Scarbee MM-Bass Amped Manual - AV
Contents
1. 14 4 1 Automatic String 14 42 Manual SUS SClSCTION srra 15 KOy EEE 16 PENG AU O 17 51 Sustains Mutes 5 17 62 on FIOT 17 0 5 rast Glace NOE 2 9 18 OR 18 19 66 MOIT et 19 HICK ae 20 6 8 Automatically Triggered Samples 20 6 8 1 Release Samples 21 092 PICKUD Se 22 T TECIMIQUCS escisiones aaa aa Orri 23 1 1 Index and Middle 23 12 24 70 LOSS tet MNCS 24 25 scarbee MM Bass Amped IV We AION WS sate ee ec sete oo tate ca ieee a A 262. FPONCUSSING 26 5 27 cane 28 RESE a 29 11 Menu and 06 0 4 30 30 31 nausea need reamed 32 WE a 32 55 ene ne 33 34 35 36 TIO NOLE 36 37 77 E 38 12 Differences Between Pre Bass MM Bass Amped 55 39 13 Production Credits amp Thank 40 scarbee MM Bass Amped V 1 Foreword by Nile Rodgers When Thomas Hansen Skarbye first approached me about doing a bass sound dedicat
3. 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 play El El El without holding 1 pressed and then with 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 1 and instead adjust note lengths in your sequencer 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 1 key see the Controller settings below scarbee Amped 27 9 Vibrato The vibrato characteristics of a real bass was analysed and the results incorporated into MM Bass Amped MM Bass Amped 15 also capable of mimicing the slight fret noise generated by the finger movements used to create the vibrato Vibrato intensity 15 controlled by the modulation wheel 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 Amped 28 10 Instrument Reset MM Bass Amped randomly chooses betwee
4. 11 3 EQ Bass 0 Middle 00 Treble oooga In this section the Bass Middle and Treble can be adjusted Beware that loading an FX pre set can change the EQ 11 4 Vibrato gt gt 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 1 Aftertouch to control the vibrato intensity Scarbee MM Bass Amped 32 11 5 Pickup gt gt Pickup hit At a n ae Le lia Ratio oes Pickup hits For every note you play the script decides whether a pickup hit noise should be played or not Here you can set the chance for it to happen At O 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 ot e Pickup hits noises are ON by default Hold the FO key switch to turn them off 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 if you select Pickup hits as your default mode the release mode will be set to Random When you load MM Bass Amped the pickup hit knob 15 set to 0 so If you want pickup hits you need to increase it It can also be automated using CC 4
5. SaaS oe to F ee Ge ara a r a eS as ome Eh E ae ee ee ee mi T ess E et ee ee E a a SS Ei hat See oe E a ee 5 i FE eee ae at O Be o E PE o a 4 2 eee ee eee 2 8 oo oll Pee 7 USER S MANUAL The information in this document is subject change without notice and does not represent commitment on the part of Native Instruments GmbH The software described by this document 15 Subject to a License Agreement and may not be copied to other media No part of this publication may be copie
6. 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 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 amp 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 tt 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 15 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 the world with no luck When listening to all my favor
7. play faster MM Bass Amped alternates between index and middle finger samples as a real bass player would You can configure the speed threshold for when alternation 15 to start see Alternation in the settings The alternation can also be controlled manually by using key switch CO to activate index finger and C O 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 alternation scarbee MM Bass Amped 23 1 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 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 O key switch pressed the E2 will be played as whole note hammer on on the same string as the Al even though the interval is 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 15 not near the current playing position The articulations with two alternations are sustains mutes harmonics fast grace notes and release samples 1 3 C
8. 11 6 Alternation 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 11 9 Noise Levels Noise levels aj Release a etnoise Be 00 ome lt PU hits clap 6 j0 aa 22 you can adjust the volume of the various noise samples e Release samples MM Bass Amped 36 e Fret noise Pickup hits and e Pickup clap 11 10 Controllers gt Controllers In addition to key switches is also possible to control some parameters using MIDI Controllers Playing position an alternative to the F4 B5 key switches When it 15 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 slid
9. aimer All product and company names brands and logos mentioned in this document are exclusive property of the respec tive 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 Amped Scarbee is in no way related to or affiliated to any of the mentioned companies 2009 SCARBEE All rights reserved scarbee MM Bass Amped 40
10. berg 15 an experienced script developer and 15 the author of a widely used script de velopment environment for Mac PC scarbee MM Bass Amped 13 4 Playing Bass Notes Keyboard With stringed instruments a certain note can often be played on multiple strings 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 Amped 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 15 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 a keyboard it s difficult to manually perform this string selection in real time and labori ous to do it after recording so we came up with a way to let the MM Bass Amped script do it for you 4 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 posit
