MODWHEEL releases The Lowdown V2 for Kontakt

MODWHEEL has announced the release of The Lowdown V2 for Kontakt.

Back in 2014 MODWHEEL released The Lowdown, their unique take on a double bass virtual instrument sample library for Kontakt.

"It was our first release and it's still our most popular, so a few months ago we decided it was time for a serious overhaul, " says MODWHEEL's Dave Donaldson, "After feedback from users and our own experiences of scoring with it we had a bunch of improvements we wanted to make."

New material was recorded, the user interface improved, info tabs, new patches and more functionality.

The Lowdown V2 is 84 patches of any way you can generate sound from a double bass. Arco, pizz, harmonics, percussion, rhythms, played with chopsticks, mallets and detuned.

The library is divided into 2 main folders: The Basics, where you find the more standard bass, pizz, arco and expressive playing, and The Extended Bass, which contains 4 sub folders - Ambiences - Impacts - Rhythmic - Shapednoise:

• Ambiences: The bass was detuned 8 semitones lower than standard tuning to give the broadest possible material. Then by continually retuning the bass, bowed harmonics for each note were also recorded. Up to minute long bowed performances of both the low notes and harmonics allow the user to create distinctive, organic, shifting pads. The harmonics are added using the mod wheel. Of course this was only the starting point for the 25 patches that make up the Ambient folder.
• Impacts and Single Hits: 11 patches that feature the bass being played with mallets, chopsticks, brushes and all over the body.
• Rhythmic: 24 patches of all sorts of tempo sync'd rhythmic playing. Bowed harmonic playing across the strings, brushed and hit percussive feels, mallet and chopstick feels as well as "drum" programming within Kontakt.
• Shapednoise: For their last few libraries MODWHEEL has been working with Australian tech whizz and master beta tester Kirke Godfrey (www.shapednoise.com). Along with daily Facetime sessions, Kirke, as well as giving invaluable advice, came up with 20 extra patches of sonic oddities created from the Lowdown raw materials.

Price: $79. The Lowdown V2 is a free upgrade for existing users. It requires a full version of Kontakt 5.5 or higher.