Crucially, this means that Monark, like the actual Minimoog, is strictly monophonic – although for bass purposes, of course, that’s not an issue.Įveryone should have a Mini in their low-end arsenal, and Monark is a superb virtual option, delivering fabulously authentic analogue basslines. With the only significant additions to the original feature set being a trio of extra filter modes (6 and12dB/octave low-pass, and 12dB band-pass), and some new glide and legato modes, that adherence to the original spec is all-encompassing. Running as a Reaktor Player Ensemble (totally frictionless, don’t worry), Monark sounds absolutely stunning, and even incorporates oscillator drift for heightened realism – anyone would be hard pushed to tell the difference between it and the hardware. With its ear-hugging warmth and floor-shaking fatness, the legendary Minimoog will always be among the first-call synths for electronic basslines, and some consider NI’s plugin emulation of it to be the best that money can buy. There are a few great software TB-303 emulations out there – and it must be borne in mind that every hardware 303 had its own sonic quirks – but to our ears, Roland’s plugin is the closest sounding to the real thing. The brilliantly succinct parameter set (triangle or square waveform selection, pitch, filter cutoff, resonance and modulation, and decay) keeps the workflow fast and on track, while the addition of simple distortion and delay effects is a nice touch, and the Condition knob enables faux ‘ageing’ of the circuitry. The onboard step sequencer is a big part of what makes the 303 so inspirational to use, and the plugin version thankfully breaks the fiddly one-note-at-a-time interface of the hardware out into a more intuitive screen, complete with a comprehensive randomisation system for generating patterns at a click. Famously, the 303 specialises in screaming acid house and filter-modulated techno lines, but it’s also at home in contemporary house styles, whether used as a primary source of bass tones or layered in over a deeper element. Available through their Cloud subscription service or as a one-off buy, Roland’s physically modelled software take on their own classic TB-303 BassLine box puts an exacting emulation of one of the most historic synths of all time at your virtual fingertips.
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