Best Bass VST

Three ways a bass VST makes its sound

A sampled bass plays back recordings of a real instrument, note by note and often in several playing styles. Trilian, Scarbee Rickenbacker Bass and Session Bassist Upright Bass work this way. A physically modeled bass such as MODO BASS 2 calculates the strings, the pickups and the player’s hands as each note sounds. A synth bass is built from oscillators, filters and envelopes, which is how Serum 2, Diva, Repro, Mini V, Vital and Studio 56 make theirs.

None of the three wins in general. A recorded or modeled bass guitar sounds like a person playing one, with finger noise, slides and the way a string thickens when it is struck hard. A synth bass can be cleaner, deeper or stranger than any string. The guide to choosing goes through what each kind of song asks for.

Which bass fits which style of track

Start from the records your track will sit beside. If a bass player is on those records, you want a sampled or modeled bass. If their low end came from a synth or a drum machine, you want a synth.

• Rock, punk and indie: a picked electric bass with some amp grit, such as Scarbee Rickenbacker Bass.
• Funk, soul and band-style pop: a fingered electric bass whose playing style you can change, such as Trilian or MODO BASS 2.
• Jazz, blues and folk: an upright bass, such as Session Bassist Upright Bass or the upright models in Trilian and MODO BASS 2.
• House, techno and synth-pop: a short mono analog-style bass from a synth such as Repro or Mini V.
• Drum and bass, dubstep and other bass music: a wavetable synth that can growl and move, such as Serum 2 or Vital.
• Trap, drill and most hip-hop: an 808, which has a site of its own at Best 808 Plugin.

Audition a bass with the kick playing

A bass that sounds enormous on its own often clouds the mix as soon as the drums come in. Loop your own kick, write four bars of bass in the key of the song and step through presets at about the same loudness. Then turn the volume right down and listen on laptop speakers, where a bass either keeps its shape or vanishes. Making a bass sit with the kick covers what to change when the two fight.

Start with the right question

• How to choose a bass VST

  Sampled, modeled or synthesized bass by style of track, the features that matter for bass and how to try one before paying.

• Building a synth bass to your description with Studio 56

  Describe the synth bass a track needs and Studio 56 builds it as an instrument you can play and keep reshaping.

• Bass VSTs compared

  Studio 56 and nine ready-made bass instruments, from sampled and modeled bass guitars to analog and wavetable synths, with price and systems from each maker’s page.

Resource directory

• Studio 56

  Describe the synth bass a track needs and Studio 56 builds it as an instrument you can play and keep reshaping. Studio 56 publishes this site, so this is our editorial choice, not an independent review.

  Free trial, then Pro · Mac, Windows

• Spectrasonics Trilian

  Spectrasonics calls it the most versatile bass virtual instrument available, with over sixty electric basses in several playing techniques plus acoustic and synth basses on a 34 GB core library.

  Paid, no demo · Mac, Windows

• IK Multimedia MODO BASS 2

  IK Multimedia models 22 electric, fretless and upright basses with real-time modal synthesis, along with 32 pickup models, seven stomp effects and two amps from AmpliTube.

  $199.99, free CS version · Mac, Windows

• Native Instruments Scarbee Rickenbacker Bass

  Native Instruments sampled a Rickenbacker 4003 played with a pick, both open and palm-muted, and added an amp from Guitar Rig. It runs in the free Kontakt Player.

  $99 · Mac, Windows, in Kontakt Player

• Native Instruments Session Bassist Upright Bass

  A 1970s upright from Mittenwald sampled open, muted, bowed and as harmonics, with slides, more than 220 patterns and a separate instrument for playing your own melodies.

  $99 · Mac, Windows, in Kontakt Player

• Xfer Serum 2

  Xfer’s successor to Serum adds multisample, sample, granular and spectral oscillators to its wavetables. Owners of the first Serum upgrade at no cost.

  $249, 15-minute demo · Mac, Windows

• u-he Diva

  u-he gives Diva five oscillator models and five filter models with mono, duophonic and legato modes, and warns that its sound costs a lot of processor power.

  €179, demo available · Mac, Windows, Linux (beta)

• u-he Repro

  u-he models two famous synths at component level: the monophonic Repro-1, which it calls perhaps the most powerful-sounding mono keyboard ever built, and the 8-voice Repro-5.

  €149, demo available · Mac, Windows, Linux (beta)

• Arturia Mini V

  Arturia presents its Minimoog emulation as a potent lead and bass synth, with three oscillators, the ladder filter and a Filter Bass Compensation control that holds the lows as resonance rises.

  €149, free demo · Mac, Windows

• Vital

  Vital Audio’s spectral warping wavetable synth comes whole in the free Basic pack with 75 presets and 25 wavetables, and it can convert your own samples into wavetables.

  Free Basic pack, paid packs · Mac, Windows, Linux

Compare them side by side in the directory

Practical guides

• How to choose a bass VST: Sampled, modeled or synthesized bass by style of track, the features that matter for bass and how to try one before paying.
• Making a bass sit with the kick: Tuning, register, sidechain ducking and a mono low end, so the kick and the bass stop fighting over the same space.
• Mono, glide and legato for bass lines: What mono, legato and glide do on a synth bass, how to write slides into a part and where to start with glide time.
• Writing a believable electric or upright bass part: How to play a sampled or modeled bass guitar from a keyboard so the part sounds like a bass player rather than a synth.

Questions and answers

Sources for this page

• Studio 56: Studio 56’s official website, the publisher of this reference.
• Spectrasonics Trilian: Spectrasonics Trilian’s official page, the source of its description here.
• IK Multimedia MODO BASS 2: IK Multimedia MODO BASS 2’s official page, the source of its description here.
• Native Instruments Scarbee Rickenbacker Bass: Native Instruments Scarbee Rickenbacker Bass’s official page, the source of its description here.
• Native Instruments Session Bassist Upright Bass: Native Instruments Session Bassist Upright Bass’s official page, the source of its description here.
• Xfer Serum 2: Xfer Serum 2’s official page, the source of its description here.
• u-he Diva: u-he Diva’s official page, the source of its description here.
• u-he Repro: u-he Repro’s official page, the source of its description here.
• Arturia Mini V: Arturia Mini V’s official page, the source of its description here.
• Vital: Vital’s official page, the source of its description here.

The practical advice here is our own. A maker's description of its product is not a test of how it performs.

Keep reading

• How to choose a bass VST
• Making a bass sit with the kick
• Mono, glide and legato for bass lines
• Writing a believable electric or upright bass part
• Building a synth bass to your description with Studio 56
• Bass VSTs compared
• How the Studio 56 references connect

How the related websites connect

Best Bass VST is one of a coordinated collection of references published by Studio 56. Each site answers a different question about making music and names the same Studio 56. They are not independent endorsements.

See every Studio 56 reference · Studio 56’s official website

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