Poly Evolver Tutorial #3 – Dumpy Bass 🎛

I’ve had the Poly Evolver since 2014 and honestly have always been unhappy with the lack of tutorials on it. It’s a fantastic synthesizer and super unique in many ways. It can be used as a 4 oscillator hybrid synth, having two analog and two digital oscillators. Or it can be used as a 4 mono synths, each with it’s own sequencer. It’s sort of like a modular synth in one keyboard. Almost anything can be routed anywhere. It’s got 4 modulation slots, 4 LFOs, oscillator slop (to keep things sounding organic), and stereo analog filters with Curtis chips. It’s become an essential part of my sound, my studio, and my work flow.

This preset is a recent favorite of mine. It’s a simple bass sound for tech house type of songs. I’ve recorded it dry so you can hear exactly what’s going on when I work my way through making each change to the sound. These tutorials should be repeatable on most synthesizers, so try to follow along with whatever synth you’ve got. If you don’t have similar functions on the synth- try figuring out another way to achieve the same effects. It’s a great way to learn synthesis.

Full disclosure: I’m still learning this thing. It’s not your average synthesizer. It’s super deep, well designed but complex, and to be honest there’s not a ton of user guides or videos on it. Fortunately the Poly Evolver is great for learning and exploring considering it’s almost one-knob-per-function. The Carbon 111 guide is probably the best, but even that falls short of going in-depth and creating sounds. I’m hoping to dive deep into this thing, with you all. If I miss-speak on anything in the videos, or you have any tips for using it- please let me know in the comments!

Stylized Poly Evolver Wave Shapes Chart: DOWNLOAD

Sound Editor Screenshot:
Dumpy Bass:

Tagged as: gear / Poly Evolver / tutorial