BASS UNTAMED
SOLO DOUBLE BASS FOR KONTAKT
Double bass doesn't have to be boring
A bass that's not for the traditionalist
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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
Solo Double Bass
HIGHLIGHTS
222 improvised notes
New STORMS articulation
Glue (you’ll see)
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
“This is my favorite bass instrument I own, hands down. One of those instruments you want to just keep to yourself because of how awesome it is, but at the same time wanting to tell the world how awesome it is. Whatever Westwood does next is an instant buy.”
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
“What I’d like people to get from this, is a real kind of sound, colour and a world, that you don’t ever really hear.”
Sam Becker
DOUBLE BASSIST FOR BASS UNTAMED
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.
PULSE
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.
EFFECTS
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.
DYNAMICS
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
“It sounds like a double bass that has single handedly experienced the story of The Revenant in real life; fending for itself for years in the ice and snow. A truely wild and untamed instrument. Perfect for tense drama or horror scores. A must buy for fans of films like ‘Joker’ or ‘The Dark Knight’.”
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
A full guide through the whole instrument. Listen to all the articulations, mic positions and how to get the best out of the controls.
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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 11 GB uncompressed WAVs
- Downloads with Pulse download manager
- ~ 6.2 GB download size
- ~12.4 GB needed during installation
PLEASE NOTE
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.
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.
FAQ
What type of music is this best suited for?
We think this double bass has a wide scope for many genres. It’s ideal for a score that needs to sound big, angry and tense, but equally at home in a soulful folk-inspired small string section.
It’s not an instrument for writing intricate melodies or legato passages. Where it really shines is minimalist music where the sound and feeling create the music.
Some of the improvisations are soft and fragile, so would be really well suited to a delicate, heart-felt narrative, but further up the range the improvisations get pretty erratic which are perfect for aggressive scenes and horror scores.
Will this sound good on my homage to John Williams?
Not really. Whilst we all grew up listening to one of the greats, this isn’t really the instrument to re-create the Flying Theme from E.T.
However we think it could do an awesome job on a modern, alternative version of Jaws.
Will this work on the free Kontakt Player?
You need the full version of Kontakt 5.6.8 or above. It will NOT work in the free Player version of Kontakt. Please make sure you have the correct version before purchasing. If you need help, we have a fully-loaded guide to Kontakt which you can read here.
Can I use this in commercial releases?
Yes! What you can’t do is repackage the individual samples or re-release them as another sample library, but you can absolutely use them to make the next score to a film about a family terrorised on vacation by their own doppelgängers.