Guitar bass effects software

Although the program has aged quite a bit, the sounds have definitely stood the test of time and continue to shine. Plus, it will give you access to 84 different effects and 43 GB of high-quality samples to use in your mix. Thomas Hansen Skarbye is a sampling expert who has developed a large majority of the instrument packages available over Native Instruments.

It recreates all the sonic intricacies of the Jazz Bass in both slapped and fingered playing styles, delivering a huge variety of tones suitable for almost every genre.

All four strings of the original instrument have been sampled in nine different velocities, resulting in over 4, individual studio-grade samples. The sounds were recorded through a DI to retain the distinctive original character of the instrument, using round-wound strings for a bright and punchy sound. There are also profiles for various genres, including EQ and effects controls, which allow musicians and producers the ability to further customize the sound and behavior of Jay-Bass to fit the musical context.

Things like harmonics, hammer-ons, pull-offs, and fret noises are automatically triggered and add a distinctly human element to the playing. The Rickenbacker Bass is one of my favorites, and it sounds incredible. A Kontakt effects chain then adds a Jump amplifier from Guitar Rig, a tape saturator, EQ, and compressor for an unrivaled tone.

Just like Scarbee Bass above, the Ilya Efimov bass plugins require Kontakt in order to be used, although you will need the full version to support these bass sounds. The company was founded in by Ilya Efimov - a well known composer, songwriter, producer, and jazz pianist from Russia.

While he continues to work on major motion picture films, Ilya is currently focused on sample library creation. They recorded 12 dynamic layers for each fret on each string with various playing techniques and articulations. With fingered, slap, palm-mute and additional articulations, you can quickly edit your MIDI notes or play in real time while a sophisticated algorithm runs in the background to add in the subtle nuances in playing.

For the convenience of composer and arrangers, several Legato modes, Open String mode, Chord Detection mode and an X-note mode have been added. The bass sounds here are very natural. The only downside is the required purchase of the full Kontakt software which can be a little expensive, but if you already have it then the Ilya Efimov bass plugins are well worth a look. Articulations are numerous here and include things like sustain, palm mute, natural harmonics, hammer-ons, pull-offs, legato slides, pops, slaps, taps, dead notes, and many others.

The string roll editor shows all your fingering, articulation, expression, and playing noise. Here you can easily adjust things like velocity, vibrato, legato, and so on. One nifty feature is the random riff generator which will create a brand new lick for you based on analyzing different musical scores.

Using the tab player you can load in many formats of guitar and bass tabulature which will then be played back using your bass sound. It supports all the fingering, looping, chords, articulations and other markers in the loaded tablature. As you can see, each of these plugins brings their own special sauce to the table and they all have great sounds.

If you are looking for the newest, absolute best, most well-rounded bass guitar software with endless tweaking options, IK Multimedia MODO Bass is for you.

If you want a huge time-tested library filled to the bring with great electric, acoustic, and synth bass sounds, Trilian is worth a look. Take a listen through the bass sample sounds online and see if one speaks to you. Virtual instruments are software emulations of traditional instruments or hardware electronic musical instruments. There is a staggering range of virtual instruments available nowadays, covering multi-timbral rompler modules to dedicated emulations of guitars, basses, drums, keyboards, and more.

Many of which are pro worthy. The benefits of virtual instruments are fairly obvious. Signal routing is another Helix strength. It's so easy to experiment with complex signal paths that would be next to impossible to create in the 'physical' world. Talking of real stuff, the Helix is equipped with four effects loops, a mic in, MIDI, three expression pedal sockets and CV, making it's easy to utilise your legacy hardware.

In many ways it's as much a recording interface as it is an amp and effects modeller. It's even possible to individually route and play multiple instruments through the Helix at the same time, which may help you and your bandmates justify the cost.

If you're a multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter, so much the better! It's an undeniably amazing tool, but the first noise you'll hear when you clap your eyes on a Helix is a sharp intake of breath.

Yes, the price. Still, think about how much time you spend gigging or in the studio, then consider how much power and flexibility the Helix offers.

