Speaking as a longtime keyboardist and sound designer/programmer, I'll say this...MODO Bass is hands down the best virtual electric bass instrument I have ever come across. Period. I wouldn't judge by the audio/video demos, download and try the free time-limited demo for yourself. It really doesn't require mad skills to get a good bass track with this, really. Well, other than you should be a good keyboard player and understand what bassists can and can't do. Familiarize yourself with basic bass patterns, know which strings to play, where to fret, etc.stubbsonic wrote:Not a huge fan of IK. My experience with IK is limited to iOS where it has been consistently annoying and disappointing.
I'm fortunate to have a bass I like and really enjoy playing, so I don't feel all that drawn to want to deal with this in any way. The demos sound pretty clunky to me, but I don't doubt a person could get usable results with more careful sequencing.
The difference with this instrument is it is not samples. It is modeled. No doubt many people will stay say "modeled, huh? Those are the best modeled samples I've heard". But its true...no recorded samples. So you're not restricted to a limited set of recordings of a bass. Here's a good example of how MODO Bass shines against sampled bass VI's - the slides. To get a slide, you play and hold the start note, and while holding it, play the target note. The harder you play, the faster the slide. And it really sounds like you are sliding over the frets. Sampled slide effects are always at some fixed tempo which may not be the tempo of your song, or the wrong start note or end note.
Another example - MODO Bass "knows" you can't play two notes simultaneously on the same string. So it chooses the second note based on proximity to where you are on the fretboard. Just as a bass player would. If you try to play an interval that is impossible to play on a real bass, the interval will not sound. You can choose the age of your strings (old or new), how close the strings are to the fretboard, playing style (finger, picked, slapped). When you hit a note hard you hear the strings rattle sypathetically just like on an actual bass. This is all genius stuff.
For me this is a game-changer and a must have. I'm so glad I trusted that iK would come up with a great product and bought it on pre-order. If your experience with them is limited to iOS products I would not use that as a benchmark against which you judge their other products. Download this and check it out.
