Soniccouture Abstrakt Bass

This is a multi-sampled instrument ranging from synth basses to actual stringed basses. As with other Kontakt instruments, this is a pretty simple process of installing and loading (this is not a library so you need to find it under "Files"). The setup is simple enough with all the controls for the particular instrument/patch are right on the GUI. Essentially you get basic controls including Attack/Decay, Cutoff/Resonance, Reverb and amp/mic features on certain patches.

SOUND QUALITY

I would say that going through the entire library (about 1.6gb) you get a nice spread of Bass instruments. The addition of the Stringed Bass guitars is pretty sweet. I used them a lot for demo writing before I picked up NI's MM Bass. I keep this as a "back up" to my real bass during performance as it is not CPU hungry and has a pretty solid sound. I run this in Kontakt 5 on a MBP i7 and an RME Fireface 800 Interface. I use this mainly for electronica and I have to say it's pretty solid for that style. Some of the "moog" style sounds aren't as pleasing to me only because I have a Slim Phatty right next to me that certainly sounds a lot bigger.

OVERALL OPINION

What I like most about this set is it is relatively small and packs a good punch. It offers a lot of different sounds and they also employ a specific engine that reduced aliasing sounds and keeps the "beat" of the sample across the whole keyboard. I also really like the fact that I only paid $15 for it as Soniccouture was "retiring" this plugin and offered a cheap price. There is not much to dislike about this set, especially at that price point. I give it a 9 out of 10 for sound. The sounds are good, but when don't quite capture the fullness of a real bass or my Slim Phatty's Bass sounds. I now use NI's MM Amped for my "mobile" bass sounds and it is much better in terms of "real" bass reproduction, but it also is about 14gb's larger and a heck of a lot more CPU hungry. I don't think you can get this at $15 anymore, but I could be wrong. If you can, it never hurts to have more options and that is a low price for some.