Realistic Bass Guitar Sound (Part 1)

The bass guitar sound is considered the foundation element in modern music. If we are talking about Rock, Jazz, Country, Metal, or any other genre, the bass guitar represents the backbone of the groove. Until recently, we were forced to record bass guitar and other live instruments. However, as time progressed, high-quality bass guitars as virtual instruments became a reality. The following tutorial will guide you through an excellent instrument called Scarbee MM-Bass by Native Instruments, which requires a Kontakt player developed by the same company. Since this instrument offers many options, I will divide this tutorial into two parts.  

Scarbee MM-Bass by Native Instruments

Scarbee MM-Bass was recorded with flat-wound strings to get that warm, creamy sound of 1970s disco and funk bass lines. The bass was recorded through a DI box to give maximum flexibility in the sound production. Furthermore, the full bass strings were sampled to reproduce the timbre changes that occur when you move between low and high frets - giving you a rich, natural sound with all the overtones. Scarbee MM-Bass is much more than just a collection of samples. It features extensive playing techniques, including sustains, mutes, harmonics, hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides, and more. Thanks to some sophisticated scripting, Scarbee MM-Bass comes vividly to life with features such as a dynamic fretboard display, chord recognition, random alternation between varying release samples, random insertion of pickup hits, and realistic vibrato - all to put the swagger into your groove.  

Let's Start!

After the initial introduction, let's move to the functions and practical examples of the Scarbee MM-Bass. As usual, I will make a new MIDI channel within Soundbridge and first place the Kontakt player on it; then, I will select Scarbee MM-Bass from my collection of banks in the Kontakt Player.  

 

The Interface

As we can see, the interface is made in the form of a bass guitar. Therefore, the strings, frets, neck, and other bass guitar parts can be seen. We can also see the piano roll in the lower part of the picture. I am showing you this because you must understand the instrument's full potential. As you can see, some keys are marked in red and others in blue. Red keys from the left are reserved for the key switches, which switch between different articulations. For example, if you want to switch between playing with the index to middle finger or playing in mute or sustain mode. This can be quickly done by pressing the keyboard's selected key. A helpful option is to enter the submenu by clicking on the "Perform" tab and going into the "Help" menu. This will show you the complete list of articulations and their placement on the different keys of the keyboard.  

The keys marked in blue represent the octaves over bass that can be played. On the other hand, the red keys on the far right part of the keyboard control the playing position key switches. Additionally, they control squeaks, slides, and other inharmonic sounds of the live bass guitar. This was the first part of the tutorial where I wanted to examine this fine instrument briefly. So, I will finish with some sound examples and save the in-depth explanation of more advanced options for the following tutorial.   

~Scarbee MM-Bass 1

~Scarbee MM-Bass 2