"Once you choose the bass, then it's like, the bass chooses you." - Thundercat – Pitchfork, April 2020
It's no secret that popular music owes a great bit to the synthesizer. We could honestly sit here all day and talk about everyone's favorite synth lines from "Jump" to "Sweet Dreams," but it would be a disservice to leave out the institution of the synthesized bass. It seems that as long as there have been synthesizers, there have been synthesized basslines. Literally take your pick from any era of music since the dawn of synthesized instruments and you'll find an iconic bassline. Go ahead, we've got time.
Seriously, though. After decades of synth bass propelled on by genres like funk, synthpop, trip-hop, industrial, and electronica, we're treated to a new piece from MXR that celebrates the legacy of synthesized bass and its impact on popular music. It's a discussion that constantly spawns new tangents just when you thought you covered everything. Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, Nine Inch Nails, deadmau5...we could go on, and trust us, we will. Stick around.
This is the MXR Bass Synth.
Bass Is the Place
Introducing the MXR Bass Synth
It would be no overstatement to say that synthesized basslines have been the backbone of at least a few generations of popular music. With this backbone well established, we come to our topic of discussion today: the MXR Bass Synth. This specialized digital effect enters the MXR fray with an enormous back catalog to pull from. A digital effect designed for creating compelling synthesized bass tones with a bass guitar, this MXR creation is certain to be a dream come true for players looking to dive into the sea of iconic synth bass lines as well as maybe craft a few of their own.
The MXR Bass Synth comes to the table with an extensive series of controls and functions sure to impress. Six front-facing dials bring the immediacy and instant feedback of a physical pedal while secondary and tertiary controls offer the deep customization of more involved musical devices. There's a surprising amount of nuance and depth to get into with this pedal, and we'll talk all about that in a minute, but for now, let's just say that the MXR Bass Synth is a joy for synth players, bassists, and fans of synthesized bass universally. Let's talk about some of the things this pedal has got going for it.
Bass Odyssey
MXR Bass Synth Design and Tones
Starting out simply, MXR designed the Bass Synth with six front-facing knobs and three buttons. The lengths to which you can go with just these controls alone is worth mentioning in itself, but let's get into these first few controls.
MXR Bass Synth Primary Controls
The MXR Bass Synth begins with two controls for signal mixing. Colored orange, we have:
- Mix – Our wet and dry signal balance. With this control, you're capable of rolling the bass synth effect into the mix to taste. This will prove particularly useful if you're looking to create a simultaneous balance of your bass guitar signal and its bass synth signal.
- Sub Mix – Our main and sub synth signal mix. Here, we're allowed mixing of the synth engine's main and sub signals. Perfect for setting your synth signal balances, this control hints at the true depth of customization we're treated to with the Bass Synth.
Continuing on from there, we have four blue-colored effect controls, likely already very familiar to synth players:
- Cutoff – Our four-pole resonant low-pass filter's cutoff frequency. Using this control, we're able to shape the basic character of our synthesized signal. This works somewhat hand-in-hand with our next control.
- Resonance – Our cutoff frequency gain output. This synth-style control works to liven up the output of the synth signal, resulting in some wilder voices when turned to higher settings.
- Envelope – Our filter envelope attack and decay. Here, we're treated to a setting that assists in shaping playability as we can adjust the entry and exit times of our synth notes. What's certainly an essential feature of any synthesizing experience, we're topping off these dials with one more control.
- Mod – Our signal modulation amount. A fact any great synthesizer can attest to, modulation can play a key role in morphing a synthesizer signal in different ways to come to radically different conclusions. It's through these controls that we're able to shape our three waveforms.
On top of these signal-shaping controls, the MXR Bass Synth treats us to two additional front-facing buttons to turn the page in our Bass Synth story.
Voices CarryWith our two front-facing switches, we have access to three different waveform shapes and a host of additional oscillators. Onboard, our Bass Synth features options for subtle and smooth triangle waves, rich and aggressive sawtooth waves, and fat and punchy square waves. The push-button Voices control compounds upon the existing oscillator voice present in the pedal by adding complexity and nuance to the signal.
At its heart, the MXR Bass Synth offers extensive opportunities to craft your own interesting bass synth mixes. Whether you're going chill and subdued or aggressive and drastic, there's plenty to sink your teeth into while you paint on a vast, vast canvas. Things can be as simple or as complex as you would like to make them with intriguing bass tones at every turn. In short, no matter how you like your synthesized basses – simple or nuanced, you have all the power to make them so.
While we're talking so much about the freedom you have to explore and create, we have to take at least a minute to throw it over to one of the most compelling features of the MXR Bass Synth – its eight onboard preset modes.
