Scarbee has announced the release of Black Bass, a new sample library for Native Instruments Kontakt 2.2. Black Bass is produced and recorded by Scarbee director Thomas Hansen Skarbye himself and developed together with Kontakt script wizard Nils Liberg to create an innovative and playable instrument for musicians, composers, and producers looking for a unique bass sound.

PR Quote: "I wanted to record my own favourite four string bass - THE SOUND that I always come back to." says Thomas and continues: "I use flatwound strings to get that warm, creamy sound of the 70's disco and funk bass lines and because my bass has maple (hard wood) fretboard - it sounds great when slappin’ too!"

Features:

• Real-time playable – with the exception of cross hammering and trills all of the articulations in the list given further below can be triggered without the need for any keyswitches. e.g. Hammer on & pull-offs are triggered by legato playing and fast grace notes by fast legato playing.
• A powerful user interface pushing the Kontakt user interface to its limits: a fretboard display gives an overview of the playing position and for each string what fret and articulation (displayed as a unique symbol) that are used – dynamically updated as you play.
• All four strings sampled.
• Each string is monophonic so new notes abort earlier notes, giving a perfectly realistic bass.
• Automatic string selection – play and the script selects the most suitable string for you. Use keyswitches to limit the string choice or to move the active playing position (placement of left hand). The automatic string selection is tailor-made to work well with every articulation.
• Automatic alternation of right hand index and middle finger samples (can also be controlled using keyswitches).
• Convenient keyswitch mode – a keyswitch affects the following note or remains active as long as it's pressed – making it easy to quickly return to the default mode of operation.
• Slide mode – play a note legato while holding the sustain pedal pressed to trigger a slide. The velocity will determine a slide speed anywhere between 60 to 480 BPM. Slides use real interval transitions sampled in three different speeds for realism and employ a new technique invented by Skarbye/Liberg to significantly reduce RAM usage. Slides are available for every interval up to an octave down and up from the current note. It's possible to play multiple slides consecutively to go up and then down.
• Chord mode – makes it possible for notes to be automatically assigned to the right strings even if the notes of a chord don't arrive exactly at the same time.
• Control over release samples – random alternation between more or less tight (how quickly they are dampened) release samples where the proportion of each can be controlled by the user. Select a default release type and use a keyswitch to toggle between the default behaviour and the other type.
• Pickup-hits – randomly inserted where they are most likely to occur in real-life playing.
• The user can set the probability of a pickup-hit to occur.
• The sound of Mr. Scarbee's own fingers.
• Bass recorded DI to give you maximum flexibility in the sound production.
• EQ and Effect Presets - direct in the instrument user interface.
• Integrated documentation for all settings – direct in the instrument user interface.

Articulations and playing techniques:

• Sustains
• Mutes
• Harmonics
• Hammer-on & pull-off
• Fast grace notes
• Slides – in practically any speed
• Trills & trill-tails
• Buzz-trills
• Cross hammering
• Chords
• Chord slides
• Percussive slides
• Index and middle finger alternation
• Three different sets of release samples: loose, tighter and tight.
• Pickup-hit noises
• Fret noises

This initial release features fingered playing style and contains more than 4000 samples. Two expansion sets for Black Bass are scheduled for release: Black Bass - Fingerpick EXP - a special style where you use your index finger as a pick and Black Bass - Slap EXP - thumb and plucked style.

Scarbee Black Bass Sample Library for Kontakt 2.2 costs $99.