Moog Minitaur vs Novation Bass Station II

[howardeastwood]

Hey guys.

Other than my nord stage 2, I am currently using a Moog Minitaur in my live set as a bass synth.

I only really use one bass sound at the minute (a warm sub bass kind of sound).

The other night I had a show in London and when the roadies had moved my gear onto the stage before my set, the knobs (not the roadies ) on the miniature had been moved by accident, essentially de-tuning the bass synth, making it un-usable as I couldn't retune it on stage with the fine tune knob etc.

It got me thinking whether the Moog Minitaur is actually the right bass synth for me, as there is no digital screen/buttons which you can just flick to a preset. I've been looking at the Novation Bass Station II, and I think this could be better for what I'm looking for.

Has anybody had experience with both and could give me some opinions on what may be better for more of a live set up. Or alternatively, does anybody use another synth bass that you would recommend?

Thanks for your help.

H

[pablomastodon]

I use Nord Micro Modular. Small footprint, and nothing your roadies do (short of total destruction) will affect it in any way.

Bless, Pablo

[Mr_-G-]

Hey guys.
It got me thinking whether the Moog Minitaur is actually the right bass synth for me, as there is no digital screen/buttons which you can just flick to a preset.

Would a digital tuner help?

[stiiiiiiive]

Actually the Minitaur can handle presets, even not having any screen.
See rev 2 of the OS on the MoogMusic website, as well as the associated manual

Other than that, a tuner or another synth will do the work in a certain extent. But updating your Minitaur is... free!

[analogika]

Can't beat a Moog bass!

There is a Youtube video that shows how the presets work with the Minitaur v2 firmware:



Since you use only one sound, another option would be to sample your Minitaur and make a multisample using Nord Sample Editor.
I did this and it works nicely.

[art507]

It's a little late, but I had both synth at the same time.
Novation Bass Station 2 is not bad, but if you woud like use it as bass synth, I think that there is no compare with the Moog Minitaur. I also have a Nord Stage 2 and some synth bass on the Nord sounds better , I think.

Novation Bass Station 2 is a cheap synth but for its price is very good.

[stiiiiiiive]

An interesting review of the Minitaur on Matrixsynth.

[maxpiano]

An interesting review of the Minitaur on Matrixsynth.

It's worth noting that although there are other dedicated bass synthesizers out there, there are essentially two types - TB-303 emulators and thundering bass pedals. The Minitaur of course is based on the latter, and few synths sound as full. The Novation BassStation keyboard which is also analog, for example, was geared more towards TB-303 emulation and does not really compare to the Minitaur.

[stiiiiiiive]

Voilà

[art507]

Its really interesting review of Matrixsynth.

"There is a reason why its physical design limitations keep it from going higher than C5. ... In the world of guitars for example, you have guitars and bass guitars. They are similar but they are distinctly different instruments, and typically dedicated musicians primarily gravitate to, and master, only one. In the world of synthesizers we tend to focus on synthesis methods like analog, PCM, FM, wavetable, granular, additive and so on. We focus on timbre and we take treble and bass for granted - they are just the different ranges of tones we play on our synths ..."


I just would like to say a few words about it. IMHO, of course.

I have the incredible STUDIO ELECTRONICS SE-1X analogue synth. It's an expensive instrument. It could really compare with the Minitaur in the Low End range, it sounds very powerful as a bass synth with its 3 VCO, but it doesn't have a note range limitations. It produces the LEAD sounds without any problem. It can be compare with the MOOG RME for its possibilities, but I think it sounds fatter and more powerful in the Low End that the MOOG RME. That's why I think that the Moog Minitaur could be a full range instrument, IMHO.