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1. SCARBEE q we i al I J Y z i p a i l i i e i esi E Zz B i i I gt lt x nm os Lu N D The information in this document is subject to change vvithout notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of Native Instruments GmbH The software described by this document is subject to a License Agreement and may not be copied to other media No part of this publication may be copied reproduced or otherwise transmitted or recorded for any purpose without prior written permission by Native Instruments GmbH hereinafter referred to as Native Instruments All product and company names are or trademarks of their respective owners Manual written by Nils Liberg edited by Patryk Korman Document Version 1 0 08 2009 Product Version 1 0 08 2009 Special thanks to the Beta Test Team who were invaluable not just in tracking down bugs but in making this a better product Germany Native Instruments GmbH Schlesische Str 28 D 10997 Berlin Germany info native instruments de www native instruments de USA Native Instruments North America Inc 5631 Hollywood Boulevard Los Angeles CA 90028 USA salesOnative instruments com www native instruments com NI NATIVE INSTRUMENTS O Native Instruments GmbH 20009 All rights reserved Table Of Gontent 1 Foreword by Nile Rodgers auauaaaaaaaa nana ana nene nenes ee ee rere re nen en2. 35 e Fret noise e Pickup hits and e Pickup clap 10 10 Controllers gt gt Controllers v Playing Position Side Mode In addition to key switches it is also possible to control some parameters using MIDI Controllers Playing position an alternative to the F4 B5 key switches When it is set you can use that controller to move the playing position Unlike the key switches this will not trigger fret noises and one cannot lock the playing position this way since there Is no analogue to holding a key pressed Slide mode by default CC 64 sustain pedal is used to activate slide mode but here you can specify another controller to be used if desired Release the CC used to control the balance between Loose and Tight release samples i e the Loose Tight knob on the Release settings page Sustain a CC number used to sustain notes like a sustain pedal sustains notes Please take care not to overuse this feature since some space between notes can be good in order to get a realistic release sound Pickup hit chance you can here configure a controller with which to automate the Pickup hit ratio knob see the Pickup hit settings above Scarbee MM Bass 36 10 11 Help For quick reference you can find documentation for articulations playing techniques settings and the script Ul directly in the performance view Select a help topic from the menu and a help text appears to the left gt gt Help Scarbee MM
3. The loose samples are noisier and adds character to the sound Tight 1 is a more tightly played type of release which is less promi nent and cleaner And finally tight 2 is similar to tight 1 but even more cleanly played and is the least noisy of them all In the settings you can setup how often you want to hear each one of the types So which type should one use then Well it depends on the style and what kind of bass player one wants to imitate The profes A sional and often hired studio musicians usually have a very fine Toggles loose tight dampening technique so you rarely hear the releases even when they are playing fast These bass players who you hear on so many albums mute the strings with a combination of the left and and right hand to avoid ringing and other noise from the bass However even they sometimes decide to play a bit more relaxed and then you will hear more of the release sound In more rock ori ented songs you will play much more relaxed and even appreciate the raw sound of loose dampening In the settings you can specify whether you want all three types of release or just the tight ones by default The FO key switch can then be used to switch from the default mode to the non default mode Scarbee MM Bass 20 9 8 2 Pickup hits MM Bass includes as many as 43 different pick up hit noises These samples simulate a bass player playing the strings hard by banging his her hand on them giving a slight pick
4. Bass 37 11 Differences Between MM Bass Pre Bass and Red Bass Press ess et ass OS Pick up mies split single coil pickup 1 humbucker 1 bridge both and neck 3 e tight 1 and tight ds tight 1 and tight loose and tight legato playing with sus tain pedal pressed but for slide intervals greater than two semitones the slide has to be manually ended by playing the tar get note a second time available but middle Index middle available available finger samples have a shorter duration than index finger samples Number of samples 3 766 4 003 6 092 Size of download 1 2 GB 1 2 GB 747 MB compressed legato playing with sus legato playing with sus tain pedal pressed tain pedal pressed Slide triggering Scarbee MM Bass 38 12 Production Credits amp Thank You s Producer Bass Player amp Programmer Thomas Hansen Skarbye Script Developer amp User Manual Nils Liberg Instrument Graphics Stefan Kengen Beta Testers Richard Hilton Jules Bromley and Stefan Kengen Thank You s My wife Anne for all your work support and love To Nils Liberg you have been fantastic and one of the finest and brightest persons have ever met you should be proud of yourself To Richard Hilton and Nile Rodgers for their sup port and friendship Native Instruments for their powerful Kontakt 2 2 3 engine Philip Pendleton for his help with web matters Klaus Simone for his help in healing my soul Jules Bromley