11. city when using it 6 2 Hammer on Pull off To trigger a hammer on or pull off you simply play a half or whole 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 oft for intervals greater than 1 2 semitones be played by activating the F O key switch See more about this further down scarbee Amped 17 6 3 Fast Grace Note Up Fast Legato 6 4 Slides A fast grace note 15 triggered in the same way as 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 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 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 fre
12. ctions e Scarbee MM Bass Amped Heavy reamped version of the original MM Bass an edgy and hard bass sound specially produced for heavy rock oriented music productions Scarbee MM Bass Amped Crunchy a reamped version of the original MM Bass a powerful and mildly distorted bass sound specially produced for rock oriented music productions Scarbee MM Bass Amped Pop reamped version of the original MM Bass fat and crispy bass sound specially produced for R amp B and pop oriented music productions scarbee MM Bass Amped 3 About Scarbee MM Bass The Scarbee MM Bass was recorded with flatwound strings to get the warm and creamy sound of the 705 disco and funk bass lines D I to give maximum flexibility in the sound production It features an extensive set of playing techniques for example e sustains Mutes e Harmonics Hammer on amp pull off Fast grace notes e Slides in most any speed you could want e 1165 Buzz trills e Cross hammering e Chords e Chord slides Percussive slides e 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 order to rep
13. d 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 Sales native instruments com www native instruments com NATIVE INSTRUMENTS Native Instruments GmbH 2009 All rights reserved Table Of Content 1 Foreword by Nile Rodgers 6 Welcome to Scarbee 55 Amped 7 About 5 MM BaSS 5 8 E 10 3 2 Hansen Skarbye The Bassist 11 23 NIS SCDE Develope 12 4 Playing Bass Notes
14. e mode but here you can Specify another controller to be used desired Release the CC used to control the balance between Loose and Tight release samples 1 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 Amped 37 11 11 Help For quick reference you can find documentation for articulations amp playing techniques settings and the script UI directly in the performance view Select a help topic from the menu and help text appears to the left gt Help scarbee MM Bass Amped 38 12 Differences Between Pre Bass MM Bass Amped and Red Bass Pick up mics 000 split single coil pickup 1 humbucker 1 bridge both and neck 3 A tight 1 and tight tight 1 and tight a Pickup hit noise hit noise automatic or automatic or manual automatic or automatic manual 5 manual 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
15. e to which you want to slide just as before the velocity of this note determines the slide speed The MM Bass Amped script will determine the interval between the target note and the note in your chord that 15 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 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 2 would also be possible 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 7 6 Percussive Slides It s possible to perform percussive slides by playing extra notes the same string a note 15 being slided on at the same time as the slide is being performed scarbee MM Bass Amped 26 8 Sustaining Notes Since the sustain pedal is already used to trigger slides another way of sustaining notes 15 needed This 15 what the A 1 note 15 used for while it is held pressed any released note will be prolonged until the A 1 note 15 released So this key works just like the pedal does for other instruments It is sometimes useful to
16. ed to Bernard Edwards naturally was skeptical Bernard s sound 15 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 a number of projects that have 05 and 805 classic sounds From a new Will Ferrell movie to some next generation music video games 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 Amped 6 2 Welcome to Scarbee 55 Amped scarbee MM Bass Amped 15 re amped version of the original Scarbee MM Bass instru ment library It was created to provide you with the particular sound of specific genres out of the box without the need to employ bulky expensive amps yourself The library consists of four Scarbee MM Bass instrument variations e Scarbee MM Bass Amped Fat a reamped version of the original MM Bass a round and tight bass sound specially produced for rock and pop oriented music produ
17. entally 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 pull off a half or whole note legato down Please note that the key switch must be pressed just before the pull off note 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 trill tail can be performed play and hold it pressed play the G O key switch play a legato down to G3 The G3 legato note 15 played back as a trill tail scarbee MM Bass Amped 19 6 7 Pickup Clap Play to get the sound of a pickup clap Please note that 0 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 2 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 6 8 Automatically Triggered Samples Included in MM Bass Amped are a number of samples which are automatically played back at certain times In the settings you can config
