Mr Bass

Fast-forward forty years and, in a shed in France, a wonderful lunatic called Laurent Lecatelier has the ultimate modding brainwave: what if you took the circuitry of eight Moog Sources, bolted it together, and turned it into a massive polysynth?

The answer to that question is Baloran’s The River, an enormously impressive combination of genuine analogue circuitry, comprehensive CV and MIDI control, and onboard effects. At its heart are those eight Source circuitboards, repurposed here as individual voice cards; and the whole is very much more than the sum of its parts, too, with some genuinely unusual twists and turns to the sound architecture that makes it very inspiring to fiddle around with.

Its sounds also form the core of Mr Bass, which is essentially a lean, mean bass machine modelled on the Source, and with an eye on the Moog Rogue (and its circuit-twin, the Taurus II bass pedal system). What we’ve got here is a simple, intuitive bass synth with two detunable oscillators – switchable between twin saws or twin squares – plus a filter that can be clicked between classic Moog ladder style and an aggressive modern 4-pole setting. Mr Bass can operate in mono or poly modes, with portamento / glide for added funkiness; and although you can actually get perfectly cool pads and leads out of it, it’s obviously intended primarily as a bass monster.

Our (in)famous Glitch control is present and correct, offering instant gratification (or at least a constant stream of randomised new patches); and you can drive the circuitry to get some upper harmonics going that will help your bass cut through the mix on smaller speakers.

This is a pocket-sized instrument that punches way above its weight in sound terms: there’s a ton of genuine analogue goodness packed into the core waveforms, and with a little detune and a twist of the filter controls you can put yourself right in vintage Moog territory. For pretty much any kind of classic synth bass, this one’s got you covered.