5. Bille August began to create Sample Libraries and Virtual Instruments as wanted better sounds to use for my productions These products are used by top artists around the world on albums and live Due to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome weak wrists invented an artificial way of playing bass using software in 1998 and released the Scarbee J Slap J Fingered in 2000 Originally planning a fretless bass release instead decided to take a break from the basses and do some easy vintage keyboard sounds to use in my productions Ironically it took me 5 years to complete the Vintage Keyboard Collection and the Vintage Keyboard FX plugin Not exactly an easy job as expected but this is me in a nutshell go into something dig deeper and deeper and slowly revealing the secrets and soul of the instrument and can not stop until the job is done The MM Bass project started in 2005 with the first sound recordings Four versions was dumped before finally found the right bass strings and playing position wanted to find the sound that was closest to my identity as had been searching all my life for the right sound playing various bass brand in the world with no luck When listening to all my favorite bass Scarbee MM Bass 10 lines from the 70s soon realized that it was the same sound came back to It was a bass I never imagined would own as it was too expensive when was a young player and at that time wasn t that c
6. emg eos 27 Instrument ROS u h 28 10 Main Menu and Instrument Settings nana nana nana nanes nene e aren nene nenen eee ee ee reres eee nene eee eee nnmnnn ennenen nne 29 10 1 A E dd thal eal a a AREE antes 29 TOFD 6 PAPES Si as 30 103 Ersan baat emia ih Ga 31 104 NVI ALO van aaa RA 31 10 5 PICKUP A a E Ea aED E EEES Ae A O EEE r EEE EE 32 10 6 Release en 33 o a dd AR e E Temomtahete 34 10 8 AMEN a e e a wack a E AER 35 10 39 INDIS Leve ritit brune kom Pond advan cit 35 1010 Controllers sai 36 A AR RO 37 11 Differences Between MM Bass Pre Bass and Red BASS nan ann nnaaanaananaa enen an ee nane rene nte rren nene 38 12 Production Credits amp Thank You s see kanos ss konti duen sd 5 aL dd sod s ses es ese Loco va d s resi nunne nennen nnee 39 Scarbee MM Bass V 1 Forevvord by Nile Rodgers When Thomas Hansen Skarbye first approached me about doing a bass sound dedicated to Bernard Edwards naturally was skeptical Bernard s sound is so distinctive and so elusive that it seemed an impossible task The first time heard Scarbee s MM Bass was stunned at how good it was and how much it evokes the spirit and the sound of CHIC s vibe It was clear that Thomas passion and dedication to his craft to the bass guitar and to the legacy of Bernard Edwards was very profound and that he had created something truly remarkable We have recently been working on a number of projects that have 70 s and 80 s class
7. set the chance for it to happen At 0 you never get a pickup hit and at 100 you always get it The default mode determines whether pickup hit noises should be enabled by default It can be either of e Pickup hits noises are ON by default Hold the FO key switch to turn them off e No pickup hits noises are OFF by default Hold the FO key switch to turn them on Please note that the default release mode and pickup are coupled i e if you select Pickup hits as your default mode the release mode will be set to Random When you load MM Bass the pickup hit knob is set to 0 so if you want pickup hits you need to increase it It can also be automated using CC 4 or some other controller of your choice Scarbee MM Bass 32 10 6 Release gt gt Release y q Decay 19048 AULT MODE Random mode The Decay knob in the upper right corner controls how much more silent a release sample becomes for each second longer you hold a note pressed The unit is dB second l e if it is set to 15 dB s then the volume of a release sample of a 2s long note will be turned down 30 dB There are three types of release samples loose tight 1 quite tight and tight 2 very tight The tight samples are played more carefully and are less noisy than the loose ones You can set the default release mode to be one of e Random mode use random mix of loose tight 1 and tight 2 samples e Tight mode use random mix of tight 1 and tigh
8. switch See more about this further down Scarbee MM Bass 16 9 3 Fast Grace Note Up Fast Legato 5 4 Slides A fast grace note is triggered in the same way as a hammer on one needs to play the legato note very quickly after the previous note Eg play a C2 hold it pressed and press a D2 quickly after between 20 and 60 milliseconds The velocity of the lower note the pre hit note is used as the velocity for playing the fast grace note sample This allows you to play the second note at any velocity which can help because one often ends up hitting it a bit harder since it has to be triggered so fast It was an old dream since the year 2000 to be able to trigger fast grace notes in an intuitive way and now it has finally come true no key switches are necessary Slides are available in speeds 60 to 480 bpm Play a note legato while holding the sustain pedal pressed to trigger a slide If it s not possible to slide the played interval without going outside of the available frets a sustain will be used instead The velocity of the target note determines the speed of the slide There are three re corded slide tempi Velocities 1 30 trigger the slowest slide sample 60 to 89 bpm Velocities 31 60 trigger the middle slide sample 90 to 119 bpm Velocities 61 127 trigger the fastest slide sample 120 to 480 bpm The beats per minute bpm tempo numbers above refer to the du ration of a 1 4 note in that t