18. eyswitches Keyswitches Normal bass F5 B6 tret 1 to 20 Chord mode D 0 Middle finger 0 Pickup hit and tight release toggle F0 Index finger F 0 Extended hammer on pull off F 0 Finger picking Buzz trill Trill G 0 Sustain 1 Pickup clap A 0 Mutes A 1 py Reset B 1 A string 0 Slap B string BO Fingered string C0 string 00 only Fingered is available this point The others represent possible future extensions 1 The bass has no String but for flexibility the notes BO to 1 have been mapped to a virtual 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 Amped 16 6 Articulations 6 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 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 velo
19. hat 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 easy 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 Amped 12 It was 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 has been a privilege to follow Thomas during this time trustrating 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 Li
20. have a shorter duration than index finger samples Number of samples 3 766 4 003 6 092 Size of download 12GB 12 GB 747 MB compressed legato playing with sus legato playing with sus Slide triggering tain pedal pressed tain pedal pressed scarbee MM Bass Amped 39 13 Production Credits 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 for his beta feedback and Stefan Kengen for the MM Bass instrument graphics it looks so cool To Jimmy stbygaard 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 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 Discl
21. ion of the left hand on the bass neck the playing position When you play a note on the keyboard MM Bass Amped 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 minimum 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 Amped 14 Playing position left hand Main menu Tel ef tel Na wv lt ao w q 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 the fretboard on the selected string fret as shown above and the text label below the fretboard shows the name of the last used articulation Each string 15 monophonic so a new note interrupts any earlier the same string yust like on a real bass Simply trying out MM Bass Amped oneself is perhaps the best way to understand how It works 4 2 Manual String Selection It is also possible to control the string selection manually Each string has an associa
22. ite bass scarbee MM Bass Amped 11 lines from the 705 soon realized that it was same sound came back to It was bass never imagined would own as It was too expensive when was a young player and at that time wasn t that crazy about the fingered sound more the slap sound However one evening 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 15 the reason why this sound 15 one of my favorites scarbee MM Bass 15 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 eye www myspace com scarbee where will post some of my songs 3 3 Nils Liberg Script Developer was contacted by Thomas in the autumn of 2006 to create a Kontakt 2 script for w
23. ll 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 non default mode scarbee MM Bass Amped 21 6 8 2 Pickup hits MM Bass Amped 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 slight pickup 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 15 very good at hearing when sound 15 repeated so this 15 an important feature scarbee MM Bass Amped 22 1 Playing Techniques 11 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
24. n 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 1 key switch note the beginning of the song The velocity with which this key switch 15 played determines the random sequence of values which controls release samples fret noises and timing of pickup hits You can use any veloc 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 Amped 29 11 Main Menu and Instrument Settings 11 1 Player Profile gt Player Tyre Pop amp Country 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 Pop amp Country no specific preference for low high frets 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 pos
25. or some other controller of your choice scarbee MM Bass Amped 33 11 6 Release gt gt Release Decay DEFAULT MODE mode i Tight 1 2 Decay knob the upper right corner controls how much more silent a release sample becomes for each second longer you hold note pressed The unit 15 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 be one of Random mode use random mix of loose tight 1 and tight 2 samples e Tight mode use random mix of tight 1 and tight 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 15 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
26. r 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 15 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 15 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 and last note be close enough that will make it possible for the chord to be recognized Hence for live playing you can use 0 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 Amped 25 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 lowest chord note 15 automati cally played using index finger samples and higher notes using middle finger samples just like one would play it in real life 7 5 Chord 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 not
