German pro audio company, Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, recently shipped Virtual Bassist, the company’s newest virtual instrument. Based on real performances by studio bass players, Virtual Bassist offers a range of bass phrases, grooves and styles covering musical styles ranging through rock, pop, reggae, metal and hip hop, among others.
Using Steinberg’s other “Virtual Band” applications Groove Agent 2, Virtual Guitarist and Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition you can find a set of grooves that perfectly match the rhythm parts from those instruments, essentially forming a backing band, according to Steinberg.
Virtual Bassist also includes GrooveMatch technology, which allows users to quickly adapt their Virtual Bassist parts to drum grooves, molding bass parts to existing beats. Steinberg’s Virtual Bassist can also be played with MIDI keyboard notes selecting the pitch of the played groove while the Modulation wheel allows simultaneous and dynamic switching between groove complexity levels.
Virtual Bassist supports all major plug-in formats such as VST, DXi, and AU. ReWire support offers easy integration into Pro Tools, while the standalone version allows Virtual Bassist to be used without a host application.
Virtual Bassist costs US$249.99.