9. and not earlier or you will get a trill or buzz trill instead of a sustain on the preceding note Here s an example of how a trill tail can be performed play A3 and hold it pressed play the G 0 key switch play a legato down to G3 The G3 legato note is played back as a trill tail Scarbee MM Bass 18 9 1 Pickup Clap Play A 0 to get the sound of a pickup clap Please note that AHO behaves more like a normal note than a key switch the A O itself triggers the sound and it does not affect other notes As many as 27 different pickup clap samples are included A real bass player typically hits the pick up with his her right hand on snare drum hits 2 4 to keep the beat or as some advanced players hit the pick up as a flaminco guitarist in between notes for a funky unique bass groove 9 8 Automatically Triggered Samples Included in MM Bass are a number of samples which are automatically played back at cer tain times In the settings you can configure what types of samples you want to use and how often you want them to be played Detailed explanations of how to make these settings can be found later in this manual Scarbee MM Bass 19 5 8 1 Release Samples A release sample is played whenever a note is released With one exception when a note is played legato overlapping the earlier note a release sample is not played for the earlier note There are three sets of release samples e loose e tight 1 e tight 2
10. ase note that due to a KONTAKT 2 3 limitation scripts cannot load new effects but only change parameters of already loaded ones This has been worked around by loading all kinds of ef fects and bypassing the ones which are not necessary The status of the bypass buttons is stored in each preset and restored when one is loaded Presets are stored within the KONTAKT instrument file nki file so in case you later download an update to MM Bass that file will lack any customized presets of yours which is useful to be aware of However you can transfer a preset from one instrument to another by using the native preset feature in KONTAKT and then choose Save from the menu to reintegrate it into the script preset system Scarbee MM Bass 30 Bass 00048 Middle 0004 gt 2 Treble L n vooda In this section the Bass Middle and Treble can be adjusted Beware that loading an FX pre set can change the EQ 10 4 Vibrato Here you can specify the vibrato speed and the volume of the fret noises that are automati cally generated in order to mimic the noises generated as the finger move back and forth on a string You can also decide whether to use CC 1 or Aftertouch to control the vibrato intensity Scarbee MM Bass 31 10 9 Pickup Hit gt gt Pickup hit Ga Ratio DEFAULT MODE a duat Pickup hits For every note you play the script decides whether a pickup hit noise should be played or not Here you can
11. c ity but please note that if you change the velocity of this initial B 1 key switch note you will get a completely different sequence of release samples fret noises and pickup hits Scarbee MM Bass 28 10 Main Menu and Instrument Settings 10 1 Player Profile gt gt Player Profilew Pop 8 Country v Here you can specify what type of playing style you want to use This affects the automatic string selection and whether high or low frets are preferred For example when playing rock a bass player would typically not use the lowest fret numbers e Pop amp Country no specific preference for low high frets e Soul amp Funk frets above fret 4 are preferred e Rock amp Retro frets above fret 6 are preferred Even with the latter settings it is still possible to use lower frets if you tell the instrument to do so by activating string or playing position key switches Scarbee MM Bass 29 10 2 FX Presets gt FX Presets v Ch tE z Standard N VA The instrument comes with a number of factory presets which can be loaded by simply se lecting them from the preset menu see image Be aware that whenever you load an effect preset any customization of the MM Bass insert effect parameters you might have done can be overwritten You can also save your own presets To do this edit the insert effects parameters in KONTAKT to your liking and then choose one of the Save menu items from the preset menu Ple
12. d last note be close enough that will make it possible for the chord to be recognized Hence for live playing you can use DHO to activate chord mode but if you choose to align notes after recording you don t have to use the key switch It s up to you as the user Scarbee MM Bass 24 In addition to proper string selection another advantage of having a played chord recognized as a unit as opposed to a series of individual notes is that the lovvest chord note is automati cally played using index finger samples and higher notes using middle finger samples just like one vvould play it in real life 6 5 Ghord Slides Playing a whole chord legato with an earlier chord would be difficult so instead we came up with a single finger technique to make it easier to perform chord slides In order to play a chord slide first play the chord Then press the sustain pedal and play the target note to which you want to slide just as before the velocity of this note determines the slide speed The MM Bass script will determine the interval between the target note and the note in your chord that is closest to the target note This interval is then used as the slide interval For example let s say you play the chord G1 D2 G2 To slide up a whole note you can press A2 while holding the sustain pedal pressed The chord note nearest A2 is G2 and the interval is a whole note up which is then used as the slide interval As an alternative to A2 it would also be p
