ‘ladder filter’, and even simulates the classic trick of feeding the output back into the Audio In jack for a grittier sound. What’s more, it adds polyphony to the previously monophonic instrument, and puts 200 patches in your pocket too.
Mini V is a tried-and-tested emulation of the original synth, adding features like polyphony and an arpeggiator. There’s also a unison mode and roughly 1000 presets to get you started. It’s usually on the more expensive end, but also available as part of the massively respected V Collection.
Softube Model 72
Model 72 comes from a company with a great reputation for analogue modelling. Aside from being a model of the original synth, Model 72 also comes with some in-depth tweaks for the emulated circuitry, including velocity depths, octave trim and the beautiful ‘slop’.
BLEASS Monolit - FREE
Despite being completely free of charge, the next synth we’re exploring here packs a serious punch. BLEASS Monolit’s efficient layout consists of three tabs: General, Oscillators and Filter/Mod.
The General tab contains Voice, Unison and Modulation controls, as well as a comprehensive built-in arpeggiator. The Oscillators tab features two selectable oscillators, one of which allows you to blend square, triangle, saw waves and noise together, plus there are FM capabilities.
The amplitude ADSR envelope is within the Oscillators tab too. The Filter/Mod tab lets you shape the tone of your sound with a switchable filter, filter envelope and assignable LFO. If that’s all too much for you, Monolit also boasts a randomize button that generates new and exciting patches with each press of the button, perfect for finding new inspiration.
Newfangled Audio Pendulate - FREE
Rounding this list off is Pendulate, another free plugin courtesy of Newfangled Audio. Branded as a “Chaotic Monosynth”, this plugin’s oscillator is built around the physics of a double pendulum, with Chaos controls that let you dial in overtones and instabilities to the modelled oscillations.
Pendulate also features a Buchla-style Wavefolder that can be used for creating distorted harmonic tones, perfect for big gritty basses. Finally, a low pass gate – another West-Coast synthesis feature – lets you control the final tone of your newly synthesized sounds using the inbuilt ADSR envelope, key tracking, velocity or even with pressure using your MPE device. This unique little free synth opens up a wealth of unique options for exciting bass design.
