Trilogy

I recently bought Trilogy and am satisfied. I don't use synth basses all that much; I got Trilogy mainly for its electric and acoustic basses, and these are excellent. I haven't used Yellow Tools Majestic or EWQL Hardcore Bass or any other competing products, so I'm not sure how Trilogy compares to them. But the sound quality definitely blows away any other bass sounds I've used (with the possible exception of some of the basses that came with my copy of Kontakt).

Very usable basses that will add life and realism to your tracks. Admittedly, it is very hard to create a convincing bass line using conventional synth/ROMplers and sequencers. If you do a lot of tracking that includes upright basses, electric basses, etc., and you find that they end up sounding too MIDI-ish and unrealistic, adding Trilogy to your soundware arsenal will definitely help.

My only gripe is that most of them have very little velocity sensitivity, but this can be user-edited. This is a bit of a pain, having to do this for each patch you want to use.

Trilogy is a one stop bass shop with more bottom than Jennifer Lopez. The sound is professional and full while the selection is varied. This VSTi focuses on three types of bass sounds; electric bass guitar, acoustic bass guitar, and electronic bass synthesizer. A large number of patches are arranged first by these three areas, then broken down further to make it easy to track down just the right sound. The best electronic bass sounds are analog and Trilogy provides a nice array of samples and patches. But while the original instruments are professionally processed and sampled, the resulting patches within Trilogy are a bit static. You do have the ability to program filter and eg’s but you do not have the control of the original synthesizers. Nor do you have control of the wonderful analog filters that were originally samples. Tweaking patches feels about like running a Moog or Oberheim through a digital filter, so I just leave them alone. The acoustic and electric bass guitar patches are also nice, but it can be a bit of work to play fast paced 16th notes. Fast 16th notes can cause problem in some cases. There is a solution, but the solution is more a work around than a way to work. This is my one disappointment for the otherwise top level instrument.

This is the instrument I use for bass as I begin every song. In later stages I may switch to a synth with more control or a more extensive bass sample collection. Even then, it is nice and efficient to have a single bass instrument that I know well and frequently depend on for bottom end.

User Interface - Looks nice but too large.
Sound - Absolutely wonderful.
Features - Few but not really necessary.
Documentation - A pamphlet comes in the box.
Presets - Lots and lots.
Customer Support - Responsive.
Value For The Money - Good considering that this VSTi can be used in almost every song you produce.
Stability - Never crashes my system.

I would buy it again.

Everyone's always looking for a good 'bass' sound, and Trilogy delivers that and more in spades! From hard hitting techno basses, to a rich sounding acoustic upright bass, to getting down and nasty with a heavy metal groove with electric basses, the sound is there at your disposal. Here's a little secret that I'll share with you; this is one of the best sounding leads synths available out there. Simply turn off the low pass filters on the synthetic basses, and you'll have more often than not, a nice, ripping lead just waiting for some effects to be bathed in, and bouncing right to the front of your song. The variety is also astounding, and for those of you who think you'd never use the guitar and upright basses, don't be surprised to find yourself proving that fact wrong. I really have a hard time trying to say anything bad about this VSTi though, except maybe the price would turn a few of you off, weighting in around $329 at most places. While I usually have a difficult time finding a good bass, let alone LOTS of good basses, Trilogy is now my 'go to' synth when I need something that stands up in the crowd. This synth just stinks with quality, and I have found no better bass synth around.

I find this to be “almost” one of my most useful VSTi’s. I like the concept of having all types of bass sounds available in a single VSTi. It helps that the sound quality and production is so good. The major short fall for me is the lack of LFO to MIDI sync. The importance of this depends on the part I am playing, but in modern VSTi’s the lack of LFO sync is almost inexcusable.

In both Trilogy and Atmosphere it is easy to be overwhelmed by the number of sounds and patches. Learning this instrument takes time and everyone should make a list of favorite patches to use during the first few months.

So where does this VSTi fall when comparing it to other bass sound sources? Even though it is a bit expensive, it is a good value. For someone starting out, or someone wanting an all in one solution this is a great kit. It is not going to replace a collection of good VSTi’s and sample collections dedicated to bass. And many times it is easier to dial up a desired bass sound in The Beast or some other VSTi than find the patch I want in Trilogy. But it does give you a very good collection of samples that are already programmed and processed. Most VA’s cannot compete solically with a good sample of a Moog or Roland. For this reason, a good set of VSTi’s dedicated to bass will also not replace Trilogy.

Pros:
Sound quality.
Patch quality.
Sample quality, especially samples of analog instruments.
All in one unit for bass.

Cons:
No LFO sync to MIDI.
Challenge responce copy protection.

Robert

Trilogy is great but one warning. Some versions of the product shipped with funny pigment on the disks which can make installation difficult if not impossible on some systems. I only discovered this after wasting half a day failing to install Trilogy on my laptop. The distributor confirmed the problem and first suggested I copy the data disks onto new CDs. This didn't work either so I had to post the disks back to him for replacement. That was a week ago. I'm still waiting... it seems they're out of stock.
So if you're having installation problems talk to tech support straight away.