13. empo To play a 178 note slide in tem po 120 you need to use a slide note velocity which corresponds to 240 bpm and to play a 1 16 note slide very fast in tempo 120 you will need a velocity which corresponds to 480 bpm Scarbee MM Bass 17 5 5 Buzz trills Trills 9 6 Trill Tails LLILULI Legato down A buzz trill is the sound of a real bass player moving his finger back and forth over a fret quickly A trill on the other hand is a se quence of repeated hammer on and pull offs Buzz trills and trills are activated by pressing the G 0 key switch Buzz trills are avail able on the D and G string and trills on the G string Velocities 1 59 give trills on G string and long buzz trills on D string Velocities 60 89 give long buzz trills Velocities 90 127 give short buzz trills Note that unlike the other key switches G 0 only affects the follow ing note even if it were to be held pressed We made it like this to make it easier to trigger a single trill without accidentally affecting other notes Trill tails are based on the same samples as trills except that their attack has been removed in order to make it possible to use them after any other articulation as a tail They are available on the G string To trigger a trill tail press the G O key switch to activate trill mode and then play a pull off a half or whole note legato down Please note that the key switch must be pressed just before the pull off note
14. en eee ee eee reres e meme eee ne eee ee nnmnnn ennnen nenes 6 e 1 21 Abou tthe DASS Lui vrat nd ovale det E a E A E EEE E E 9 2 2 Thomas Hansen Skarbye The Bassist and PrOdUCEN nana nana nanen nene venien 10 2 3 Nils Liberg Script Developer 2 vez aodavan vienere ii en dh de de 11 3 Playing Bass Notes on a KOybOA 0 na uanaa nana nnnaanaa nese e eee e e nene nene nenen eren eee ee pemen e eee nene ee nes eee ee eeeemsn 13 3 1 Automatic String Selection gjon satan nn saesiraratuuadueen demir ears 13 3 2 Manual String Selection kutis dim dt n 14 A AA r 15 Arc AA o 16 5 1 Sustains Mutes and Harmonics ridad id 16 5 2 Hammer on PUNO ann Varicaitianncnai eieeulas amiatedode Renton 16 5 3 thas Grace Note pv vd oie 17 DA 5 SHQOS nina paa ke E reer Perret re EE A trey errr tat 17 5 5 BUZZ TUS Til E AA Aa leaa aaa a 18 56 TNA rt a geat a a der uvelecatene EE dea Aa EE TS 18 Dal Pickup LUN 19 5 8 Automatically Triggered Samples siii did dd kd 19 5 8 1 Release Samples ajgidadu ve tdi tia pide 20 9 8 2 A e A ON 21 6 PLANS TECNMQUES dd 22 6 1 Index and Middle Finger Alternati0N oococconccconccnoncononconononncanoncnnonnanononnons 22 6 2 Extended Hammeron Pulso catan ala ia 23 63 Cross AMI ON Pgs nt he 23 oe NOT pa a rs at sect cts ic Mean a de oc a a a deca dae a asa teA ER TEA gE CIE 24 6 9 Chord SNES zj keni Ad A NA 25 Scarbee MM Bass IV GG PAKGUSSIVE SSS paa beduin br 25 SUS AININO NOLES eo ica 26 e
15. encer making one note end just slightly before the next one starts You may also configure a MIDI CC to use for this purpose instead of the A 1 key see the Controller settings below Scarbee MM Bass 26 8 Vibrato The vibrato characteristics of a real bass vvas analysed and the results incorporated into MM Bass MM Bass is also capable of mimicing the slight fret noise generated by the finger movements used to create the vibrato Vibrato intensity is controlled by the modulation wheel CC 1 If you select the Vibrato page from the main menu you can configure the vibrato speed vibrato fret noise volume and specify whether you want to use CC 1 or Aftertouch to control the intensity See Vibrato settings below Scarbee MM Bass 27 9 Instrument Reset MM Bass randomly chooses between different types of release samples fret noises and when to insert pickup hits This randomness gives more variation and a more realistic sound However it is also good to be able to predict the behavior to know that your song will sound exactly the same each time you play it This is possible by using the B 1 key switch to reset the instrument In order to get the same result each time you play back your song insert a B 1 key switch note in the beginning of the song The velocity with which this key switch is played determines the random sequence of values which controls release samples fret noises and timing of pickup hits You can use any velo
16. for his beta feedback and Stefan Kengen for the MM Bass instrument graphics it looks so cool To Jimmy Vstbygaard from Futureware for fast help Sound Soap the great friends from Gaya Musik Kim Steffen and Victor Big thanks to Garth Hjelte from Chickensys could not have done it without Translator To all Scarbee users Thanks for your support Finally to my sons Nikolaj Oscar and Victor love you so much MM Bass is dedicated to Bernard Edwards 1952 1996 Copyright Disclaimer All product and company names brands and logos mentioned in this document are exclusive property of the re spective owners Some product names descriptions and images are cited for the sole purpose of identifying the specific products that we used to develop Scarbee MM Bass Scarbee is in no way related to or affiliated to any of the mentioned companies O 2009 SCARBEE All rights reserved Scarbee MM Bass 39
