Scarbee has announced Blue Bass, a sample library made for Kontakt 2 & 3.

Blue Bass is really fun to play in real life – it has expression like no other bass I own, going from mellow, deep groove to agressive growling and barking. The bass sound recorded is probably the most used on albums world wide, suitable for any musical style from country, rock, pop, latin, jazz, reggea to funk, says bass player and producer Thomas Hansen Skarbye.

Scarbee Blue Bass

Scarbee Blue Bass

Blue Bass was designed to be very easy to play live. Almost all articulations can be triggered without any keyswitches. Eg. legato playing triggers hammer-on and pull-off, legato playing with sustain pedal pressed triggers slides, fast legato playing triggers grace notes.

Blue Bass features

  • All four strings sampled, more than 4 000 samples and up to 9 velocity layers to capture the full timbre of the bass.
  • Real-time playable – with the exception of cross hammering and trills all of the articulations in the list given further below can be triggered without the need for any keyswitches.
  • A powerful user interface pushing the Kontakt user interface to its limits: a fretboard display gives an overview of the playing position and for each string what fret and articulation (displayed as a unique symbol) that are used – dynamically updated as you play.
  • Each string is monophonic so new notes abort earlier notes, giving a perfectly realistic bass.
  • Automatic string selection – play and the script selects the most suitable string for you.
  • Automatic alternation of right hand index and middle finger samples (can also be controlled using keyswitches).
  • Convenient keyswitch mode – a keyswitch affects the following note or remains active as long as it’s pressed – making it easy to quickly return to the default mode of operation.
  • Slide mode – play a note legato while holding the sustain pedal pressed to trigger a slide.
  • Chord mode – makes it possible for notes to be automatically assigned to the right strings even if the notes of a chord don’t arrive exactly at the same time.
  • Control over release samples – random alternation between more or less tight (how quickly they are dampened) release samples where the proportion of each can be controlled by the user.
  • The sound of Mr. Scarbee’s own fingers.
  • Bass recorded DI to give you maximum flexibility in the sound production.
  • EQ and Effect Presets – direct in the instrument user interface.
  • Integrated documentation for all settings – direct in the instrument user interface.

Scarbee Blue Bass will be shipping spring of 2008, and will cost $99 USD. An expansion set, Blue Bass – Slap EXP (thumb and plucked style) is scheduled for release in 2008.

Visit Scarbee for more information.