Any decent bass guitar plugins?

[Terry Kelley]

I have Ample's freebee but I mostly use SI bass with Bass Professor unless I need to go below E. Then I use a synth.

Edited May 28, 2021 by Terry Kelley

[scook]

2 minutes ago, Terry Kelley said:

I have Amples freebee but I mostly use SI bass with Bass Professor unless I need to go below E. Then I use a synth.

It is possible to extend the range of SI-Bass with a little  modification to the sfz files.

[Terry Kelley]

5 minutes ago, scook said:

It is possible to extend the range of SI-Bass with a little  modification to the sfz files.

And some day when I am really bored ... ?That might be today now that I think about it. I usually only need to go down to D.

[RICHARD HUTCHINS]

I didn't understand the difference. Now I do thanks. I'll check this out.

[Zaquria]

Toontrack EzBass

or

Spectrasonics Trilian

[Toy]

If Kontakt is fine, I like Fujiya Instruments.
The base is Organic Bass Suite . (Amp simulator is not included.)

There is no trial version, so please refer to the demo play and manual.

[MisterX]

10 hours ago, Zaquria said:

Toontrack EzBass

or

Spectrasonics Trilian

Seems like sampling range of EZBass is not complete for strings other than G string. Therefore everything played beyond 4th fret on lower strings sounds IDENTICAL to notes played in lower position on higher strings (including open ones). Which is simply not true as far as real guitars are concerned, since the same pitches sound a bit different on different strings. And probably that's why the program will neither let you choose your left hand position nor string you'd like to play on, see:

https://www.toontrack.com/forums/topic/ez-bass-questions/page/2/

Apart from that - well featured and nice sounding VSTi.

[Colin Nicholls]

Audiority has an Octaver pedal plugin, super cheap until the end of the month,

[Byron Dickens]

Octavers are very unconvincing.

 

It's a cryin' shame that the aquisition of an actual bass guitar is seemingly out of the question for the OP..

A number of years ago, I picked up a Squier P Bass for dirt cheap at a pawn shop.  I didn't know what I had and neither did they. When I got a hankering for a 5- string, I was going to trade the Squier towards it but I found out that it was one of the Korean made ones and that they are actually quite good.

Edited May 27, 2021 by bdickens

[Colin Nicholls]

Well well, this morning I get an email from Spitfire LABS about their new free BASS GUITAR plugin/sound set.

If you're up for messing around in Spitfire LABS ecosystem, give it a go?

[abacab]

If all you need is a fingered 4-string P-Bass sound, the free Ample P-Bass (virtual instrument plugin) that was mentioned earlier is great. Sounds just like my real Fender P-Bass, but never needs new strings, and always stays in tune! LOL! ?

Just plug in your MIDI keyboard, and play away! For free, it's great! Although there are many other options if you want to spend money. I agree on the IK MODO Bass for versatility in that regard.

And I just downloaded, but have not tried yet, the free Spitfire Labs Bass Guitar. It will be interesting to see what it's got...

Edit: Just tried the Spitfire Bass. It's pretty laid back and dull sounding. Might be cool on some quiet tracks. But I think the Ample P-Bass kicks it's tail.

Edited May 27, 2021 by abacab

[razor7music]

On 5/19/2021 at 12:24 PM, Craig Anderton said:

In terms of bass VST instruments, I really like IK Multimedia's MODO bass. It uses modeling rather than sampling, so it can be quite expressive and also offers a number of bass instrument sounds (Ric, P-Bass, Hofner, etc.). It's $299, but if you have the bucks, I think it's well worth it.

A cheaper, sample-based alternative is to use the TX16Wx free sampler and bass samples. The TX16Wx is full-featured, and certainly, the price is right   I don't know what sample packs are available for it, other than the 3-bass pack of sampled Gibson basses I originally did for Rapture, and ported over to the TX16Wx. However. the pack costs $40, so you might want to look around and see if there are any free bass sounds for the TX16Wx.

Hope this helps...

I think I paid $300 for my LTD bass! ?

[user390096]

Waves CLA (Chris Lord-Alga) has several guitar/bass plug-ins that sound good, are cheap and very easy to use. Worth a trial.

Edited May 29, 2021 by user390096

[John Vere]

The thing is that the majority of VST bass offerings are not traditional Fender P bass which is more or less what us old school jammers are used to. A lot of them I find absolutely terrible. Tts1 fingered bass is sort of an example of what I mean. Sounds like a tuned fart  

The Ample P bass was well done. I also use the Jazz bass patch in SI Bass with a compressor on it and that also comes close to the bass sound I’m used to hearing. 
 

I have a very good sounding bass rig with Yamaha bass and a Fender Rumble. But I only use that on real serious original tunes I’m trying to go for 1st class sound. Everything else I just record the bass direct with out fuss and convert to midi and use the Ample bass. 
 

[abacab]

11 hours ago, user390096 said:

Waves CLA (Chris Lord-Alga) has several guitar/bass plug-ins that sound good, are cheap and very easy to use. Worth a trial.

I don't believe those are bass virtual instruments, but are FX plugins.

[Steev]

On 5/29/2021 at 12:22 AM, user390096 said:

Waves CLA (Chris Lord-Alga) has several guitar/bass plug-ins that sound good, are cheap and very easy to use. Worth a trial.

Waves CLA Bass is an Audio/Amp VST plugin and it is frequently on sale directly from Waves for $29(us). Do you need it? Well it doesn't really do much more then you could already do with Cakewalk's ProChannel, so you don't really need it....... but............. It really works GREAT to VERY QUICKLY & EASELY dial in and spice up any bass/synth from.

