[OT] analog fat sound...

ladislaobiro · Joined: Mar 24, 2005 Posts: 105 Location: Italy

Hi everybody,

just a question out of curiosity...
it is very usual to read on the web that one of the most important features of analog synths is about their “fat sound” (especially when talking about synth bass lines...).
Since you always have to plug your synth to an amp to play it, does it really make sense to talk about “fat” or “thin” sound when you can shape the final sound using the EQ on your amp?
I mean, if you want a fat bass line just turn the “bass” knob all the way up and you are done...
Am I missing something about this?
I’ve got a basic farfisa digital toy-keyboard (it’s supposed to be used by kids), and one of the possible preset sound is a simple sawtooth synth voice... plug the toy to a guitar amp, turn the bass knob up, play something and you will get not only a fat sound, but one of the biggest and deepest bass sounds ever...
Again, am I missing something?
Thanks in advance guys for your comments... Smile

ladislao

P.S.: BTW, today I finally ordered the parts for my Sound Lab... 10, 9, 8, 7,..., 3, 2, 1, goooooooooooooo!!!

EDIT (after reading the following two posts): this post make sense only if I assume that fat sound means "big bottomed"... but I might be wrong...

Axiom · Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2005 2:47 am Post subject:

that's true that, in the musical jargon, the term "FAT" can be a lot of different meanings and flavours. For me, as example, a Fat sound is a sound rich of harmonics and expression.. JP8080 supersaw and Virus Hypersaw are Fat by default Razz

the mr. oizo bass too as well as Keith Emerson square lead on Luck Man.. is so simple, but it haves attidute Smile

my 2 cents,
Luca

ian-s · Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2005 3:04 am Post subject:

I think there are a few different definitions of ‘fat sound’. Certainly if you take it as the opposite of ‘thin sound’ then yes, boosting the bass might do the trick, so long it has some content at all in the low frequencies. Personally, I consider fat to mean ‘fat and juicy’ like when you have two or three detuned oscillators. By my definition, no single oscillator synthesiser could ever sound fat. Others seem to associate certain types of distortion with the term fat, so a TB303, even though it has only one oscillator, might be described as fat.

paul e. · Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2005 6:10 am Post subject:

elektro80 · Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2005 6:42 am Post subject:

Hey guys, this discussion of fatness.. it isn´t really OT if it had been posted inside one of the other forums.

The What is bassthread is of course relevant too. Simply turning up the bass isn´t what makes bass "fat". That said, a lot of musical instrument amps do have rather "musical" eq´s tone controls. Simply making the bass fatter by turning up the bass level is rarely safe. Most synths, and quite probaly the soundLab as well, are capable of delivering a nasty, hot and REALLY low freq signal. You can turn expensive amps/speakers into smoking cinders this way. Shocked

ladislaobiro · Joined: Mar 24, 2005 Posts: 105 Location: Italy

elektro80 · Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2005 7:18 am Post subject:

Hey.. OT is fine.. but we do have forums for this. We just wanted to help out.. Very Happy

Wild Zebra · Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2005 8:17 am Post subject:

Kassen · Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2005 8:39 am Post subject:

Het, it's not like I'm going "you can't sit on the table", more like bringing to your atention that chairs are more comfortable.

Uncle Krunkus · Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2005 5:12 am Post subject:

I must admit, I only have time to catch up with the posts under the soundlab. So I figure if I posted something outside it might not get seen by the people I've gotten to know in here. Confused

If that makes sense.
Anyway, one man's fat is another man's muddy, is another man's buzzy, is another mans deep. (And that's mostly because they all have different amps Laughing

)
To me, fat has got bottom end and a resonance in the top end and has a set of frequencies somewhere in the middle which are missing altogether!! That's why a good fat sound can hug another sound without strangling it.