Straight Ahead Bass v1.0.1

Straight Ahead Bass v1.0.1 [DVD / Kontakt]

Straight Ahead Samples is pleased to announce Straight Ahead! Bass. Taking from all that was learned on our Drums and Brushes & Mallets libraries, SAS dove right away into creating a realistic upright bass library. Our focus is similar to our drum libraries; the sound and the feel.  Featuring our new “Accented Legato” script which is more than just stock legato transitions, this mimics the way  players truly move from note to note.

Features

• Deeply sampled beautiful, 7/8 size double bass
• 3 microphone positions w/ user-controlled interface
• Multiple articulations
• 4 velocity, 4 round robins
• “Accented Legato” scripting for realistic legato playing
• Arco
• 3.19 GB size

About the Recording Process

In our efforts to capture the most realistic and natural playing, we chromatically sampled the instrument by playing a musical phrase, that naturally contained all the articulations that we needed.  By doing it this way, we got a much truer representation of what “8th notes,” “quarter notes,” and legato transitions actually sound like when someone is playing.  This is because, even though players deeply understand their own technique and what these articulations are supposed to sound like, there are subtle nuances (and imperfections) to the notes when someone is playing a phrase; i.e. a player plays an short note differently if he/she’s just playing isolated short notes, than if they play them in a string of eighth notes.

We also used this recording technique to great effect for our “Accented Legato” script.  We recorded and extracted the appropriate legato transitions from only the particular part of the beat that we wanted, to get a more realistic legato transition that can only happen by recording this way.

Randall Pharr

Randall Pharr has been bass instructor about both VCU and University of Richmond in Richmond, Virginia. Randall has performed or recorded with such acclaimed artists as Clark Terry, Bill Mays, Bob Moses, Steve Wilson, Bruce Hornsby, Marvin Stamm, The Great American Music Ensemble, Frank Foster, Jimmy Heath, Jon Faddis,  Bob Moses, Charlie Haden, John D’earth, Robert Jospe, Tim Reynolds, LeRoi Moore, Carter Beauford, Mark Murphy, Valery Ponomarev, and Charlie Byrd.  His huge sound and steam-rolling walking bass feel made him a natural choice for Straight Ahead! Bass.

The Bass

• -7/8 size
• -Fully carved
• -Gamba shaped
• -Branded:  G.A. Pfretzschner, Markneukirchen,
• -Circa late 19th or early 20th century.