Bass Harmonic Chimes
Bass harmonics sampled and layered with some effects to produce a chime-like ethereal sound.
ByKris Afflerbaugh
The story
As the name suggests, this sample is created from electric bass harmonics, specifically a fender P bass. My main, and first real instrument I played professionally is the bass, and I always thought it would be cool to sample the harmonics. I have the instrument layered with the original audio files, and then an additional sample that is delay and reversed delay, and both files looped. The result is a really beautiful sound that evolves. Use the mod wheel for filter control. Some people have commented that you wouldn’t want to make a bass line with this. I realize that the name may be contrary to this, but it was never really my intention to make bass lines with this instrument (although the lower notes do sound good as a low pad) but rather to play it in higher registers where the instrument truly shines and sparkles. Check out the demo I created (“coming home”) for an idea of my intent when I created the instrument.
Update: As of 07/12/22 a Kontakt version of this instrument is finally available. In a lot of ways it’s a completely new instrument. I’ve re-sampled the entire range, and even added velocity layers this go-around. The new UI is much slicker (or rather there is one at all) and is accompanied by some UI knobs to give the user much more control. I’ll record a new demo with the new version soon.
Interface
Reviews
The bassy harmonics you might need
This download will offer you a very well crafted instrument based on bass harmonics, but it also comes with these lovely additional little cute droplet voices that can spark your creativity and give a nice lively touch to your music. I wish there was an option to activate only those though, but you can kinda do that if you set the attack around the middle. Sometimes those chimes might appear to have a kind of clicky attack, especially when the sample loops, so you need to keep that in mind.
Bass harmonics, but so much more!
This sample pack is so much more than its title suggests. The bass harmonics are well recorded but they do have a bit of noise. The thing that makes this library really special IMHO is the inclusion of a special "layer:rev" which adds delay and reverb to the signal. The delay doesn't come across as delay, however, it comes across as a re-triggering of the sound, which is much more inspiring and fascinating. This library is definitely one of the most useful in this category, and a true hidden gem of the PB site!