Scarbee has announced Blue Bass, a sample library made for Native Instruments' Kontakt (2 and 3). Scarbee Blue Bass has been built to take advantage of the advanced scripting technology originally developed for the Black Bass.
"Blue Bass is really fun to play in real life - it has expression like no other bass I own, going from mellow, deep groove to aggressive growling and barking. The bass sound recorded is probably the most used on albums world wide, suitable for any musical style from country, rock, pop, latin, jazz, reggae to funk," says bass player and producer Thomas Hansen Skarbye.
Blue Bass was designed to be very easy to play live. Almost all articulations can be triggered without any keyswitches. e.g. legato playing triggers hammer-on and pull-off, legato playing with sustain pedal pressed triggers slides, fast legato playing triggers grace notes.
Features:
- All four strings sampled, more than 4 000 samples and up to 9 velocity layers to capture the full timbre of the bass.
- 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.
- 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. Slides use real interval transitions sampled in three different speeds for realism. 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.
- 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 – various speeds
- trills & trill-tails
- buzz-trills
- cross hammering
- chords
- chord slides
- percussive slides
- index and middle finger alternation
- two different sets of release samples: loose and tight.
- pickup-hit noises
- fret noises
This initial release features fingered playing style and contains more than 4 000 samples. Expansion sets for Blue Bass are scheduled for release in 2008: Blue Bass - Slap EXP - thumb and plucked style.
Scarbee Blue Bass Sample Library for Kontakt 2 and Kontakt 3 will be priced $99 and will be shipping spring of 2008.
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