Virtual bass guitar plugins can be invaluable tools for producers who don’t play bass. These VSTs can bolster an existing bassline recorded using real bass instruments, or be used to craft something completely original from scratch.
Ample Sound’s P Bass VST bass guitar offers 443 samples, sustain, hammer-on/pull-off effects and accent articulations – everything needed for great bass guitar music!
Ample Bass P Lite II
Ample Bass P Lite II is a virtual bass guitar plugin offering an extensive array of performance controls and articulations techniques to achieve realistic and expressive bass sounds. Based on the Fender Precision Bass model, Ample Bass P Lite II includes various tunings and playing techniques so as to suit an array of musical styles; compatible with all major DAWs as well as being DAW independent.
This guitar features multiple string types and two pickup configurations to suit your preferences, along with adjustable EQ/compression settings as well as a built-in tuner to help keep it in tune. Furthermore, multiple outputs and MIDI input make this instrument easily usable in the studio environment.
This free guitar VST is perfect for creating ambient or lo-fi music, featuring performance controls such as sustain, hammer on/pull off, accents and fingering noise. Furthermore, its rich fingering noise provides added realism and authenticity to your soundscape.
This bass guitar VST’s interface is straightforward and user-friendly, making it suitable even for novice users. Customizable presets can be created, while its tab player allows for loading chords, articulations or notes in popular guitar and bass tablature file formats. Furthermore, other useful features are provided including manual vibrato wheel specifically tailored for string instruments as well as transpose without changing midi notes.
This free bass guitar plugin works seamlessly in any DAW. Featuring performance controls, an amp simulator, and an inbuilt tuner, this plugin supports all major DAWs on both Windows and Mac and is easy to use – perfect for beginners as well as pros alike!
This free guitar plugin is an ideal choice for film scores or any music requiring an organic sound, such as rock music. With five velocity layers per note for more realistic dynamic range and multiple articulations options to suit different genres (pop to rock), you’re sure to create songs you love using it!
EZbass
Toontrack’s developers behind its award-winning virtual instruments EZdrummer (10/10, 205) and EZkeys (9/10, 9) have extended their expertise into bass guitar with EZbass. Packed full of content and essential features that enable musicians to quickly create lifelike basslines in songs, this virtual instrument makes bass playing accessible and enjoyable.
At the core of EZbass are two multisampled electric bass guitars: a “Vintage” Fender Jazz and “Modern” Alembic that together offer 2GB in samples. These samples are used to craft carefully-curated presets for amp and cab simulation as well as effects rack simulation. Furthermore, you can even record your own bass line using MIDI keyboard.
EZbass provides access to an expansive library of bass grooves, organized both genre-wise and by feel/tempo/signature. Furthermore, Song Tracks are also provided within Grooves window so you can create full chord sequences for specific sections of song structures.
Toontrack’s outstanding quality in sampling can be seen throughout EZbass, offering an impressive level of detail in both tone and playing articulations. There are numerous settings to help fine-tune bass tone such as pickups, amp colouration and playing styles (fingered, picked and slapped). A Grid Editor gives you more control over individual notes in each MIDI block by altering their timing or velocity parameters and more.
Other key features of EZbass include its ability to convert drum and keyboard MIDI into basslines, and automatically create matching basslines for audio tracks featuring guitar or piano performances. This can quickly fill gaps in song arrangements while the Tap2Find mode will quickly find one matching your chord progression based on one or more tempo-independent rhythmic parameters.
EZbass is an exceptional bass amp that showcases the flair and energy of an accomplished bassist and will have you adding basslines effortlessly in no time at all. Like all Toontrack products, its modest price point of PS129/EUR155 more than justifies itself!
FunkBass
Bass guitars are integral components of funk music, yet can be difficult to learn how to play effectively. Newcomers to the genre may find the genre intimidating at first, but there are resources available that can assist them. One such resource is the Bass for Beginners course from TrueFire from Stu Hamm, which covers everything you need to know about playing funk bass, along with practice tracks and an interactive video lesson to improve your skills.
Funk music stands apart from its peers by using modes rather than key signatures to determine its tunes, employing different scales from most styles, requiring knowledge of mode shifts and arpeggios for proper execution. This form of playing funk bass is known as “modal funk”, or sometimes more accurately described as “modal jazz”, with chords used usually reflecting Dorian or Mixolydian modes; melodic content often stemming from this scale as well.
Funk bass music is heavily influenced by slap techniques, with many renowned players becoming masters at this style of bass playing. While mastering slap can be challenging and takes practice and perseverance to master successfully; for those looking to start learning this style it may help listening to recordings by the pioneers of this genre; this will give an idea of what the bass should sound like as well as their playing style that you can replicate later.
Besides providing an impressive bass sound, this VST plugin features an unparalleled effects chain to enable you to customize its tone exactly to your taste. It boasts multiple articulations options such as open-picked and palm muted playing styles; multiple pickup configurations; as well as supporting classic Rickenbacker 4003 models which produce distinctively rock-oriented sounds.
FunkBass was specifically created for users who prioritize an intuitive user interface over intricate bass plugins, making it an excellent choice for creating any type of funk track. Furthermore, its latest update adds synth basses sampled from analog gear – further expanding its utility and usability.
OM Bass 2
Resizeable user interface features five main sections: Model, Play Style, Strings/Electronics Mics and Studio. Top buttons provide access to windows that enable adjusting articulations and parameters such as picking or finger playing style; picking up or down strings; choosing 4 or 5 strings as actual ones to play on; as well as picking technique which includes picking harder for more aggressive attacks while playing lighter for natural sounds; string types (round or flat wound) with unique construction affecting their timbre and sustain.
Modo Bass 2 is an advanced physically modeled virtual instrument for bass tracks that offers unprecedented realism and credibility. Available as standalone plugin or embedded within the free Modo player which supports VST, AU, RTAS and AAX formats.
The plugin comes equipped with preset EQ, delay and reverb settings that provide you with precise control of tone shaping. Furthermore, a “Tone” knob offers added control to tailor a fuller sound with present mids or one with aggressive highs; you can even alter string damping amount, an essential aspect of bass guitar technique.
Modo Bass provides another impressive feature with the ability to add slides, bends and vibrato effects – something which is difficult to master on fretless basses – but with real-time control actions it becomes much simpler to achieve the results desired.
Contrary to many of the other bass guitar VSTs, this software instrument offers 22 bass instrument models instead of simply providing sample libraries of sample basses. These 22 models include two fretless basses and three upright acoustic bass guitars designed using various elements from ESP’s most sought-after guitars as well as experimental wood processing techniques and special paint finishing methods – not forgetting unique articulations such as poly legato, auto buzz system hammer-on/pull off accent. Furthermore, its user interface makes selecting what sounds you need simple.