It's actually remarkably good value. Despite the slightly comical Flintstonesque name well, we found it funny the Chorusaurus is a seriously good bit of kit. Chorus adds a lush depth and fullness, an effect pioneered by Jaco Pastorius who used it to enrich his tone.

We found the Chorusaurus excels at doing just that — smoothing the rough edges from your playing and showering it with a sophisticated shimmer. To achieve this, Aguilar deliberately uses inefficient, some would say flawed, analog bucket brigade technology to provide the Chorusaurus' rich, warm, smooth chorusing effect. Operation is simple. The Blend knob controls the mix between the dry and wet signals.

Chorus works by mixing the dry signal with a duplicated variably delayed wet signal and the tempo of that modulation is controlled by the Rate knob. The Intensity knob controls the intensity of the modulation, so increasing it produces ever more dramatic effects. Finally, the Width control sets the range for the intensity to work within. Broadening the range enables a more intense effect.

For slow, melodic playing reduce the Rate control, and for faster staccato styles experiment by speeding it up. Vary the other controls until you find what you're looking for. It's not obvious, but stereo output is possible if you use a Y-Cable.

Aguilar specialises in making quality, dare we say expensive, bass amps and effects, so it's no surprise that this pedal's premium sounding tone comes with a premium price tag. Nevertheless, it's a lovely effect that's exemplified by this pedal. Investing in bass guitar effects pedals is fun, rewarding and possibly probably very addictive. But the pastime raises a number of questions. Er no, not really. If you've got yourself a shiny new bass guitar and amp then theoretically that's all you need, although a guitar tuner — pedal or clip-on — is a great idea.

But if you're reading this we can already tell that you're a connoisseur of the bass, a sophisticate who will stop at nothing to achieve the ultimate tone that resides in the lower registers. For this, we heartily recommend some pedals. Yes, maybe and no, is the correct but less than helpful answer.

Some guitar pedals work fine with bass guitars, and many other instruments for that matter. For example, Strymon's excellent time-based effects, such as its Timeline and BigSky boxes, are often found at the feet of bass players. However, some guitar distortion and modulation effects really aren't voiced correctly for low bass frequencies and are best avoided.

Often, if a brand has a particularly popular guitar pedal it will also develop a bass-voiced version, a good example of this is the Electro-Harmonix Bass Big Muff Pi. Some pedals, such as the Boss OC-5 Octave, have a switch you can throw that adjusts the voicing for guitar or bass.

If you're just starting out and want to build up a pedalboard of useful effects then we suggest you consider these pedals first. Some have the potential to change your sound considerably, while others are more subtle. All will enhance your sound and your enjoyment of your instrument. A compressor achieves a number of benefits for the bass guitarist. Few of us are skilful enough to play evenly all of the time, so it's common for the odd note to be slightly louder or softer than it should be.

If you play slap bass, it's also quite likely that your hammer-ons will be louder than your pops. Simplistically, a compressor makes the louder notes softer and the softer notes louder, making your playing sound smoother. This may seem desirable, and most of the time it is, but skilful bassists will have mastered dynamics — the art of playing more loudly or softly to add emotion and character to a piece. Therefore, it's essential that a compressor is sensitive enough to even out your playing without ruining these dynamics.

Way back when, we lived in a pure, clean world. Then, in the s, teenagers appeared and everything became dirtier. Much dirtier, in some cases! It's a funny old world. If you'd turned a tube amp up to 11 in an irate engineer would have slapped you on the wrist and told you to turn it down until you'd found a clean tone again.

Nothing else would do. By the s any engineer worth their salt would be egging you on to turn it back up to 11 again. It's a happy accident that those old tube amps would distort, it's also fortuitous that the distortion sounds rich and musical.

The issue is that an amp turned up to 11 is very, very loud, so effects pedals were developed to provide distortion at lower volumes. Distortion falls into two camps: overdrive and fuzz. Overdrive can be more subtle, ranging from a slightly broken-up clean tone to all-out filth. It sounds rich and saturated.

