Scarbee releases Black Bass Amped 1-4 for Kontakt 2

Scarbee has released Black Bass Amped 1, 2, 3 and 4 - four reamped editions of the Black Bass sample library for Native Instruments' Kontakt 2.2.

Each of these products has its own distinct sound and is designed to fit certain musical styles. The amped editions provide an easy way to get the sound you want out-of-the-box without the need for expensive amp simulators or tweaking amp settings. Other than the looks and the sound the amped versions work just like the original Black Bass D.I. library - they use the same sophisticated script and programming.

Black Bass Amped 1-4 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 highly playable instrument for musicians, composers, and producers looking for a unique bass sound.

• Scarbee Black Bass – Amped 1: For rock and pop oriented music productions. The amp and cabinet used for Amped 1 is a classic setup giving you a powerful and tight bass sound.
• Scarbee Black Bass – Amped 2: For heavy rock oriented music productions. The amp and cabinet used for Amped 2 is a classic setup giving you a powerful and hard bass sound.
• Scarbee Black Bass – Amped 3: For rock oriented music productions. The amp and cabinet used for Amped 3 is a classic setup giving you a powerful and mildly distorted bass sound.
• Scarbee Black Bass – Amped 4: For R&B and pop oriented music productions. The amp used for Amped 4 gives you a fat and crispy bass sound.

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 4 000 samples.

Scarbee Black Bass Amped 1, 2, 3 and 4 for Kontakt 2.2 are priced at $99.00 each. Crossgrades from one Black Bass edition to another will be available in their online shop for $69.00. Scarbee products can be ordered on both DVD/CD media and as direct-downloads from the online shop.