black bass???

[CS80]

Hi everyone,
Thanks for the kind words!

hibidy: thanks for your interest in Black Bass. To my knowledge you need Kontakt 2 to play it. Distributing it as a sample library has many advantages: much lower price (Kontakt 2 Player license fees are quite high), increased flexibility thanks to it being editable, no unnecessary RAM overhead when loading multiple Kontakt instruments, and no registration hassle - just copy the files to your harddrive, load, and play. I can certainly see your point, but it's hard to please everyone. I hope you will invest in Kontakt 2 at some point. Btw the latest K2 versions are really stable in my experience.

Nils Liberg, author of the Black Bass script

Nice scripting, by the way. Very playable!

I'd really be interested to see what you could do with a fretless library.

[hibidy]

Hi everyone,
Thanks for the kind words!

hibidy: thanks for your interest in Black Bass. To my knowledge you need Kontakt 2 to play it. Distributing it as a sample library has many advantages: much lower price (Kontakt 2 Player license fees are quite high), increased flexibility thanks to it being editable, no unnecessary RAM overhead when loading multiple Kontakt instruments, and no registration hassle - just copy the files to your harddrive, load, and play. I can certainly see your point, but it's hard to please everyone. I hope you will invest in Kontakt 2 at some point. Btw the latest K2 versions are really stable in my experience.

Regards,
Nils Liberg, author of the Black Bass script

the problem is that IF I get this and for some reason it is not efficient cpu wise......it would be un-usable. I checked the website and there is not a return policy so I guess it's a no go at any rate

[egbert]

As you can see from the demo this is quite an impressive bass library. The auto-string selection is also a feature of Chocolate Audio's Mock Bass. This sort of thing is made possible by the excellent scripting in Kontakt 2.2.

While some other samplers will play Kontakt format instruments, that compatibility does not run to the scripting so don't imagine that you will get all the features working on another player. In fact if some fancy programming applies you might find that a whole stack of samples play at once in response to a single note on a player which doesn't understand the scripting which would control which single sample would sound.

[pekadan]

When you play this bass you won't be disappointed as long as you keep in mind that this bass has the sound of 70's disco and funk. It's an uncanny representation.

I just listened to the Black House demo. Black Bass doesn't sound particularly 70's disco/funk to me in this demo. I could imagine wanting a very similar bass sound for modern pop/rock. What is it in the sound that makes is "old-fashion"?

Here's the demo btw:
http://www.scarbee-downloads.com/demos/ ... _house.mp3

[pekadan]

As you can see from the demo this is quite an impressive bass library. The auto-string selection is also a feature of Chocolate Audio's Mock Bass. This sort of thing is made possible by the excellent scripting in Kontakt 2.2.

Anyone compared Black Bass and Mock Bass yet? I know they have a different kind of sound. I'm more interested to know how they compare when it comes to sample quality, features, articulations, etc.

[egbert]

As you can see from the demo this is quite an impressive bass library. The auto-string selection is also a feature of Chocolate Audio's Mock Bass. This sort of thing is made possible by the excellent scripting in Kontakt 2.2.

Anyone compared Black Bass and Mock Bass yet? I know they have a different kind of sound. I'm more interested to know how they compare when it comes to sample quality, features, articulations, etc.

Mock bass has the same sample set with three versions in the larger set - unprocessed DI and two different miced amp settings - Rock and Round. The sample pool size is smaller than Black bass and the strings used are SIT RBS rock brights (round wound). The programming avoids using the same sample on successive notes - you get alternation (index, middle, index, middle finger samples) on a repeated bass note. The string selection is automatic and you can choose where on the neck the note is being played. There are some other cool bits of programming to make the transitions between notes more authentic. In terms of tone quality, the sound of those DI samples (bartolini p/us recorded through a Millenia hybrid tube/solid state DI) is superb. I record DI basses often and I don't get anything like that sort of sweet tone using mic pres or a Sansamp Bass Driver. I can get closer with a quality tube instrument preamp but really I think the signal chain used for Mock bass was superb.

Scarbee's set is a 1.2GB compressed download so it is comparitively much larger sample set, the strings are flat wounds so it has a unique sound. I don't have it yet but the demo gives a very good indication of the sound on offer. If you are a bass sample junkie like me you will want all of these and the excellent Manybass too.

[pekadan]

As you can see from the demo this is quite an impressive bass library. The auto-string selection is also a feature of Chocolate Audio's Mock Bass. This sort of thing is made possible by the excellent scripting in Kontakt 2.2.

Anyone compared Black Bass and Mock Bass yet? I know they have a different kind of sound. I'm more interested to know how they compare when it comes to sample quality, features, articulations, etc.

Mock bass has the same sample set with three versions in the larger set - unprocessed DI and two different miced amp settings - Rock and Round. The sample pool size is smaller than Black bass and the strings used are SIT RBS rock brights (round wound). The programming avoids using the same sample on successive notes - you get alternation (index, middle, index, middle finger samples) on a repeated bass note. The string selection is automatic and you can choose where on the neck the note is being played. There are some other cool bits of programming to make the transitions between notes more authentic. In terms of tone quality, the sound of those DI samples (bartolini p/us recorded through a Millenia hybrid tube/solid state DI) is superb. I record DI basses often and I don't get anything like that sort of sweet tone using mic pres or a Sansamp Bass Driver. I can get closer with a quality tube instrument preamp but really I think the signal chain used for Mock bass was superb.

Scarbee's set is a 1.2GB compressed download so it is comparitively much larger sample set, the strings are flat wounds so it has a unique sound. I don't have it yet but the demo gives a very good indication of the sound on offer. If you are a bass sample junkie like me you will want all of these and the excellent Manybass too.

Thanks egbert! Mock is only 39 EUR (DI only). Sounds like a damn good price considering the features you mention.

[susiwong]

Just wanted to say that Black Bass really sounds phenomenal, and the scripting is perfect.
The demo is spot-on, wysiwyg in the real product.
From what I hear the disco and soul sounds were the inspiration for this library, they do certainly not define the only target audience.
This bass will do an absolutely fine job in many styles.
Keep in mind though a bass with flatwound strings doesn't deliver too many overtones, that's part of this special sound.
But Mr Scarbee doesn't seem to be adversed to do a picked rock bass with roundwounds and similar scripting, , probably depending on public interest.
So you know what you have to do...
Cheers,
susiwong

[kotori]

As you can see from the demo this is quite an impressive bass library. The auto-string selection is also a feature of Chocolate Audio's Mock Bass. This sort of thing is made possible by the excellent scripting in Kontakt 2.2.

Yes. There are are some differences though. With Mock Bass either the position on the neck or the string is controlled by manual means. Black Bass on the other hand is completely automatic and keeps track of the playing position for you. Furthermore, the automatic string selection of Black Bass takes the active articulation into account when evaluating what string is best for a certain note and it can identify and correctly assign strings to chord notes even when the chord is not played perfectly tight.

Btw. I'll take the opportunity to add that Scarbee has a new user forum now.

Nils
_________________
Script developer @ Scarbee