Roland CR-8000, bass

The Message · Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five / Single (1982)

Unverified Inferred from the knowledge base. Nobody has cited a source yet; one accepted source makes it POTENTIALLY, one grade A source or two grade B sources verify it

Settings

osc: 1 saw + sub sine, unison 1, detune 3 cents
filter: LP 24 dB/oct
cutoff: 540 Hz
resonance: 0.28
envelope: A 2 ms D 80 ms S 0.6 R 100 ms; short punchy pulse on each note, closes fast
modulation: mono
effects: none, maybe light saturation, none
notes: The stark, descending synth bassline is the record's whole musical backbone, one of the most sampled and imitated bass hooks in hip-hop history. Producers Sylvia Robinson and Jiggs Chase built it on a small drum machine and synth rig; exact model is uncertain.

Sources

No source yet. A claim needs one grade A source, or two independent grade B sources, to be verified.

Images

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Who played it

Nobody credited yet.

Samples

Recordings of the instrument set to these settings, made fresh by contributors. Never a clip of the record.

No sample yet.

Revision history

10 Sep 2026Seedsystem