17. ic sounds From a new Will Ferrell movie to some next generation music video games MM Bass software helps us to achieve a sound and feel so close to classic that expect we ll be us ing it for many future projects Nile Rodgers founding member of Chic world renowned producer musician guitarist and songwriter about the MM Bass D I Scarbee MM Bass 6 2 Introduction The Scarbee MM Bass was recorded with flatwound strings to get the warm and creamy sound of the 70s disco and funk bass lines and D 1 to give maximum flexibility in the sound production It features an extensive set of playing techniques for example e Sustains e Mutes e Harmonics e Hammer on amp pull off e Fast grace notes e Slides in most any speed you could want e Trills e Buzz trills e Cross hammering e Chords e Chord slides e Percussive slides e Index and middle finger alternation e Multiple sets of release samples loose tighter and tight MM Bass was designed to make it very easy to use all these while playing live Except for the trills and cross hammering you can trigger all of the articulations and techniques above without the need for any key switches The full strings of the bass have been sampled in order to reproduce the timbre changes that occur when you move between low and high frets on the string of a real bass This results in a very rich sound with all the natural overtones Scarbee MM Bass 7 It should be
18. in the default mode Hovvever in some special cases the automatic string selection can fail since the script cannot see into the future The notes of a chord never arrive at exactly the same time but typically some milliseconds after each other and in a more or less random order The string selection is usually performed one note at a time but in unfortunate situations the optimal string for the chord note which comes first can be a suboptimal choice for the chord as a vvhole it might be even better to use that string for a chord note which arrives just milliseconds later 10 ms To solve this problem we provide a chord mode which is activated by key switch DHO When the chord mode is active the scripts waits for all the notes in the chord to arrive before it decides on what strings to use Only then is playback started The longer the script is allowed to wait for new notes in a chord the sloppier a user can play them and still have them recognized as a chord But the longer the script waits the longer will also the playback of the notes be delayed So there is a trade off between allowing for sloppily played chords and latency In fact the script waits for extra notes in the same way even when chord mode is not active but then a much shorter waiting time is used the default is 0 5 ms so short that one can not hear it It is not possible for a human to play chords that tightly but if you align notes in your sequencer and make the first an
19. inimum effort l e if you play an octave interval the correct strings will automatically be used That s the basic operation but the automatic string selection also takes many other things into account such as when to use open strings and what special rules to use for each articulation Scarbee MM Bass 13 Playing position left hand Main menu T SS SS SS SS E aa a p fe jej y ye jej jej o u u a a lt U Name of last triggered articulation Markers show the notes being played on which string fret The symbols are specific to each articulation Articulation specific symbols are displayed on the fretboard on the selected string fret as shown above and the text label below the fretboard shows the name of the last used ar ticulation Each string is monophonic so a new note interrupts any earlier one on the same string just like on a real bass Simply trying out MM Bass oneself is perhaps the best way to understand how it works 3 2 Manual String Selection It is also possible to control the string selection manually Each string has an associated key switch EO AO DO GO picked to be easy to remember In MM Bass a key switch affects the following note or remains active for as long as you hold it pressed To return to the normal mode of operation just release the key switch It is possible to combine more than one string key switch For example you can hold AO and DO pressed simultaneously to make A a
20. ion Scarbee MM Bass 22 6 2 Extended Hammer on Pull off Normally hammer on and pull off are triggered by playing an inter val of one or two notes up or down legato with the previously held note However it is possible to use the same articulations for larger intervals To do this activate Extended Hammer on 1 Pull off mode by pressing the F 0 key switch Legato For example if you play Al hold it pressed and then play E2 while holding the F 0 key switch pressed the E2 will be played as a whole note hammer on on the same string as the A1 even though the interval is a fifth Please note that the extended mode affects the automatic string selection the script will try to stay on the same string even if the target note is not near the current playing position The articulations with two alternations are sustains mutes harmonics fast grace notes and release samples 6 3 Cross Hammering You can get cross hammering by combining a string key switch with the extended hammer on pull off mode described above When this key switch combination is activated you no longer have to play legato to trigger a hammer on Instead any note will trigger a whole note hammer on Let s say you want to cross hammer E2 on the A string In order to do this hold the EO and F 0 key switches pressed E string ex tended mode and then play E2 on the keyboard Scarbee MM Bass 23 6 4 Ghords Normally chords vvork vvell
