Muze has released Bass Guitar Free, a freely downloadable Kontakt instrument based on the full Bass Guitar sample library.
Bass Guitar Free bass guitar instrument for Native Instruments Kontakt. If features 3 GB of electric bass guitar multi-samples from the full edition of Bass Guitar ($99). The full version of Kontakt is required the included NKI presets. The included patches will only work for fifteen minutes in the freeware Kontakt Player plugin (read more about the Kontakt Player demo mode). However, the library does include the WAV samples, meaning that you can use these sounds in any other sampler plugin, as long as you manually create the mappings.
Although it’s clear that Bass Guitar Free is a lightweight version of the full library, there’s no detailed comparison between the two products. It seems that both libraries share the same Kontakt interface. However, the Free edition uses a smaller collection of multi-samples and provides fewer instrument presets. There are eight presets to choose from, as opposed to 42 presets in the full version.
Both libraries feature a custom UI with built-in effects, amp and cabinet simulation, and multiple bass guitar articulations like sustains, staccato, slides, harmonics, and more. According to the info on Muze’s website, the instruments feature up to ten round-robin variations and multiple dynamic layers per sampled note. The bass guitar was sampled using analog and digital equipment. The website doesn’t provide information about what particular bass guitar model was sampled for the library.
As is the case with the recently featured Bass Elements library from the same company, the instrument sounds good but the Kontakt interface isn’t perfect. Some of the effects don’t seem to be working properly and the layout isn’t very intuitive. That said, Bass Guitar Free is well worth the download if you’re looking for a free source of good quality bass guitar sounds.
Bass Guitar Free can be downloaded completely free of charge from the Muze website. You don’t need to sign up for a user account. The included NKI presets are only compatible with the full version of Native Instruments Kontakt. The samples are also provided in WAV format. If you’re looking for a pre-mapped bass instrument that doesn’t require Kontakt, check out Growlybass by Karoryfer Samples.
More info: Bass Guitar Free (2.68 GB download size, ZIP archive, contains 1,302 bass guitar samples in 24-bit WAV format, 8 presets in NKI format)
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3 Comments
HPN
onAre you sure it is free? It’s with a price tag of $19.99 here.
Thomste
onScroll down the page. There is a link to the free download.
Chris
onthank you, I would have missed that too :)