Anthony Rother - Medium | Bass Synth Patch Remake

Remaking the bass synth from the 2014 song "Medium" by Anthony Rother can be an exciting challenge for any synthesizer enthusiast. Here’s how you can create the "Medium" bass patch and play this iconic sound on most hardware or software subtractive synthesizers (Serum, Vital, Pigments, Prophet, Korg, Moog, etc). We've included the preset download directly for your convenience, but we strongly recommend you use our programming tutorial to recreate it yourself.

Original Audio

That round, thumpy bass in Anthony Rother’s “Medium” appears at 1:54. It is a one-octave stack of two sawtooth oscillators with a low-pass filter modulated by the filter envelope to create a quick, rounded attack transient. The timbre emphasizes warm sub-mid energy with minimal high-frequency content.

Our Remake of The Bass Synth sound

This audio clip is how close we've matched the original tone of the bass synth from the song "Medium" by Anthony Rother, giving you a reference point as you design your own synthesizer preset. Play it as often as you need to familiarize yourself with the nuances of the sound.

Synth Patch Programming Recipe

Getting Started

• Start by initializing your synthesizer to a plain saw with no filter, modulation or effects. For soft synths use the "init"/"default" preset or the the button to reset allx parameters to their default factory values.
• No two synths are exactly alike, so treat the values below as approximate, and use your ear.
• Percentage values (e.g. 50%) represent the relative position of a knob or slider within its full range. The full range of each parameter may differ from synth to synth, so use your ear.

Voices

• Voice Mode: Poly 2

Oscillator Setup

Oscillator 1

• Mix: 71%
• Wavetable: Default Saw
• Routing: Filter 1
• Random Phase: 0%

Oscillator 2

• Mix: 71%
• Wavetable: Default Saw
• Routing: Filter 1+2
• Random Phase: 0%
• Transpose: 12 st

Filter Settings

Filter 1

• Model: Analog
• Style: 24dB Slope
• Blend: Low Pass (0)
• Cutoff: 30% (72.876 Hz)
• Resonance: 63%
• Drive: 37%
• Modulations:
• Env 2 → Cutoff

Envelope Settings

Envelope 1 (Amp)

• Attack: 0 ms
• Sustain: 100%
• Release: 299 ms

Envelope 2

• Attack: 0 ms
• Decay: 277 ms
• Sustain: 0%
• Release: 299 ms
• Routed to:
• Filter 1 Cutoff (15%)

Modulation Matrix

• Envelope 2 → Filter 1 Cutoff 15%

Note: the patch settings may slightly differ in the Syntorial challenge.

Explore More

• Anthony Rother – Netzwerk Der Zukunft (Discogs release)
• NETZWERK DER ZUKUNFT – Anthony Rother (Bandcamp)
• Anthony Rother interview (Waldorf Music)
• Anthony Rother gear list (Equipboard)
• In the Studio: Anthony Rother (XLR8R)

Preset Downloads

Don't want to learn synth programming now? Use our synth preset as your starting point and tweak it from there. Register an account with Audible Genius and download the presets for free for the following synths:

• Vital

Comments

This recipe is the result of a Syntorial community preset remake request. Need support remaking this sound? Have comments?