KVR Audio

FuruSamples · Post by **FuruSamples** » Mon May 18, 2026 1:21 am

Hi everyone,

I make sampled bass instruments for KONTAKT, and recently I made a comparison between real bass recordings and MIDI bass using the same phrasing and playing approach (fingerstyle, slap, and pick).

This isn’t meant to be a “guess which is real” challenge or a sales post — I was simply curious how close MIDI bass could get in an actual musical context.

In Japan, many people said it sounded surprisingly close, so I became curious how people outside Japan would feel about it.

I’d genuinely love to hear your honest thoughts.

Winstontaneous · Post by **Winstontaneous** » Fri May 22, 2026 8:32 pm

I'm a bassist and have a couple Japanese basses I love - Momose '70s Jazz style and an Ibanez Prestige RKB900 with P&J pickups.

Playing and sound on both real and sampled bass is great! I can hear the difference but the articulation of the Furubass is impressive! It doesn't choke out on some of the harder picking and slapping like some other sampled basses. I've only really used the Scarbee stuff so don't have much to compare it to. I think Stevie Wonder proved long ago that synth bass is only limited by the imagination of the musician...but then again he grew up playing with Motown bassist James Jamerson!

FuruSamples · Post by **FuruSamples** » Sat May 23, 2026 12:16 am

Thanks so much for the thoughtful comment, Winstontaneous!

I'm really happy to hear from a bassist — especially someone playing Japanese basses. Momose has a bit of a “hidden gem” reputation here in Japan, so seeing one mentioned made me smile.

Since I created FuruBass myself, I sometimes worry that I may be hearing it through biased ears

So feedback from an actual bassist like you is genuinely valuable to me.

I'm also glad you noticed the articulation and the way it handles harder picking and slapping. That's actually something I paid a lot of attention to while developing it.

And James Jamerson is one of my all-time favorite bassists too. This demo used my Jazz Bass library, but I also made a Precision-style library inspired in part by that muted Motown feel — I even added muted articulations because I love that sound so much.

If you're interested, I'd be happy if you just had a listen to the sound sometime:
FuruBass-PB1966:
https://furusamples.com/#pb1966

starflakeprj · Post by **starflakeprj** » Sat May 23, 2026 6:39 am

While I spot a slight, very slight, difference in the tone, this is really good! The articulations are more or less spot on. Great job!

FuruSamples · Post by **FuruSamples** » Sat May 23, 2026 6:55 am

Thank you so much, starflakeprj!

I’m really happy to hear that — especially your comment about the articulations, since that was one of the things I paid the most attention to while developing FuruBass

How close can MIDI bass get to real bass?