MXR Bass Synth Onboard Presets
While the MXR Bass Synth equips you with the power to tonally explore and create, it doesn't leave you by your lonesome. At the bottom of the pedal, a dedicated Preset button instantly swaps the pedal into eight different onboard bass synth tones directly inspired by some of your favorite bass synth tones from across pop music history. These presets are shapeable and adjustable, but can be reset to their original tones, so don't worry about making any mistakes – not that such things exist in musicmaking after all. Happy accidents and all that.
Preset HeavenThrillenganes – Inspired by Greg Phillingane's low-end ARP 2600 synthesizer found on Michael Jackson's "Thriller." Wonderful – Inspired by Stevie Wonder's left-hand, funky and resonant TONTO synth work. Lizard Synth – Inspired by Herbie Hancock's bassy ARP Odyssey on his hit "Chameleon." Synthadelic – Inspired by Bernie Worrell's Minimoog playing on Parliament's classic "Flashlight." Sledge – Inspired by Tony Levin's analog octave sound from Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer." Army of Synth – Inspired by the undulating voice of Bjork's "Army of Me" bass tone. Nine Inch Synth – Inspired by Trent Reznor's industrial-flavored "Head Like a Hole" bass programming. Synthmau5 – Inspired by the sidechaining production found in millennial-era electronic music like that of the producer and DJ deadmau5.
Synth Science
MXR Bass Synth Further Functions
Part of what makes the MXR Bass Synth so impressive is its extensive set of secondary controls accessible by additional control inputs. While we don't want to bore anybody by going over every single secondary and tertiary control setting the front six dials can access, we do think it's necessary to run down at least a couple of our favorites to get across how equipped this pedal is. Without further ado:
- Tracking – Did we mention to bring more strings? The MXR Bass Synth goes above and beyond with a way to expand its range of detectable frequencies. Where you might want this is in the situations you want to bring the Bass Synth to a five-string bass or even a six-string, twenty-four fret electric guitar. Swapping over to these specialized tracking settings, the Bass Synth becomes even more compatible with different rigs and players to make for an overall killer effect experience.
- Glide – Sometimes you gotta put a little English on things. Because such a fact stands, the Bass Synth allows for the adjustment of time to take to get from one note to another, creating a distinctly legato effect. This slip-and-sliding gliding effect brings the Bass Synth even further into authentic synthesizer territory by recreating a distinctly synthesizer-born mode of playing.
- Noise Mix – Not everything is squeaky clean in the bass synth world, we all know that. A dedicated dial to introduce a noise generator signal into the mix allows for the Bass Synth to play authentically with a dose of distortion for coming to dirtied, synthesized conclusions.
- Gate Sensitivity – This one is more for playability and utility, but talk about it we shall. The MXR Bass Synth automatically determines your average signal level. The Bass Synth's gate sensitivity control sets how responsive the effect is when the signal input is lower than the determined level. Essentially, the gate sensitivity setting of the pedal can be adjusted to accommodate different types of playing, where the default setting meets most players where they're commonly at, but more slinky, legato-style playing might benefit from a higher sensitivity setting. Just smaller things to consider, since MXR already has, anyway.
As we mentioned, there are many, many more functions to be found through the Bass Synth's secondary and tertiary controls, so make sure to dig into some of the smaller adjustments you can make simply through the pedal's front-facing dials.
A few things to also know about include the Bass Synth's expression connectivity for remotely controlling certain effect parameters or scrolling through presets and its capability to run in stereo out. Together, these functions enable this MXR creation to operate easily in very modern rigs, be they expression-heavy or stereo-minded. MXR's classic consideration for modern connectivity and playability comes to life in the Bass Synth for a pedal that does it all and meets you where you need to be met.
MXR Bass Synth Final Thoughts
We must admit, we did have a small bit of misplaced déjà vu when we first faced this pedal. With all the awesome features and functions brought forth, we thought that surely MXR had been down this synthesizing road before. This must have been a redo, right? It seemed only logical that MXR had tread this trail before with the expertise brought to the Bass Synth, that we must be misremembering?
Nevertheless, misremembering aside, the MXR Bass Synth is a wondrous synth pedal for the bassists of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. The timeless tones of classic synthesizers weave their way into the fabric of today's guitar effect pedal world seamlessly while introducing some new classics into the mix – especially for those fond of more alternative and modern synth bass stylings. The MXR Bass Synth is a veritable treasure trove of tone for uncovering the legendary bass synth tones of the past and crafting your new tones for the future. Is there a reason synthesized bass has endured for so long? Well, of course there is, but why pin it down? Tap into the MXR Bass Synth and just hear it for yourself.
