Review: Slate Digital Infinity Bass

The elusive low end is always high on the Christmas list for every engineer out there. There have been many tools over the years, from sub-harmonic generators to low-end enhancers, to fairy dust software, all claiming to do the same thing.

Now, there is a new kid on the block aiming to be the next one-stop solution for adding some oomph to your mixes. Is Slate Digital Infinity Bass going to stand up and take the crown, or is it going to be another low-end silver bullet that will crush our dreams of a creamy, gooey low-end?

Infinity Bass is a new sound-sculpting tool that makes low-end processing easier than ever. Four different sound profiles (or ‘Modes’) interact with a responsive set of controls that revitalise your track’s lower-end components with added depth and warmth and even generate missing or lacking subharmonics.

Slate Digital

Take Me To Planet Bass 

The whole plugin’s UI is so futuristic and alien-like. It is extremely beautiful and engaging. It is extremely interactive and reacts to all the small moves that you make. There are two ways to control this plugin. One is via the four knobs at the bottom but another way is for you to use the centre ‘mothership sphere’ looking thing which displays the controls around itself in very interactive and reactive ways.

The mothership thing at the centre is set in a space with some stars and astronomic objects in the background. They also interact subtly with your cursory movements! The plugin itself has four modes – Punchy, Warm, Deep, and Phased. For each mode, the mood and colour scheme of the plugin changes along with a different-looking mothership in the middle and slightly different overlay controls.

Speaking of the four modes – they are extremely distinct in their functionality. They all are tailored for different generational low-end elements but they all generate different things suited for different purposes.

Punchy mode is for low-end elements with some transient element to them like kicks etc.. This mode adds low end but also a little bit of presence to help the element cut through in a mix. The mode employs a mix of EQ, compression, and saturation to the generated signal (determined by the Frequency control) and blends it back in.

Next, we have Warm mode. This is an octaves-like effect that adds a ton of harmonics. You pick a frequency with the control which is then split into two individual bands and a sub is generated from each one. It sounds great for stuff that just needs a little bit of warmth and round low-end added to it.

The third mode is Deep. This is a much cleaner sub-generator with added dynamic control. The signal within the selected band itself is used to generate a monophonic sub. This adds a nice thick sub range to kicks, basses, and any other material that just so happens to need it.

The last mode is Phased. This mode is fairly unique and interesting. It smears your bass, adds resonance, and lowers the amplitude of your source. This is all done to help you squeeze some loudness out of your signal. It is also a great sound design effect that you can add to boring basses and synths.

Let’s dive into the controls a little bit. It is a fairly simple layout that still accomplishes quite a bit. There are four knobs at the bottom – Amount, Frequency, Character, and Output Gain. Some of them stay the same for the different modes but some do change what they do a little bit for each mode. For example – Amount and Frequency stay fairly the same. The former just determines the amount of effect added with the latter selecting the frequency range that is being used to generate the stuff relevant to each mode.

Character does change a little bit. In Punchy mode, it adds additional saturation, in Warm mode, it adds a mix of saturation and presence, in Deep mode, it controls the sub’s decay and dynamics to dial in the shape of the generated signal, and in Phased mode, it changes the flavour of your smearing a little bit to give you some options within the effect.

One big added feature that is great in this plugin is the little Listen button at the bottom. This allows you to monitor just what is being added, and this really helps you hear and dial in exactly what you want.

More control, More Flavours, More Bass!!

One of the most popular players in this space that the Slate Infinity Bass occupies is the Waves R-Bass. An easy, crowd-favourite, way of adding some thickness to any source. While it works well most of the time, what you get from it is fairly one-dimensional and boring sometimes. Sure, it gets the job done, but what if you want a little more?!

That’s where the Infinity Bass comes in.

It allows you to tailor your low-end fairy dust additions a lot more! First, off the bat, I would like to say even after a short time with the plugin, it pretty much blows most of the existing peers out of the water. It sounds really great, and most of all, it looks so sexy that it’s an absolute joy to use. It makes you feel like you are piloting some galactic vehicle through outer space in search of the ultimate low end.

The different modes are unique in what they do and what they sound good on. The provided descriptions do really help you to figure out what to use them on, but I would really suggest that you experiment and just mix and match the flavours. The controls are minimal enough for you to cycle through the possibilities quickly while still giving you the necessary amount of control.

Personal Thoughts

I think I will be using this plugin quite a bit on my mixes from here on out. Apart from the obvious kicks, basses, etc., I think it is a great tool to fill out particularly dull and thin sources like synths, and I have even used it on stuff like acoustic guitars in some rare cases. The different modes are quite fun to play around with, especially when you see the alien-looking sphere in the middle morph and move.

I found myself using the Punchy mode quite often because I love my punchy mixes. It saves you the trouble of generating a sub and then doing some more work on top to get the transients to punch through.

Warm was nice in cases that needed some real extra sauce added to the low-end material both at the top and bottom. It was a real saviour when I got mixes given to me with just lifeless bass tones.

Deep is fairly familiar and sounds the closest to something like the R-bass for me.

Phased is quite fun and interesting. It is great for those stereo-feeling basses. I also love to throw it on synths and stuff. It makes for a great production tool as well in terms of sound design.

The Listen feature is something I feel is quite underrated in this plugin. It totally changes the way I use it. It allows me to duplicate my source, add this on in parallel, and have infinite control over the generated/added harmonics and sub-content. This allows me to tailor crossovers and clean up the low mids and bass regions far more effectively and efficiently.

Find out more about Slate Infinity Bass