Cakewalk TTS-1 (DXi) runs off Windows Direct X runtime component so your CPU & memory kinda treats it like it's a part of Windows OS and not an entire different process like a VST is, so it doesn't even register in the CPU or memory resource metering. 

TTS-1 is probably one of the most ignored, unexplored, and underrated synth EVER. And not only by the CPU & memory, but by CAKEWALK too. Oh how good could it be? It OLD  and it's FREE. And you only get what you pay for, right?

 Well I know of several people who overlooked it and purchased the VSTi version from Roland.com and paid $90(us) only to say; "Oh my, it may be prettier on the eyes, but in the ears IT'S THE SAME (bleep'in) THING!" ?

TTS-1  powered by several years of different release versions 15488 thru 15497 of Roland's now discontinued, but very genuine SoundCanvas GM/GS v2™ synth engines. Each version has several bass patches to choose from in each different version. Don't let it's simple DXi user interface fool you, dig in a little deeper you'll find that you can tweak & assign each instrument(s) to it's own audio channel(s) in Cakewalk's mixer where you can apply audio FX treatments to each instrument separately in groups of either 4 stereo or 8 mono chan. configurations. However, just like a Roland hardware synth, while it's "capable" of playing 16 instruments at once on 16 separate MIDI channels, doesn't mean you "should", because the more instruments you have playing on one synth engine(instance), just like the hardware units, the more sound quality "degrades", ESPECIALLY when using instruments with complex waveforms and lots of after touch, pitch wheeling, and modulation going on. To keep sound quality up, I typically never go over 6 different instruments channels assigned to one instance TTS-1. And 3 or 4 instrument channels can easily be used to create & CRAFT one hellava nice sounding BASS PART out of something like running an upright bass patch (chan 1) on one channel with a harmonics patch (chan 2) on another. And then assing a Fingered Bass patch (chan 3) along side a Fret Noise patch (chan 4) and mix to taste and assign all 4 channels outputting from the TTS-1 to one Bass "Bus" running thru Cakewalk ProChannel, or CLA Bass VST or both.  And if you can't carve out the bass sound/part of your dreams with that would make Bootsie Collins smile, then............... Oh never even mind. ?

SI Bass is (VSTi) is VERY EASY on the CPU, it's tweakable, it has a very nice selection of presets, knobs, and switches in all the right places, extremely fast tracking responds very well to my Fishman Triple Play MIDI guitar controller and my Novation Impulse 61 MIDI keyboard controller and can read/write automation. ?

Novation Bass Station is nice too, so is Native Instruments, etc, etc, and so on, they are ALL nice.. And CLA Bass VST 3 is a very low latency plugin is easy on the CPU & is a great piece for ANYTHING BASS. ?

I'm personally a big fan of the Cakewalk SI Bass's "Bassman.prog". I find it can be dialed in for a very natural realistic electric bass guitar sounds that'll make you wonder; "Is that REAL or is that Memorex?" I typically prefer recording/using my either my Fender P  or T-Bucket (acoustic) basses thru an Ampeg SCR-DI direct to audio and most times that's all I have to do.

But sometimes as the project progresses, I'll want a little cleaner sound here or more distorted sound there so I'll convert the audio bass track to MIDI an use the  SI Bass plugin as one of my favorites (at any price point) go to "reamp" bass guitar rigs. ? I'm a firm believer in it doesn't matter how much it costs, or what you use, it's it's all about HOW YOU USE IT.

You can even do really weird stuff too with CLA Bass like switch on "Input Monitoring", plug your bass guitar directly into your audio interface and start jamming. It also works surprisingly well with a Fender Telecaster for those of us old school blues guitarist aficionados like Buddy Guy, and those who LOVES the SNAP'IN CLEAN  sound and feel for country like Danny Gatton to the snarl'in sounds of Jimmy Page in Led Zeppelin all in the studio using their Tele thru a vintage 4x10 Fender Bassman  combo amps. ?

[Toddskins]

Hey Richard,

Orange Tree Samples is doing now what I described in this thread back on May 19.

Based on how many people sign up and show an interest in the sale, the discount amount could reach up to 60% off if they get 1500 people to sign on.

Presently, the number of interested people is 345 which puts the level at 30% discount (I just signed on and added the "Big Bottom Bundle" to my name -- which is the entire collection of  6 sampled bass guitars).  The discount rate goes up as on a tiered structure which you can see in the link below.

You need to register on their site and then add "something of interest to you" to add your name to the growing number of interested people in the sale.

The sale date is 14 days from now. 

More info here:  https://www.orangetreesamples.com/group-buy

 

And you do not have to commit to buy.  Just show interest in some product, which adds to the customer count number.  Decide in a couple weeks if you want to go ahead and buy.

Edited June 22, 2021 by Toddskins

[Magic Russ]

So far MODO bass is my favorite.  Before that I used to use the Scarbee Rickenbacker. and OTS Cherry bass.  I also have their P Bass, but I don't think it is that great.

Unfortunately a lot of good libraries require Kontakt.

There are also a few decent free sfz files out there, although not many significantly better than what you get in SI Bass.

[abacab]

I picked up the MODO Bass last year for free as part of a group buy. Obviously it's a bit pricey to get entry level, but it has maximum versatility as a modeled bass.

As far as sampled basses go, I have always liked the free Ample P-Bass. Is limited to fingered samples only, but sounds very close to my actual Fender P-Bass, and never goes out of tune, LOL! I upgraded to the Ample Metal Ray, which is a sampled Stingray 5. Has fingered and picked samples, plus the Ample paid basses also come with a riffer module.

[Toddskins]

The Orange Tree Samples use the free Kontakt Player.  No need to buy the full version.