Fuzz, on the other hand, sounds like a big hairball of, well, fuzz. It's not a particularly subtle effect but it has plenty of character. Some effects pedals do fuzz, others do overdrive, and some do both. Overdrive and fuzz can add sustain. This effect is compulsory if you play any style of funk. What does it do? An envelope filter adds or removes specific frequencies over time. None the wiser?

Still in the dark? Ok, it sounds like a quacking duck drenched in syrupy goo. You'll recognise it when you hear it. Bass chorus was pioneered by Jaco Pastorius, who used it extensively when playing fretless.

The effect relies on the dry signal being duplicated and variably delayed to alter the pitch subtly or not so subtly. The wet signal is then mixed back with the dry to give a 'chorus' effect — like multiple instruments playing different intervals. In fact, chorus is typically used to add a beautifully sophisticated shimmer to your sound, as opposed to emulating a church choir.

It's another effect that can smooth and thicken your tone. This effect was made famous in the early 80s by Boss' iconic OC-2 pedal. As the name suggests an octave pedal will take your dry signal and pitch it up or down an octave or two. It may sound like a novelty pedal but in the right hands its far from it. When your dry signal is carefully blended with the wet pitch-shifted signal you end up with an incredibly full, thick tone that sounds more natural than you'd think.

Very addictive. This is not really an effect, but some players will judge it as essential. However, they really come into their own as a replacement for a bass amp. A preamp, surprise, surprise, replicates the role of an amp's preamp section, which means you can use it to boost your signal before plugging direct into a PA or desk.

It's increasingly common to see gigging bassists touring with a small pedal-sized pre-amp rather than lugging a full-sized head and cab around. A looper is a fantastic creative tool, something like a Boss Loop Station or TC Electronic Ditto will add a lot of versatility to your pedalboard. Time-based effects are very cool too, and not just for guitarists and keyboard players. Obviously, a tuner should be towards the top of your list, and a noise gate is essential for high-gain rigs.

The alternative to buying lots of different pedals is to bite the bullet and hand over a large chunk of change for an all-in-one solution, such as the Line 6 Helix. These integrated pedalboards sound incredible and have more modelled amps, effects and routings than you're ever likely to use. Which is the rub. If you're a session musician who needs access to hundreds of different tones, or just an amateur who loves experimenting, then they offer astonishing value.

If, however, you know what you like and that just happens to be the sound of a chorus pedal and little else then your money is better spent elsewhere. As ever, it's horses for courses.

Many but not all effects pedals can be powered by batteries, but once you've got more than a couple littering your pedalboard this route to juice becomes a real faff. You're much better off investing in a dedicated pedalboard power supply. It can record, too, so it's a really easy, simple solution.

Of course, you'll need a real DAW to mix and master. Hi, If you are looking for guitar softwares and interfaces to use the softwares.

Please search Tone Shifter. Now it is on its third generation Tone Shifter 3. We are just launching a Kickstarter project online. We build this just to MAX the benifits of using software effects. We are proud of that it is now maybe the best thing you can find to use on stage with software FX.

The special designed analog signal chain mixing with the digital codec give the best dynamic response and sound quality. We did AB with lots of other interface and be so confident on its performance. Lots of users for fractal AXE FX2, kemper profiling Amp, G-major, and other ranks are just so happy with this device that are much more portable, light comparing to those original controller.

The MIDI control is no latency at all. I'm actually the designer of this devices and I myself had bought all the software in Apple. I'm really a big fan of JamUp, Bias, and Ampkit.

But the Amps in Bias is a litte more juicy than in JamUp. A good way is using Bias amps in JamUp which just make a good combination of the two software. They can be used in that way :. Ampkit is good and it takes less CPU resourse I think. And it sounds not bad and with lots of peavey's characteristic. Also it has ReAmp function which you can record the dry signal and redo the whole effects chain later.

It is really cool for recording. I should say each software has its own pros or cons but that is just the same thing of using hardwares.

But you can have hundreds of effects and amps with only tens of buck which is something can't be imagined with hardwares. I feel it is so worthy to have the softwares. So something like Tone Shifter just give a full expansion of your software usage. I'm really using it all the time now. I just can't remember the last time I turning on the tube amps and hardware effects board :.

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Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes. Great article!