Bass Pedals is the second meticulously sampled analogue instrument from Wave Alchemy, a company best known for its extensive libraries of carefully crafted drum hits. Where the first instrument took apart the classic Prophet One, this new library delves into the depths of the original Moog Taurus Mk1 bass synth.
The full version totals 4.5GB across 3,207 samples and includes 28 heavily multisampled patches created with the Taurus itself. There are also individual sampled oscillators laid out in a custom Kontakt GUI, with 40 presets to show off the possibilities on offer. The reason this pack is so large is due to the 3x round-robin samples and long note tails, which help to retain the detail and imperfections of the original unit. For less money you have the option of a smaller version without the 3x sampling; alternatively, there’s a Live Pack version, but you’ll lose out on the excellent Kontakt scripting and GUI.
The main two editing sections are the Preset page for tweaking the multisampled Taurus sounds and a Raw page for crafting your own by layering up the two oscillators plus a sub-oscillator and noise generator. You’ll find the usual synth controls for filters and envelopes, with an LFO hardwired to oscillator pitch and a superb custom-scripted oscillator drift for creating thick, detuned movement.
As the wave selection on the Taurus is limited to a collection of simple saws, Wave Alchemy has extended the palette by also offering saturated waves processed via an Empirical Labs Fatso. There’s also an effects page with EQ, chorus, saturation, distortion and convolution reverb, plus fantastic IRs recorded from an Eventide DSP-7000 Harmonizer. Finally, you’ll find a Controls page from where you can tweak the monophonic behaviour, portamento, pitch bend and velocity settings.
Bass Pedals is arguably not as flexible as the previous instrument, Pro II – it has fewer original instrument sounds and doesn’t comes with a built-in pattern sequencer. However, it excels as a heavyweight analogue bass instrument and comes highly recommended for anyone looking for incredibly fat and warm sounds.
Verdict
A carefully constructed instrument that combines multisampled bass sounds and a flexible set of oscillators and controls.
Rating: 9/10
Original Source - Music Tech
