Brief Summary
Considering all the attention electric guitars get in the plugin world, basses feel very much the poor relation. However, as any bass player will tell you, the crowd might be looking at the guitarist but they are dancing to the bass player! Here’s our pick of what’s out there for bass in 2023.
Going Deeper
Plugins for bass? Exactly what you mean by that very much depends on whether you have a real bass, either already recorded or an actual bass guitar next to you, or whether you are looking to create a bass performance using a VI. Just a few years ago the virtual bass route was very much a poor relation to the real thing, with sterile MIDI instruments producing results which wouldn’t fool many for long.
Modern Bass VI’s Which Don’t Sound Fake
This situation has changed significantly and if you’re looking for results will get waved through as authentic by most listeners then the top of the bunch in 2023 for us is Toontrack’s EZ Bass.
The sheer depth of content which goes into Toontrack’s products is remarkable, EZ Bass offers everything from easy yet forensic manual programming, with intuitive control over the timbre and articulation variations which are so necessary to create a convincing performance, all the way to semi-automatic part generation from the extensive midi library or even parts created from an audio file of a complete performance. To see how impressive EZ Bass is check out our review.
For an alternative take on the bass VI, check out UJAM’s quintet of virtual players. The philosophy behind all of UJAM’s products is to create genre-specific instruments which all share a common user interface. The sounds and styles are specific to the instrument but if you can use one you can use them all. Of the five basses available my personal favourite is Dandy, great for vintage inspired sounds. Check it out in use in our video from Mark M Thompson who uses it with its stylistic bedfellow, the drum instrument Deep.
Levelling - WaveRider Tg from Quiet Art
As long as it’s in tune and in time, the next thing any track featuring a bass guitar needs to be is audible throughout. A solid, even bass track is essential to a good mix but before you reach for a compressor, consider some levelling. We like the leveler in Sound Radix’s POWAIR and Waves have their excellent Bass Rider but my tool of choice for these duties is Waverider TG from Quiet Art. It’s effective, easy to set up and the ability to tweak the action of the levelling by editing the automation it writes makes it a perfect halfway point between the convenience of compression and the control of automation. Check out our detailed review along with an example using bass guitar.
Compression - Custom Opto From Slate Digital
Even if you are using levelling, the chances are you are also going to be using a compressor on your bass track. I think it’s a legal requirement! The go-to compressor for bass has to be the LA2A. The gentle, can’t-get-it-wrong nature of opto compression along with the colour of the tubes make this venerable studio favourite the default choice for many. The only thing about an LA2A is that you don’t have access to the attack and release. That isn’t a criticism, it’s kind of the point of an LA2A, but for that reason we’re going with the Custom Opto from Slate Digital. It does everything an LA2A does and gives access to attack and release so you can get a bit more creative, or not. The choice is yours.
Amp - Ampeg SVT-VR From Brainworx/UAD
Unlike electric guitars, bass guitars have far fewer classic amps to choose from. Part of the reason that bass doesn’t get the same attention guitars do when it comes to amplifiers is probably because when it comes to classic bass amps the list is rather shorter than it is for guitars. That's not to say that the amplifier used isn’t important, but the job of a bass amp is to be powerful and relatively flat. The same can’t be said of guitar amps. Modern bass amps are powerful and efficient, they have comprehensive tone shaping capabilities but they don’t really have such readily identifiable personalities as their guitar cousins.
There are many very capable bass amp plugins and unless you are already using a real amp I favour using one to ‘knock the corners’ off the DI bass you’ll inevitably be capturing too. Our specific suggestion is a plugin version of that most iconic of all bass amps, the Marshall stack of bass, the Ampeg SVT, an amp I know only too well. I once toured a show which used five of them (yes you read that right) and I’ve never quite forgiven the insanely heavy SVT and equally impractical 8x10 cab for that.
The SVT is best known as a rock amp, the grinding, aggressive tone with which it’s most closely associated is an overwhelming thing to hear for real. When overdriven the 8x10 is surprisingly directional in the top end. If you have a chance to, get a good distance away and check out how narrow a beam of high end it puts out if it’s being run with distortion! However the SVT is more flexible than that and can do clean(ish) but importantly, with this plugin you really get an impression of air being moved from the response of that towering cabinet. If you want crystal clear use a DI, but if you want real weight then this SVT plugin can do it.
Timbre Shift - Surfer EQ From Sound Radix
Shaping sounds using EQ is only partially effective because of the static nature of equalisers. For example if you are boosting a particular area which happens to be lifting the 3rd harmonic of the bass line, that will only be the case for a single note. As soon as the note changes so does the harmonic being affected. This happens for all pitched sounds but is particularly audible on bass content. Pitch tracking EQs fix this extremely effectively. The EQ analyses the incoming audio and identifies its pitch in real time and boosts and cuts move with the note, in the same way as a synth filter tracks the keyboard. The original and best pitch tracking EQ is Surfer Eq from Sound Radix. If you track bass you owe it to yourself to have this plugin.
Saturation - BOD From TSE Audio
While you can dial in saturation on the amp, I invariably introduce some saturation on the DI. Usually not enough to perceive as in any way ‘dirty’ but enough to bed the bass in to the track. There are many excellent choices here. SoundToys Decapitator is a perennial favourite and for flexibility FabFilter’s Saturn 2 is unsurpassed but If you’re a Pro Tools user I’d recommend the plugin I use more often than anything else, Avid LoFi. The trick is to dial in only a hint of Distortion (under 1.5). If you needs something more strident then the ancient, but still excellent Sansamp is hard to beat. The names of the controls are confusing but we have an article which might help. If you aren’t a Pro Tools user Softube Saturation Knob is still hard to beat and its free. Turning to our specific recommendation, and staying on the subject of free plugins, the BOD bass overdrive is an emulation of the Sansamp bass overdrive pedal and is free, and rather brilliant. Get it free here.
Alignment - Sound Radix Auto Align 2
If you are using both an amplifier and a DI then you’ll need to make sure the two aren’t causing each other issues when summed due to time of arrival differences causing phase cancellations, something bass instruments are particularly susceptible to. The best known tool for this job is Sound Radix’s Auto Align. Recently updated to version 2, this new version of the plugin has transformed alignment tasks, with a one-click workflow and superior results.
Making sure that your DI and the mics aren’t interfering destructively and causing cancellations between each other is important. Compared to a multi-miked drum kit a DI and a mic or two on a bass amp aren’t too difficult to align manually or by ear, but in Auto Align 2 the alignment goes further than simple polarity and delay. Auto Align 2 uses both Spectral Phase Optimization and Absolute Phase Optimization to ensure that sounds aren’t compromised by the alignment process. This is our favourite plugin of 2023 so far!
What About You?
There are lots of choices when it comes to bass - More modern bass amp simulations, more aggressive compression options. Are you into flatwounds and a Fairchild or more octave pedal and chorus? What would your picks for bass be?