For example, most offer a variety of performance articulations that make it possible for you to create basslines that sound like they’ve been played by an actual human being. Again, you might very well already own a sampler with patches that cover these, but a focused bass instrument has the potential to offer a greater level of realism. 'There are a lot of excellent ‘all-rounder’ synths out there that are ideally suited to producing bludgeoning bass tones - but sometimes it’s useful to be able to call on a dedicated tool for the job.'Īnd then there are electric and acoustic basses - ‘real instruments’, in other words. Not only can this deliver a slightly different kind of sound, but it might also offer some bass-specific features that will give you a more enjoyable editing and mixing experience. “I’ve got plenty that ‘do bass’ perfectly well already.” That may indeed be true - there are a lot of excellent ‘all-rounder’ synths out there that are ideally suited to producing bludgeoning bass tones - but sometimes it’s useful to be able to call on a dedicated tool for the job. “But why do I need a dedicated bass plugin at all?”, we hear you ask.

However, there’s more than one way to skin a low-frequency cat and, accordingly, developers have taken different approaches to creating bass instruments, resulting in a surprisingly varied market.

There’s barely an instrument on the planet that hasn’t been emulated in software by now, so it should come as no great surprise to learn that bass-specific VST and AU plugins are plentiful.

Trilian bass metal