21. leading to a less responsive instru ment For this reason it is preferable to use a high sloppiness setting only when one is about to play chords and a low value otherwise in order to minimum latency When chord mode has been activated by the DHO key switch the left sloppiness setting is used And when chord mode is not active the normal sloppiness setting to the right is used In other words DHO temporarily activates a higher latency which makes the string selection for chords more reliant and as soon as the key switch is released the low latency is restored again Scarbee MM Bass 34 10 8 Alternation gt Alternation v When you play notes quickly after each other automatic alternation between index and middle finger samples takes place When you play slower only index finger samples are used You can specify the threshold for what the script should consider fast playing by setting the Alt Time knob When you play a note there will be automatic alternation only if the period of time since the last note is lower than this With the default setting automatic alternation starts when notes are played at shorter time intervals than 1 second 1000 ms 10 9 Noise Levels gt gt Noise levels v th is Release Ze 8 telease 8 Fretnoise r 00 as ooma gt 2 4 PU hits 6 Q PUclop s 0038 0038 9 Here you can adjust the volume of the various noise samples e Release samples Scarbee MM Bass
22. nd D be the preferred strings Another way of controlling the string choice is by using key switches F5 B6 to specify which frets you prefer The F5 key corresponds to the first fret F 5 to the second fret and so on To make it easier to learn we made the fret key switches match the corresponding note on the E string of a bass F is the first fret on this string F the second and so on By pressing and releasing one of these key switches you move the playing position and at the same time trigger a fret noise sample different noises are used depending on how far you move You can also lock the playing position by holding one of these key switch pressed while playing As will be shown later it is also possible to use a MIDI Controller for fret selection Scarbee MM Bass 14 4 Key Layout Here is a schematic of the keys in MM Bass The red keys are key switches and the blue ones mapped to normal samples This is just an overview Instructions on how to use each key switch and what it does is given in the following text sections Playing Position Keyswitches Keyswitches Normal bass F5 TO B6 tret 1 to 20 Chord mode DHO Middle finger C 0 Pickup hit and tight release toggle FO Index finger F 0 Extended hammer on pull off F 0 Finger picking Buzz trill Trill G 0 Lead Sustain A 1 Pickup clap A 0 Mutes A 1 Hi Reset B 1 di l A string A0 Slap B string BO Fingered C string C0 D s
23. ngs and so the player has to choose For example G2 can be played on all four strings of the bass with each string having its own very distinctive sound Many sample libraries and virtual instruments take the simplistic route of recording only one sample per note from the lower playing posi tions which means that the user gets a very limited instrument MM Bass on the other hand includes samples of all the different strings each note can be played on thus capturing the sound of the whole instrument In our view the samples at higher frets is an integral part of the instrument and adds spice and variation to the sound When a real bass player is about to play a note he she typically chooses the string on which the note can be played with minimum effort That is without moving the left hand too much On a keyboard it s difficult to manually perform this string selection in real time and laborious to do it after recording so we came up with a way to let the MM Bass script do it for you 3 1 Automatic String Selection The figure below shows the main view of the instrument user interface Note the white dotted line above the fretboard It represents the position of the left hand on the bass neck the playing position When you play a note on the keyboard MM Bass automatically chooses a string that minimizes the need to move the playing position the left hand similar to a real bass player This way you can get the full sound of the bass with m
