A comprehensive sampled solo double bass library for Kontakt, featuring three instruments, extensive articulations, and detailed control for realistic performances across genres.
Purpose and Instruments
This library provides a detailed and expressive virtual double bass, recorded dry and close-miked for flexibility in mixing. It includes three distinct bass instruments: a standard solo contrabass, a German bass, and an Italian bass, each available as a separate EX instrument.
Designed for composers and sound designers, it serves both solo and ensemble contexts, covering styles from classical and film scores to gypsy jazz, folk, and pop ballads. The dry recording environment allows the instrument to sit naturally in diverse mixes, with convolution reverbs for body and room to shape the space.
Key Capabilities
The library offers up to 38 articulations, including flautando, flageolets, and ponticello, plus special effect sounds for suspenseful textures. A Note Head Designer provides over one hundred attack shapes and twelve short note variations per sustain, ensuring authentic note attacks and endings.
True legato is recorded in four dynamic layers for both short and long notes, with an option to blend artificial legato transitions. All samples have been phase-aligned to deliver smooth crossfades across up to eight velocity layers, improving dynamic realism.
Workflow and Interface
The custom Kontakt Player interface includes scripting for live play, with pre-programmed key-switch presets at the lower keyboard range for quick articulation changes without deep editing. Several dynamic modes, key vibrato, and hot keys further enhance real-time control.
A modular approach allows loading a starter sustain patch and adding articulations as needed, reducing memory and load times for compact setups. The Ensemble Maker can turn the solo instrument into a layered ensemble, and included multis provide ready-made, detuned configurations.
Practical Applications
This library excels in realistic solo lines, from lyrical slow passages to agile short notes, making it suitable for film scoring and intimate pop ballads. Its extended articulations support contemporary classical techniques, and the effect sounds are useful for experimental and game soundscapes.
The ensemble capabilities allow quick mock-ups of string sections for orchestral sketches. The dry sound and internal DSP effects rack enable creative sound design, letting composers build dense atmospheres or unusual textures from a single bass.
Key features
- Three sampled basses: solo, German, and Italian
- Up to 38 articulations and eight velocity layers
- Phase-aligned samples for seamless dynamic transitions
- Note Head Designer with over one hundred attack shapes
- True legato in four dynamic layers
- Convolution reverbs for body and room
- Ensemble Maker for layered ensemble effects
Best for
Best for composers and sound designers needing a versatile, expressive double bass for realistic solo lines, film score mockups, and experimental soundscapes, with comprehensive articulations and deep workflow customization.