Programming Bass

[HostileEx]

I program my bass in FL Studio 10. I've used various different plugins for my bass sound that FL Studio has to offer. I split the bass into two, bass and crunch. The bass sounds great and I have no problem with it. The crunch, on the other hand, sounds okay during slower riffs, but horrible during fast paced chugging, or open-noted rhythmic patterns. I can get it to sound a lot better after I spend time humanizing it, but it still does not sound as good as I'd like.

So to my actual question, what suggestions, hints, or tips do you have when programming bass and what plugins or instrument vsts do you use? I would ideally like to purchase Trilian; however, it is out of my means at this time. Are there any cheap or maybe even free alternatives that work better than what FL Studio has to offer?

I have searched around using sneap search and have really progressed, but I'm starting to run across the same threads and still don't feel fully satisfied. :Smug:

Maybe I should learn to play bass. haha.

 

[Tommy Evans]

Zombass is only $20 and it sound awesome!

 

[006]

ZomBass is a Kontakt instrument, though, so you'll need that to use it in FL. Also, it runs in demo mode with the free Kontakt 5 Player and you'll have to restart the DAW after like 10-15 mins of using it because it will stop letting you use the instrument at that point, just FYI. There are workarounds for that, though.

Your best options are get a real bass and just play it, or get Trillian. Zombass is awesome, but there aren't any articulations (slide, hammer-on, etc.) nor are there different velocities at your disposal. It's very basic but if that's all you want then it's great.

 

[Ascendant]

Trilian is great if you work with a lot of different musical styles, if all you do is metal you'll be disappointed since there are like 2-3 decent models for metal in it, not really worth it imo. You'd be better off just buying a real bass guitar for the same price.

If you want something cheap you should check out ZomBass, it's made by a dude on this forum and while I haven't tried it myself the clips sound just as good as Trilian. Pros: sounds awesome for rock and metal, cheap. Cons: little versatility.

 

[HostileEx]

Thanks so much for the information! This community never fails. I'll go with zombass for now and get trilian when I can.

 

[oroinvictus]

+1 to Zombass and Trilian. Orange Tree Samples also makes a sampled bass for kontakt that's very similar to Trilian.

 

[JeffEstrada]

006 what DAW are you in? I don't have to restart reaper, I just have to remove kontakt from my plugin chain and re open it

 

[plague_rider]

Heresy!!!!

Buy a Bass!!

 

[006]

006 what DAW are you in? I don't have to restart reaper, I just have to remove kontakt from my plugin chain and re open it

Hmm I tried that before but it wouldn't pass sound through the ZomBass patch.

EDIT: It works now... strange.

 

[nezvers]

You can check pettinhouse Directbass 2.0 it got free version too (kontakt instrument). It sound better than you can make in with stuff from FL Studio.
Totally check out.

EDIT: I suppose you have guitar than you could also try downpitch by octave (REAPER ReaPitch work as miracle at it) don't know how good pitcher is in cubase but REAPER blown my mind.