24. noted that MM Bass is much more than just a collection of samples It features a sophisticated script vvhich takes care of many things automatically for you for example e String selection e A fretboard display updated dynamically as you play e Alternation between index and middle finger e Chord recognition e Random alternation between three different types of release samples e Random insertion of pickup hits Furthermore the script enables you to configure all settings including EQ load and store FX presets and access documentation covering every aspect of the instrument directly through the instrument performance view l Ensures correct string selection even if the chord notes don t arrive at exactly the same time and that the base note of a chord is played with index finger while the other notes are played with middle finger samples 2 Not completely random because it is intelligent enough to take into account on which strings frets and for which velocities pickup hits are most likely to occur Scarbee MM Bass 8 2 1 About the Bass Since vve have no special agreement vvith the company that manufactured the sampled bass vve vvill not mention the trademarked name or show pictures of the bass However the instrument we used was an excellent and expensive american bass an updated but classic sound The truth is didn t use the exact same bass as we knew was on the beloved recordings from the 7Os know exactly what bass wa
25. ossible to use Al a whole note up from the chord base note or E2 a whole note up from the middle chord note To slide up one octave you would play G3 one octave up from the nearest note G2 Note that a chord slide will only be performed when it is possible to slide the interval for all notes in the chord 6 6 Percussive Slides It s possible to perform percussive slides by playing extra notes on the same string a note is being slided on at the same time as the slide is being performed Scarbee MM Bass 25 7 Sustaining Notes Since the sustain pedal is already used to trigger slides another way of sustaining notes is needed This is what the A 1 note is used for while it is held pressed any released note will be prolonged until the A 1 note is released So this key works just like the pedal does for other instruments It is sometimes useful to be able to sustain repeated notes in order to get rid of the discon nected feeling that gaps between the notes can give Try for example to play El El El without holding A 1 pressed and then with A 1 pressed However please note that by sustain ing notes there will be no time to play the release sample of one note before the next starts and without the release samples one looses some of the important variation that increases realism So it s important not to overuse this feature You can in many cases get better results if you don t use A 1 and instead adjust note lengths in your sequ
26. razy about the fingered sound more the slap sound However one evening I decided to put a set of flatwound strings on the bass to get a warmer burning tone and while experimenting with the right hand playing position suddenly felt it instantly fell in love with the sound my fingers were producing both the fingered and the slap sound and knew had to create yet a piece of bass software this time even better in any way Personally prefer to play hard on it to get the growl and aggressive tone but it can also play gentle and soft The amount of expression is the reason why this sound is one of my favorites Scarbee MM Bass is my personal tool that use in my work for other artists and in my own productions so will keep on updating it for the time to come making extra details slapped sounds etc This will definitely benefit you as a user Please enjoy our bass we sure put a lot of love in it now give myself more time to compose and refine my vocal work as well so please keep an eye on www myspace com scarbee where will post some of my songs 2 3 Nils Liberg Script Developer was contacted by Thomas in the autumn of 2006 to create a Kontakt 2 script for what would later become MM Bass What initially seemed to be a small utility script for interval samples that planned to implement in a day or two soon grew into something much bigger Together we came up with ideas such as automatic string selection ea
27. s used on songs and that the strings were totally worn out roundwound strings but when you deal with sounds your ears are more important than pure facts The songs had sometimes been through more than one mastering session and the sound of the instruments changed for each mastering Therefore the bass sound was looking for was the one heard out of the speakers the processed sound So by using an updated version of the original bass which has a mel lower tone as body is smaller pickup magnets are Ceramic original bass had Alnico magnets and preamp different and by using flatwound strings managed to get much closer to the sound wanted and loved Scarbee MM Bass 9 2 2 Thomas Hansen Skarbye The Bassist and Producer When was a boy wanted to be a great Magician wanted to amaze the audience and leave them wondering How did he do that Years later am still very fond of illusions in any media watch almost every movie that raises the bar of Special Effects and share true interest in computer and console games with my sons for the same reason These days my magic wand and top hat are the Scarbee Sample Libraries I have played in various funk bands as a bassist during my younger years but started soon to compose music for TV documentaries and aimed for a career as a film composer After composing producing music on more than 150 commercials for TV and Cinema even work ing with Oscar winning director
