BASS UNTAMED
Double bass doesn't have to be boring
BASS UNTAMED takes our Untamed series down to the deepest depths. 3 full octaves and 222 individual improvised notes. From soulful, fragile undertones to snarling and thunderous growls. Not for the traditionalist, and not for the faint of heart. This is for fans of alternative scores and inspired by composers like Jóhann Jóhannsson, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Jed Kurzel and Jonny Greenwood.
It’s here to inspire your writing and is really at home with minimalist compositions where tone and sound do more talking than melody.
Also introducing a new sound which we call Storms; a bold and unapologetic way to create thunderous cinema-shaking crescendos. As well as all of the this, there are 7 other classic long and short note articulations which complement the other instruments in the series.
INSTRUMENT
Percussion
HIGHLIGHTS
40 unique sounds
Over 200 loops
REQUIREMENTS
Kontakt FULL 5.6.8 or above
Will NOT work in the free Player
USER INTERFACE
Everything to hand
As with all our custom designed interfaces, we want you to have a logical and clear layout with everything to hand.
To help you easily understand the instrument, you can hover over any control and instructions appear in the info panel of the Kontakt window.
TESTIMONIAL
CHRIS DUDLEY
STORMS ARTICULATION
This isn't a swarm,it's a storm.
New to the Untamed series, we’ve introduced an articulation called Storms, which allows you to fade from single fragile notes to a thundering rampage of cinema-shaking basses.
Great for creating tension before launching your score into a chaotic crescendo.
Listen now
SSD drive recommended as the Storm articulation uses multiple samples simultaneously within Kontakt.
DEMO MUSIC
Listen to some examples
GLUE
Subwoofer not included
Included in the instrument is a trick we’ve been using for a long time with strings; sine waves. Adding a simple sine wave thickens up the sound of the lower strings. We call this Glue as it fills in the gaps and cements the bottom end of your mix.
To give this the Westwood edge, we sampled every pitch of a sine wave across 3 octaves through 1″ reel-to-reel tape. This takes away the sterile nature of a pure sine wave and makes it feel more organic. There’s two versions to use; one at the regular pitch and an “8vb” version, which pitch shifts the wave an entire octave down for a true sub-bass sound.
To add movement to an otherwise static signal, the Pulse section brings a sense of underlying motion.
You can control the intensity of the pulse and the rate which is synced to the tempo to your composition.
We’ve added a low pass filter which you can use to smooth off the top end for a deeper and more subtle sound.
Use the “Grit” control if you need to roughen up the sound.
Control the dynamics independently or with the expression so the level rides in tandem with the main performance.
There’s also a master volume control so you can precisely blend in the amount you need.
TESTIMONIAL
ADRIAN BANKS (BANKS AUDIO THEATRE)
ARTICULATIONS
What's included
Improvisations A
Improvisations A (Alternative start)
Improvisations B
Improvisations B (Alternative start)
Storms
Glue
Glue 8vb
Normale
Flautando
Sul Pont
Tremolo
Spiccato (6 round robins, 3 velocity layers)
Pizzicato inc. Bartok (6 round robins, 4 velocity layers)
Ricochet (6 round robins, 2 velocity layers)
You can use the interface to easily combine any number of articulations to create interesting textures and some unusual combinations. We love the sound of all 4 of the Improvisations together, which feels like a quartet of basses all doing their own thing whilst flowing in and out of unison.
Instrument walkthrough
MICROPHONES
This is how we recorded it
Recorded at The Nave, one of the North of England’s finest recording studios; a converted church with the most beautiful sounding live room. We used an impeccable set of classic microphones and vintage outboard to tailor the perfect sound for the Bass.
A single Neumann FET47 is at the heart of the mix, providing a really rich, full and very detailed sound. A stereo pair of Neumann KM184s captured a close stereo overhead perspective. A pair of Neumann U87’s adds more depth to the room, whilst some Audio Technica 4081’s do a perfect job of capturing the natural reverb tail of the studio. We collected this really wide range of perspectives for you to mix exactly the sound you need.
Everything was recorded through through Neve and API preamps, an AMEK Rembrandt desk and captured at 96kHz using world-class Apogee AD16X analogue to digital convertors.
SOUND CONTROLS
Shape your sound
A wide 3-band equaliser, set for the sound of the bass. Very quickly scoop or boost the frequencies you need to without having to reach for another plugin. A little goes a long way.
A great sounding tape saturation plugin, ideal for thickening up the sound and adding some depth and subtle crunchiness. With gain and warmth controls.
6 curated reverb impulses that match our other instruments. From intimate rooms, to big epic halls, you’ll easily be able to find something that fits the mood and blend well with most mixes.
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Good to know
- Full version of Kontakt 5.6.8 and above
- Over 5100 samples
- Over 11GB uncompressed WAVs
- Downloads with Pulse download manager
- ~ 6.2 GB download size
- ~ 12.4 GB needed during installation
This instrument is only compatible with the full version of Kontakt 5.6.8 and above.
It will not work with the free Kontakt Player.
W A T E R M A R K I N G
BASS UNTAMED is automatically watermarked for each customer with unique identifying information which we use to track piracy.
