Arturia Pure SUB: 808s and Subs Without Stacking Three Plugins
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A common way to build modern low end is to layer a clean sub with a more aggressive mid-bass, then add saturation and dynamics processing to keep everything under control. Arturia Pure SUB is a bass synth built to keep all of that inside one window. It landed on August 27, 2026, and until September 15 it costs €49 instead of €79.
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Arturia calls it a bass design synthesizer. That phrasing is doing real work, because Pure SUB is monophonic and it does not pretend to be a general-purpose instrument. If you want pads and keys, that is what Pigments is for. This one points almost everything it has at bass and low-end sound design. Worth knowing before you spend anything: our synth presets cover the polyphonic side of your setup, and Pure SUB is aimed somewhere much narrower.
What Arturia Pure SUB actually does
The engine is split into three parts, and each one owns a different job.
Sub is the fundamental. You get its own level and an octave switch that drops it as far as two octaves below the note you play. The interesting control here is Sub Regen, which restores a clean version of the fundamental after processing, helping preserve stable phase and amplitude even when the rest of the sound is being pushed hard through filters, distortion and effects. Anyone who has ever driven an 808 into a distortion and watched the low end disappear off the analyser knows exactly why that button exists.
Harmonics is where the character comes from, and it runs in two modes. Pressure generates lower-density harmonic tones and includes a waveform editor for creating custom shapes. Reese covers the other end: wide, dense unison for the sound that drum and bass has been built on since the nineties. The name comes from Reese, the alias Kevin Saunderson released Just Want Another Chance under in 1988, and the original is generally credited to a Casio CZ-5000 rather than the detuned saws everyone reaches for now. There is also a pitch envelope for attack thumps and glides, plus a key-tracked EQ that keeps the timbre consistent as you move up the keyboard.
Texture is the dirt layer. In Texture mode it runs samples of noise and recorded material through ring modulation, AM, or distortion. Switch to Corroder and you get noise, sine, saw, square, or frequency-modulated sources at either a fixed frequency or tracking the keyboard. This is the section that turns a clean sub into something with grit and air on top.
Filters, FX and the Sub Processor
There are over 40 filter modes, which is a lot for a mono synth, and the filter can be applied selectively to the sub, the harmonics, or the texture rather than to everything at once. Keeping your fundamental out of a resonant sweep is a genuinely useful thing to be able to do.
The Sub Processor sitting across the top has 33 modes and six controls: drive, frequency, color, width, presence, and space. It is the single most opinionated part of the plugin. You are not building this chain, you are picking a flavour and setting how much of it lands, via one global Amount control.
Behind that sits an FX rack with 12 slots and 18 effects, among them compression, multiband processing, EQ, and a distortion with its own EQ built in. The chain ends in a maximiser with soft and hard modes. Having a limiter inside the instrument sounds like a small thing until you realise how much of bass sound design is really just gain staging, and how often you bounce a patch only to find it behaves differently once the mix bus gets hold of it.
Modulation, presets and what it runs on
If you have used Pigments, you already know this part. Drag and drop assignment, three envelopes including the dedicated pitch envelope, six flexible modulator slots that can each be a function generator, a random source, an envelope, a step sequencer, or a voice modulator. Four macros, MPE support, and a modulation sidechain that lets one modulator drive another. Wobbles are three drags away.
It ships with 300 presets, a randomiser for generating variations, and a resampling tool for introducing variation between notes or bounces. Formats are standalone, VST, VST3, AU, AAX, and NKS, on macOS 11 or newer and 64-bit Windows 10 or newer. Windows ARM machines are not supported. You need 3 GB of space. We have a separate post on synth presets and whether leaning on factory sounds counts as cheating.
Is a dedicated bass synth worth €49?
Here is the honest objection, and it comes from SynthAnatomy's review rather than from us: a number of the systems surrounding Pure SUB's bass engine feel familiar from Pigments, including elements of the modulation, filters and effects. Their reviewer asked whether the bass engine might have worked just as well as an expansion or new oscillator type inside Pigments instead of a separate purchase, and it is a fair question if you already own Pigments and use it for bass.
The counter-argument is the workflow. Sub Regen, the key-tracked EQ, the 33-mode processor, and the maximiser put a lot of bass-specific decisions into one instrument instead of asking you to recreate the same kind of chain manually. It also competes directly with products like SubLab XL and UVI Rumble, both built around dedicated low-end sound design.
Skip it if Serum 2 already gives you the basses you want and you are comfortable stacking layers. Consider it if you make trap, dubstep, drum and bass, or anything where the low end is the arrangement rather than a support part. For €49 it is an easy yes, and there are other synth plugins worth your money around that price too.
One last detail on pricing, because the coverage has been inconsistent. Arturia's own store lists it at €49 during the intro period. Thomann currently has it at €45, marked against a €79 list price. Check both before you buy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Arturia Pure SUB polyphonic?
No. Pure SUB is monophonic by design, since it exists to build single bass lines and 808s rather than chords. If you want polyphony from Arturia, Pigments or Analog Lab are the products to look at.
How much does Arturia Pure SUB cost, and when does the intro price end?
Arturia sells it for €49 (regular price €79) with the offer running until September 15, 2026. Thomann has been listing it at €45, with their offer ending September 14. Prices were checked on September 11, 2026.
Do I still need Pigments if I have Pure SUB?
Yes, if you want anything other than bass. Pure SUB is mono and bass-focused, so it will not cover pads, leads, or keys. The two share a modulation system, which makes moving between them easy.
Can Pure SUB make 808s and kick drums?
That is one of the things it is best at. The sub section plus the pitch envelope gives you the classic 808 pitch drop, and pushing the decay short turns the same patch into a kick. The maximiser at the end of the chain keeps the level under control.
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