28. sy ways to trigger grace notes and chord slides without keyswitches and how to implement slides in all different tempi while keeping RAM usage down Scarbee MM Bass 11 It was a very fruitful cooperation me focusing on providing the user with the best possible interface in both musical and visual respects and Thomas fully devoted to capturing the sound of not just the instrument but what it can sound like in the hands of a really good bass player It has been a privilege to follow Thomas during this time frustrating the times he decided to suddenly discard all the samples he d recorded the week before because they didn t live up to his high standards but in the end a pleasure to work with someone with such a feeling for both detail and the bigger picture My goal with the MM Bass script has been to make the instrument so easy to play that the user will never feel it s too much trouble to use any of the articulations It feels doubly reward ing to have been able to put all my creativity into something that know will finally be used as part of and benefit another person s creative expression It is my hope that you will find MM Bass an inspiring instrument to use Nils Liberg is an experienced script developer and is the author of a widely used script de velopment environment for Mac PC Scarbee MM Bass 12 3 Playing Bass Notes on a Keyboard With stringed instruments a certain note can often be played on multiple stri
29. t 1 samples only By using the FO key switch you can switch to the non default mode at any time Eg let s say the default mode is set to Random mode Then you will sometimes get loose release samples when playing If you want only tight release samples for some passage of a song you can hold FO pressed during that time to temporarily toggle to Tight mode The loose tight knob controls the probability of getting either loose or tight release samples Turn it up to increase the chance of getting tight samples The tight 1 tight 2 knob controls the probability of getting tight 1 versus tight 2 samples Turn it up to increase the chance of getting tight 2 samples Scarbee MM Bass 33 10 7 Chords gt gt Chords The illustration below shows how the notes of a chord never arrive at exactly the same time there is always a period of time between the first and last last note As long as this period of time Is shorter in milliseconds than the Sloppiness knob value shown to the right the chord will be properly recognized and automatic string selection will work optimally If on the other hand the period of time between notes gets longer than the Sloppiness value the automatic string selection is performed note by note which in some cases can yield sub optimal results for chords 10 ms By increasing the sloppiness the tolerance for sloppily played chords increases but at the same time the latency is increased by the same amount
30. tring DO only Fingered is available at this point The others represent possible future extensions l The bass has no B string but for flexibility the notes BO to DHI have been mapped to a virtual B string These notes use stretched E string samples Only basic articulations like sustain mutes hammer on and pull off are available on the virtual B string Scarbee MM Bass 15 5 Articulations 5 1 Sustains Mutes and Harmonics Sustain is the default articulation For velocities below 40 you get mutes instead and for velocities below 15 you get harmonics where available and mutes otherwise Enough veloci ties layers have been recorded to achieve natural transitions from soft to hard playing Please note that harmonics are mapped to the string fret where they are played on a real bass and not to the pitch of the sound If you activate the mutes key switch A 1 you will get mutes irrespectively of the velocity This can be used to make it easier to trigger mutes since you do not need to rely on getting the right velocity when using it 5 2 Hammer on Pull off To trigger a hammer on or pull off you simply play a half or whole Legato note either down or up legato overlapping the earlier note If a hammer on or pull off is not available eg when playing a note le gato downwards from fret 1 you will get a sustain instead Hammer on pull off for intervals greater than 1 2 semitones may be played by activating the F 0 key
31. up hit noise During the normal course of playing a pickup hit noise sample is sometimes randomly played together with the note you played In the settings you can configure what the chance should be for this to happen and whether it should be active by default A Having some pickup hit noises now and then can just like loose Toggles loose tight release samples add to the realism Furthermore since both re lease samples and pickup hit noises are randomly selected they add extra variation The human ear is very good at hearing when a sound is repeated so this is an important feature Scarbee MM Bass 21 6 Playing Techniques 6 1 Index and Middle Finger Alternation Separate sample sets for right hand index finger and middle finger playing has been recorded for many articulations The alterna tion between these two is performed automatically When you play slowly you only get index samples and when you play faster MM Bass alternates between index and middle finger samples as a real bass player would You can configure the speed threshold for when alternation is to start see Alternation in the settings The alternation can also be controlled manually by using key switch CO to activate index finger and CHO to activate middle finger sam ples Like the other key switches these affect the following note or remain active for as long as they are held pressed Pressing any of these key switches will inhibit the automatic alternat
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