PlanetZ forums - scopeusers.com

This is a remix of a tune I've posted before, but this time it uses the Jaco Iconic Bass sample set for Kontakt from

http://www.orangetreesamples.com/jaco

So the MIDI track now drives the Iconic Bass in Kontakt.

http://soundcloud.com/hitfoundry/luc-po ... aco-iconic

I didnt do much tweaking in the Bass UI, just selected one of the cabinet settings, no tweaking of velocities etc. It would probably be better if I 'played' the bass MIDI again rather than retrofit the VST to existing MIDI, but overall apart from that Im pleased w/ the sound of Iconic Bass.

Even though its called 'fretless' but the GUI shows a fretted bass (??)

that would be interesting to see how far it can go to fake a 'real' player.
The 'main sequence' is just plain boring from the instruments articulation, which you proabably expected anyway
The 'fills' are much better, a bit Jazzbass on steroids (first thought: wtaf Warwick - but then some of Jaco's records feature a similiar tone indeed).
I'm not exactly a fan of him, but had a severe phase of Weather Report in the late 70s, so had to refresh...
Anyway I find it difficult to sample someone with such (a specific) articulation and expression.
But I don't relate this to his very high standard in playing technique. It's the handling of plucking and damping of strings and 'chronological' sequence of these event in microtiming.

cheers, Tom

I think the sample pack, like many in Kontakt, does a good job of humanizing a sequence in round robining velocity attacks. And activating one of the cab models gives a smoother more rounded sound by removing some of the string/fret noise. But in order to really humanize the playing ( ie fake a real player), you have to actually spend a lot of time thinking about articulations and velocities.

I rarely do that (except for some pitch bending which goes a long way to giving a fretless feel) mainly because Im more focused on composition than performance. If I want bass guitar, I generally record the real thing but I only have fretted, and couldnt play fretless properly anyway. In that context, this Orange Tree is quite good and offers a reasonable 'quick' result, that is, better than other Kontakt / or Halion ones I've tried (as you'd expect for the $$).

yeah, just noticed the fineprint about scripting and requirement of the 'full' version of Kontakt...

cheers, Tom

I cant be bothered with scripting, thats what I meant about being time consuming. But its good to know I could get closer to a more humanized sound if I ever wanted to spend the time though. Theres no way Id consider that as getting closer to sounding like Jaco though. Ive seen the man live