distortion fx?

[Innovine]

Is it just me, or are the distortion effects in the Virus rather poor? I have a Virus kB and I'm trying to warm up some bass sounds with a little overdrive but all the distortion settings I've tried sound kinda lame. Is it just me?

[grs]

Just you :)
No seriously, try using Character as well. I find Lead enhance works sometimes for bass lines and Bass enhance works for leads... go figure!
Latest patch, a trancy one, has this:
Char = Speaker Cab 100% tune at 44.
Dist = Curry, mix 70%, drive 100, hi cut 42
EQ = mid boost 7.5db at 1.6Khz q 2.6
Most often in the DAW I will split the bass line to HI and LO freqs to control the level of the bass so it's always on the limit near the kik.

[feedingear]

the new distortions are great. mix them in with filter saturation models like bit/rate reduce mildly and you can get some really aggressive tones quite easily. that said, i'd nearly always do post processing (eq, compression/distortion/multibanding) on any line i make with the virus anyways.

[Timo]

He has VirusB engine.

One of the best distortions for bass is rectifier I've found. Really dirty, gnarly, hard-hitting bass.

Try also playing with the frequency of the analog character, it has an impact on bass type sounds more than most other sounds I've found, adding further weight and warmth to the bass.

The standard filter saturation models (soft, light, medium, heavy) are fairly pointless with bass, it just makes hard bass less punchy and hard-hitting. Saps the energy out of it turning it into a fluffy mess. Same with extreme amounts of standard distortion.

If you have one or the other spare you can use the filter saturation or distortion in HPF or LPF modes to EQ your bass sound further to make it more focussed and ready for the mix.

[Innovine]

Yeah I use the rectifier sometimes but you hit the nail on the head when describing the fluffy mess :) I'll try the other tips you mentioned, cheers.

I'm also going to start routing the bass out to external gear, and expeiment a bit with some guitar pedals and line6 pod things, see if I can get a better tone that way.

[Rick Boogie]

Having built-in fx can be pretty cool, but processing fx after the synth is both easier to set up and more effective. I have a Virus KB as well, and guitar/bass stomp boxes are my best friend.