With its primarily monophonic voicing and uncomplicated tone making it comparatively straightforward to recreate in software, the electric bass is well represented in the virtual instrument market. Here, we’ve gathered together half a dozen top tier plugins tuned up to help you realise your ‘live’ bottom-end ambitions, several of them providing the bassist as well as the bass.
Toontrack EZbass
Partnering with the equally sublime EZdrummer 2, the recently-released other half of Toontrack’s virtual rhythm section makes blasting out convincing b-lines almost effortless. You only get two multisampled bass guitars – a Fender Jazz (EZbass Vintage) and an Alembic (EZbass Modern) – but they’re both crackers, coaxing an impressive level of detail out of their numerous articulations (including Polyphonic Legato and Slide), and wrangled into a solid menu of effects-processed presets. And the first of, no doubt, many EBX add-ons (Classic Rock) is already available when you get hungry for more. You don’t even need to leave the plugin (or standalone app) to program the thing, either, as an incredibly powerful sequencer is built in.
Watch our Toontrack EZbass review.
IK Multimedia Modo Bass
Taking a very different approach to the other five instruments in our list, IK Multimedia’’s innovative offering emulates 14 bona fide classic electric bass guitars (Fender Precision and Jazz, MusicMan Stingray, Gibson EB-0, Hofner Violin et al) without a sample in sight, instead deploying physical modelling synthesis to facilitate unrivalled tweakability. Modo Bass lets you get down and dirty with everything from string properties (Type, Gauge, Age) and noise (Detach and Slide), to pickup model and position, and stroke direction; and includes a full-on amp and stompbox effects section drawing on IK’s highly regarded AmpliTube technology. Amazingly realistic.
Watch our IK Multimedia Modo Bass review.
Spectrasonics Trilian
Eric Persing’s 34GB low-end leviathan is stuffed with deeply multisampled instruments – almost 1500 all told. Although the hundreds of synths by Moog, Novation, Roland, Korg, Yamaha and others, and a truly stunning upright acoustic involving over 21,000 samples and four separate mic channels, aren’t to be sniffed at, the main event is a huge range of electric bass guitars, taking in four-, five-, six- and eight-string models, fretlesses and even a Chapman Stick. Every patch comprises all the articulations you’re likely to need, and comprehensive onboard editing and effects processing free your sonic imagination.
The original supersized bass ROMpler, Trilian is still one of the best.
UJAM Dandy
One of four libraries for their sample-based Virtual Bassist 2.1 plugin, UJAM’s Dandy puts a “world class vintage bass guitar and player” at your fingertips, complete with amps, EQ, dynamics shaping and effects. Although you can play and sequence it manually, of course, a large part of Dandy’s appeal is Virtual Bassist 2’s Player Mode, which provides 990 phrases in 30 styles for chaining into complete performances via a slick and intuitive GUI.
Crafting electric basslines just doesn’t get any easier than this, and Dandy’s smooth, warm flat-wound sound is a treat for the ears.
Learn more about UJAM’s Dandy.
Waves Bass Slapper
While most of our six selected virtual basses feature slapping alongside their fingered and picked playing techniques, Waves’ sample-based plugin/standalone instrument is entirely dedicated to the subject. Bass Slapper’s 3700+ samples (4.9GB losslessly compressed) serve up a wealth of slaps, pops, hammers, pulls, strums, harmonics, slides and more, with round robins keeping everything sounding natural from note to note; and the interface makes lifelike performance and transformative effects processing a breeze.
The $50 pricetag pretty much seals the deal, and there’s a fingered version to check out an’ all.
See and hear Waves Bass Slapper in action.
Ample Sound Bass P
Guitar sample library specialists Ample Sound have a number of electric basses in their catalogue, but our favourite is this Fender Precision emulation, weighing in at 3.6GB and featuring 12 keyswitching articulations. The sampled bass itself sounds fantastic, with adjustable buzz and stereo DI, but it’s the supplementary systems and editors that make Ample Bass P such a formidable low-frequency weapon, from the Riffer sequencer and multi-format tab player, to the effects and amp simulations.
There’s a free cut-down version – Ample Bass P Lite – available for download, too, which lets you play around with four articulations and, for some, might even be enough to get the job done on its own.
Watch our Ample Sound Bass P review.
Did your first-call faux bass not make our list? Let us know in the comments.