Reason Studios Electric Bass ?

[ChulaCoola]

Does anybody here use this? If so, what do you think of it? And does it have the Gibson Thunderbird? That would seal the deal for me, though I might buy it even without it.

[joeyluck]

From the manual:

• Jazz Bass (f)
A 1968 Fender Jazz Bass played with the fingers.
• Precision (f)
A 1965 Fender Precision Bass played with the fingers.
• Precision (p)
A 1978 Fender Precision Bass played with a pick.
• EB-0 (f)
A 1972 Gibson EB-0 played with the fingers.
• Les Paul (f)
A 1969 Gibson Les Paul played with the fingers.
• Kay Hollowbody (p)
A 1963 Kay Hollowbody played with a pick.
• StingRay 5 Fretless (f)
A 2001 Music Man StingRay played with the fingers.
• Rickenbacker (p)
A 1974 Rickenbacker 4001 played with a pick.

I owned the ReFill before the RE and got some good use out of it. I also have the RE. I now use the UJAM Virtual Bassists much more. With the Virtual Bassists, there is legato which sounds great, and there's an Instrument mode so you can play it freely and that legato comes in handy. In Player mode, I like the phrases better than what the Bassline Generator player puts out. I also like the amp effects better. The UJAM stuff isn't currently on sale right now though, but when it does go on sale, it's much lower. I think $25/each or $55 for the bundle.

[ChulaCoola]

I did some research on the Ujam website, and demo'd the Reason Electric Bass, both have their pros. And some cons.

Reason E.B. -
Pros - You know what instruments/amps you are getting, And the bass sounds DEFINITELY sound like real basses, complete with string squeak, slight string buzz, etc. It sounds live.
Cons - the Reason amp choices are limited, although good. An Ampeg, a Fender. I usually hear that the Ampeg and Bassman was the popular choice. But that may have been for live performance. I suppose Reason was going for what recording studios used.

Ujam -
Pros - 6.5 gb of sounds. Good sounding, silky smooth sounding bass, at least on the Dandy pack.
Cons - They don't say what basses you get, only "The best they could find" - I am sure they didn't use junk, but the best they could find may have been Fender, Gibson, Guild, Gretsch or they might have been Ibanez, Yamaha, Epiphone, Squire.

I'd say off hand, both are good for what they offer. I'll probably go for the Reason for now. If I can afford Ujam later, I might get that too.

[joeyluck]

Cool. I was talking more specifically about the RE versions, which I guess there's only Royal and Rowdy (of the electric variety) and Mellow. With the VSTs though you get MIDI drag and drop, so that's nice. I've had my eye on Slap, which isn't available as a RE. I haven't tried Dandy yet.

[DaveyG]

The Reason basses were decent in their day but they are looking a bit long in the tooth. That's not to say that they are bad, just that there are better options now.

As well as the UJAM stuff take a look at IKM's MODO Bass:

https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/m ... p=versions

There is a free version with one bass model (p-bass) and you can expand from there if you want. And never pay full price for anything by IKM as they are regularly on offer!

The VST version of UJAM stuff is definitely better than the RE. They have added all sorts of stuff to the VSTs whilst the REs remain frozen in time. I don't know how the prices compare though.

[crimsonwarlock]

The Reason basses were decent in their day but they are looking a bit long in the tooth.

That's like saying a 1961 Fender P-bass is looking a bit long in the tooth

Those sounds don't age, and the Reason EB samples are rather well done tmo. I do agree with the statement made earlier about the limited amp selection, but a small assortment of Kuassa REs brings it to another level.

[DaveyG]

The Reason basses were decent in their day but they are looking a bit long in the tooth.

That's like saying a 1961 Fender P-bass is looking a bit long in the tooth

Nope. It's saying that the sampling technology, CPU power, RAM and disk space were more limited back then. You had to limit the number of samples, the number of layers and pretty much everything else. The interesting thing about MODO Bass is that it's physically modelled. It sounds superb to my aging ears but make up your own mind.

[challism]

There are so many bass options in my rack. REB has a lot of competition. I'm usually pleased when I do load it; I think the REB samples sound good. I like the assortment of guitars. A Kuassa amp is a good idea with the REB amp bypassed. I got UJam Virtual Bassist Mellow for $15 on sale. I wish I would have bought the others at that price. I haven't seen them that low ever before. The legato is really nice to have. I find myself using Mellow way more than REB, but it's not really fair to compare the two.

GUI wise, REB kicks Virtual Bassists' butt.

[PhillipOrdonez]

I like the sound, have used plenty. There’s just one thing I don’t like is that it doesn’t go low enough for my taste ( can’t use it on certain keys) I know that higher up on the keyboard I get some low notes as well but it still don’t go low enough for me… should read the manual to see if I’m missing something but I got no time or patience for that

[rorystorm]

I like the sound, have used plenty. There’s just one thing I don’t like is that it doesn’t go low enough for my taste ( can’t use it on certain keys) I know that higher up on the keyboard I get some low notes as well but it still don’t go low enough for me… should read the manual to see if I’m missing something but I got no time or patience for that

you can use the pitch wheel to pitch it down a little bit, just make an automation clip and draw in the lowest amount - it's a couple of semitones, I think?

but yeah, would be really cool if you could down tune it more.