Zikomo - Back To Life | Bass Synth Patch Remake

Remaking the bass synth from the 2018 song "Back To Life" by Zikomo can be an exciting challenge for any synthesizer enthusiast. Here’s how you can create the "Back To Life" 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

Zikomo’s remix of “Back To Life” opens with a very thumpy, warm sub-bass synth that anchors the groove from 0:00. The tone is rounded and low‑frequency focused with a little filter envelope decay to provide a subtle transient. The part is pushed forward in the mix with pronounced low‑end EQ to create a ton of “thump” in the body, and compression to keep squeeze it and keep the level consistent. Light ambience from reverb adds depth without reducing the sub impact.

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 "Back To Life" by Zikomo, 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: Mono

Oscillator Setup

Oscillator 1

• Mix: 71%
• Wavetable: Basic Shapes
• Wave Frame: Triangle (position 74)
• Routing: Filter 1
• Random Phase: 0%

Oscillator 2

• Mix: 52%
• Wavetable: Basic Shapes
• Wave Frame: Square (position 165)
• Routing: Filter 1+2
• Random Phase: 0%
• Transpose: -12 st

Filter Settings

Filter 1

• Model: Analog
• Style: 24dB Slope
• Blend: Low Pass (0)
• Cutoff: 43% (194.797 Hz)
• Resonance: 0%
• Drive: 41%
• Modulations:
• Env 2 → Cutoff

Envelope Settings

Envelope 1 (Amp)

• Attack: 0 ms
• Sustain: 100%
• Release: 203 ms

Envelope 2

• Attack: 0 ms
• Decay: 257 ms
• Sustain: 0%
• Release: 90 ms
• Routed to:
• Filter 1 Cutoff (7%)

Effects Processing (Ordered)

Eq

• Low Cutoff: 66.506 Hz
• Low Resonance: 20%
• Low Gain: 6 dB
• Band Cutoff: 117.979 Hz
• Band Resonance: 37%
• Band Gain: 15 dB

Compressor

• Mode: Single Band
• Mix: Default (100%)
• Attack: 100%
• Release: 100%
• Band Values
• Band Gain: 12 dB
• Band Upper Ratio: 24%

Reverb

• Mix: 48%
• Size: Default (50%)
• Chorus Amount: 5%
• Chorus Frequency: Default (0.250 Hz)
• Time: -6.000 s

Modulation Matrix

• Envelope 2 → Filter 1 Cutoff 7%

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

Explore More

• Patch Request: Zikomo – Back To Life (Bass) (Audible Genius)
• Palette Swapped — archive listing including “Back to Life (Zikomo Remix)”
• Zikomo artist listing / event page (Noise Pop)
• Instagram post promoting Zikomo remix of “Back To Life”
• Zikomo – “Back To Life” original sound post (TikTok)

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?