Singer/songwriters, bedroom producers, and other home-recording artists often find themselves becoming musical jacks of all trades, playing a little bit of everything to bring their vision to reality. But let’s face it, there’s only so much time in the day, and we can’t master every instrument. Thankfully, sophisticated sampling technology, such as used in Toontrack’s EZ line of virtual instruments (VI), is helping to fill the gaps in our repertoires. And Toontrack’s latest offering, EZbass, gives us serial tinkerers a way to lay down some seriously sick grooves without ever having to pick up a physical bass. Sweetwater was given a chance to peek under the hood of this groundbreaking bass VI, and we’re happy to report it’s as meticulously crafted and incredible sounding as one would expect from the folks at Toontrack. So, let’s check it out!
Lay Down a Funky Groove in a Flash
Even if you’ve never held a bass in your life, building a killer groove couldn’t be easier with EZbass. Like Toontrack’s other EZ instruments, EZbass is incredibly intuitive and can help you conjure up stellar parts in no time. EZbass features several ways to jump-start your creativity, including an “Add Groove” button for laying down a basic eighth-note rhythm following your chord progression and a “Tap2Find” function that matches groove variations from EZbass’s MIDI library to a manually tapped rhythm. EZbass can also generate bass lines from drum or keyboard MIDI parts, and it can even convert pre-recorded guitar, bass, or percussion tracks to MIDI and create a bass line to suit.
Modern and Vintage Bass Tones for Every Genre and Style
For maximum flexibility, EZbass features two distinctive bass types: modern and vintage. The modern bass was sampled from a high-end, American-made instrument that is a favorite of professional players. Ideal for pop, modern rock, and metal, the modern bass has an extended frequency range from deep, booming lows to bright, articulate highs emanating from its dual noiseless single-coil pickup configuration. And it makes the most out of EZbass’s dynamic and expressive programming options. For songs that require an old-school flavor, the vintage bass sound library is full of harmonically rich and inherently mellow tones sampled from an exquisite J Bass — a staple instrument for session musicians. So, no matter what kind of sound you’re chasing, EZbass has your tone.
Customize Your Tone and Add Articulations for a Human Feel
EZbass’s smart bass line construction and staggering preset library is a great way to come up with parts quickly. Where things really get interesting is when you start refining your bass lines with EZbass’s deep set of customization controls. Not only can you dial up just the right tone by blending pickups and applying EQ and compression, but you can also pepper your track with numerous articulations, including slaps, pops, ghost notes, percussive smacks, and harmonics — you can even choose to play a note using an index finger, middle finger, or alternate fingers. Once you’ve got your bass line down, you can shape the sound even further with EZbass’s fantastic amp, cab, and effects simulations and layer in bone-rattling synthesized sub-bass.
Conclusion
Toontrack has changed the game with EZbass, serving up a stunningly realistic bass VI that’s in a class of its own. And it’s great for users at every level, whether they want to keep it simple with EZbass’s smart features and presets or dig deep into the customization features to cook up some ultra-complex grooves. EZbass is like having a session bass player with feel for days at your beck and call! If you have any questions about EZbass, give your Sales Engineer a call at (800) 222-4700 — they’ll be happy to help!
