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Jazz upright bass

re-peat said:
Another thing I don’t like about the VSL is that its pluck has a sort of knocking quality (cleary audible in the first section of the comparison), and it also is severely lacking in dynamic colour, I find (unlike the Premier) which gives its performances often a somewhat aloof, unengaged, sterile character. On the plus side, it’s got a good, quite unique tone (one that, like Larry Seyer’s sampled bass, often reminds me a bit of the sound of Eddie Gomez),
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Zanshin said:
The aforementioned Toontrack offering is out:

https://www.toontrack.com/product/upright-ebx/

I'm going to pick this up I think, I haven't had a chance to listen to the demos on my studio monitors but initial impressions are 'well done', it is Toontrack after all.
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It looks pretty useful, though the bass they chose to sample is a bit tubby. Its definitely a toontrack product, geared towards songwriters, but that may be useful. Slides are pitch bend, vibrato is after the fact, both of which are slightly less natural but way more flexible. Definitely worth checking out.
 
I was waiting for the "upright-ebx", but from what I heard in the Toontrack videos, I'm a bit disappointed.

There's no slap articulations and the sound is nothing special IMO; I don't think it sounds any better than UJAM Mellow, which I already have. This makes me look closer towards the BolderSounds "Roots Bass", which has substantially more articulations and costs the same.

Having said that, I still might buy Toontrack's upright as part of the ebx "value pack" because of the ebx ecosystem.
 
I own several of the upright bass libraries mentioned in this thread, and they all sound quite different, which is to be expected. Even though the upright bass is an acoustic instrument with no dedicated tone shaping controls (as opposed to an electric bass), the sound of an acoustic bass can vary greatly depending on how it's played, how it's amped/recorded, and on the stylistic intent of the player.

I've worked with a handful of acoustic bass players, mixing projects they played on - from traditional jazz to pop, folk, and bluegrass - and each bass player was very particular about their sound, sometimes going so far as to tell me exactly how to set the EQ curve in the mix.

The sonic spectrum ranges from that smooth low soft boom that only an acoustic bass is capable of, to a resonant high-mid "quack", and everything in between. It's more than just EQ and compression that gets you those sounds, the player him/herself is integral.

Given this wide spectrum of sound, it's not surprising there isn't an all-encompassing upright bass library to rule them all. I think to adequately represent the upright bass, multiple libraries are required - at least given today's offerings.
 
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Also, I think it's worth mentioning that the oft-ignored Kontakt Factory Library contains two upright bass patches that are actually quite good and offer decent tone-shaping versatility: Jazz Upright and Upright Bass. The latter patch provides that aggressive slappy string noise sound.
 
NekujaK said:
Also, I think it's worth mentioning that the oft-ignored Kontakt Factory Library contains two upright bass patches that are actually quite good and offer decent tone-shaping versatility: Jazz Upright and Upright Bass. The latter patch provides that aggressive slappy string noise sound.
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I seem to remember installing the Kontakt library just to try those and was disappointed. Single dynamic maybe?

NekujaK said:
Given this wide spectrum of sound, it's not surprising there isn't an all-encompassing upright bass library to rule them all. I think to adequately represent the upright bass, multiple libraries are required - at least given today's offerings.
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I think you are right. Which is why I kind of want all the libraries despite my wallet lol. I will pick up the EBX one.

The Bolder Sounds bass sounds a little bit clickety clack caricature, there is one demo where it is more subdued and I suppose it can be EQ'd.

Acoustic Bass Premier G is more of a mystery. It's not the same bass that Re-peat demo'd for us, and the samples on the site are all dressed...
 
Zanshin said:
...

The Bolder Sounds bass sounds a little bit clickety clack caricature, there is one demo where it is more subdued and I suppose it can be EQ'd.

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Did you hear the snippet that re-peat posted earlier in this thread with Roots Bass:

Jazz upright bass

Excellent - is this still held in high regard? iirc the developers website got hacked,they lost the content and it took a couple of years for them to re-release the library. I don’t have it but I seem to remember people saying the newer release doesn’t sound as good as the original. Again I...
vi-control.net vi-control.net

It didn't sound bad to me at all, although I admit, a bit on the "clacky" side.

P.S. The file is no longer available, but I hope re-peat can re-upload it (I also saved a copy).
 
I did, yeah and I thought it sounded pretty good. The product page also mentions a mic balance control so I assume that would go toward alleviating that too.
 
Zanshin said:
Quick and dirty test...

I had been playing around with setting up the synchron-ized VSL Upright last week, so I loaded the file up and threw the EZ Bass Upright in and very quickly attempted to match up EQ and compression (too forward, in your face, and trashy? But that's me not the samples sorry lol). I committed the cardinal sin and copied the midi over no adjustments between the two.

VSL:
(Broken Link Removed)
EZ:
(Broken Link Removed)
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It is tough to make a comparison given that you played the MIDI in using the VSL.
 
Zanshin said:
I seem to remember installing the Kontakt library just to try those and was disappointed. Single dynamic maybe?
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You're probably right. They're decent basses for basic root-5 type playing, but for more expressive needs it's best to look elsewhere. I'm definitely grabbing the Upright EBX!
 
NekujaK said:
You're probably right. They're decent basses for basic root-5 type playing, but for more expressive needs it's best to look elsewhere. I'm definitely grabbing the Upright EBX!
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Yeah I'm pretty happy with it so far, just taking a spin through the presets and it feels to have a nice range of tone.
 
FireGS said:
I thought the EBX sounds pretty good -- but I don't think it's any better than Ample's.
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Thats my debate. Which is more capable? Ample usually covers an insane amount of articulations and details, and their app has so much functionality. Its a tough opponent to beat. I've never owned any of the EZ Bass stuff, but this offering is tempting.
 
Jkist said:
Thats my debate. Which is more capable? Ample usually covers an insane amount of articulations and details, and their app has so much functionality. Its a tough opponent to beat. I've never owned any of the EZ Bass stuff, but this offering is tempting.
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Could always get both -- EBX is really affordable. Then you can use EBX > Ample. EBX for the MIDI packs (if that's your thing) with MIDI thru into Ample.
 
You can demo EZ Bass itself to see if the app fits for you. It's quick to say drop in a chord progression, have it generate a bass line and then edit it to your liking. The editor in the app is nice because you can click on a note and change the articulation, and it tracks what basses have what articulations. It feels good to use like SD3 feels good IMO.

Anyway, I agree, the Ample is just as good sounding.
 
Zanshin said:
You can demo EZ Bass itself to see if the app fits for you. It's quick to say drop in a chord progression, have it generate a bass line and then edit it to your liking. The editor in the app is nice because you can click on a note and change the articulation, and it tracks what basses have what articulations. It feels good to use like SD3 feels good IMO.

Anyway, I agree, the Ample is just as good sounding.
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Only thing I wish it had was more of a slap if needed for country style.

I want an Ample gutbucket bass.

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