27. roduce 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 Amped 8 It should be noted that MM Bass is much more than just a collection of samples It features a sophisticated script which takes care of many things automatically for you for example String selection A fretboard display updated dynamically as you play Alternation between index and middle finger Chord recognition Random alternation between three different types of release samples Random insertion of pickup hits2 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 1 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 15 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 for which velocities pickup hits are most likely to occur scarbee MM Bass Amped 9 31 About Bass Since we no special agreement with the company that manufactured the sampled bass we will not mention the trademarked name or show pictures of the bass However the inst
28. ross 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 15 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 string ex tended mode and then play E2 on the keyboard scarbee MM Bass Amped 24 7 4 Chords Normally chords work well in the default mode However 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 15 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 whole 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 15 activated by key switch 0 When the chord mode 15 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 sloppie
29. rument we used was an excellent and expensive american bass an updated but classic sound The truth ts didn t use the exact same bass as we knew was on the beloved recordings from the Os know exactly what bass was used 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 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 Amped 10 3 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 have played in various funk bands as a bassist during
30. sible to use lower frets if you tell the instrument to do so by activating string or playing position key switches scarbee MM Bass Amped 30 11 2 FX Presets gt gt FX Presets EY Standard 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 Amped 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 KONTAKT to your liking and then choose one of the Save menu items from the preset menu Please 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 15 Stored each preset and restored when one 15 loaded Presets are stored within the KONTAKT instrument file nki so in case later down load an update to MM Bass Amped 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 KONTAKT and then choose Save trom the menu to reintegrate it into the script preset system scarbee MM Bass Amped 31
31. ted key switch AO DO GO picked to be easy to remember In MM Bass Amped 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 15 possible to combine more than one string key switch For example you can hold AO and DO pressed simultaneously to make A and 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 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 is also possible to use a MIDI Controller for fret selection scarbee MM Bass Amped 15 Key Layout 15 a schematic of the keys MM Bass Amped 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 K
32. ts 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 tempo To play a 1 8 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 tempo 120 you will need a velocity which corresponds to 480 bpm scarbee MM Bass Amped 18 6 5 Buzz trills Trills 6 6 Trill Tails Legato down A buzz trill 15 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 O key switch Buzz trills are avail able on the D and string and trills on the G string Velocities 1 59 give trills 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 O only affects the follow ing note even If it were to be held pressed We made like this to make it easier to trigger a single trill without accid
33. up to increase the chance of getting tight 2 samples scarbee MM Bass Amped 34 11 7 Chords gt Chords The illustration below shows how the notes of a chord never arrive at exactly the same time there 15 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 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 leading to a less responsive instru ment For this reason it is preferable to use a high sloppiness setting only when one 15 about to play chords and a low value otherwise in order to minimum latency When chord mode has been activated by the 0 key switch the left sloppiness setting 15 used And when chord mode 15 not active the normal sloppiness setting to right is used In other words 0 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 MM Bass Amped 35
34. ure 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 Amped 20 6 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 005 tight 1 tight 2 The loose samples are noisier and adds character to the sound Tight 1 more tightly played type of release which 15 less nent and cleaner And finally tight 2 15 similar to tight 1 but even more cleanly played and 15 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 A sional and often hired studio musicians usually have 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 ented songs you wi
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