Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Review: Impact Soundworks Shreddage Bass - Picked Edition: DI Electric Bass


Product: Shreddage Bass - Picked Edition: DI Electric Bass
Format: Native Instruments Kontakt 4 or later as download
Demo: On the product page.
Price: $59

WHAT IS IT?
An electric bass sample library based around recordings of a Music Man Sterling electric bass run through a high end Avalon DI, sampled at 24bit/96k and downsampled to 24bit/44.1k. The instruments are sampled at multiple velocities (three, to be specific) and in round-robin (4x downstrokes and 4x upstrokes) to avoid static, synthetic sounding basslines.

INTERFACE
The latest sample library from Impact Soundworks consists of 4 expertly-mapped instruments for Native Instruments' Kontakt 4 or later sourced from the classic Music Man Sterling electric bass. The instruments are: Shreddage Picked Bass Combo, Shreddage Picked Bass Mute, Shreddage Picked Bass Open, and Shreddage Picked Bass Slides.

Additionally, the instruments feature a custom interface within Kontakt allowing you to alter Sub, Presence, and Edge. Effects such as Octaves, Amp, Compression, and Limiter are also available to help get you closer to the "ready for the mix" sound.

THE VERDICT
As with their previous libraries, Impact Soundworks has done a bang-up job with Shreddage Bass: Picked Edition. The recordings are pristine, the matching between samples is perfect, and, provided you take a realistic playing technique to mind, it sounds uncannily real in use. One of the things I find especially appealing about these samples is that the tone is a sort of perfect neutral starting point. Although it includes some rudimentary effects to sculpt the sound, the best results will come from applying your own effects chain and coloring it however you like. As it is, though, it's hard to think of a style these samples wouldn't work in. If you need a really specific tone right out of the box, this might not be the library for you, but if you're looking for a good, flexible library of electric bass sounds, this would be a great place to start! [10/10]

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