How to make soul samples with:
We guide you, the music enthusiast, producer, beat maker and musician on a journey.
Gaining insights on how to put the right sounds together and make it all fit.
With this series we'll provide you with the top 5 bass guitar vsts that deliver the warm, rich and soulful tones needed for vintage soul sample based productions of the 70s.
From soul ballads to symphonic soul and cinematic funk, we got you covered.
In no ranking order:
1, UVI Soul Bass
Soul bass hasn't been around long but has seen a quick rise amongst users.
It's a hybrid bass instrument aimed at both vintage and modern use.
Deeply Samples Electric Bass:
Based on a 1960s Jazz bass. string by string with multiple articulations of hammer ons, pull offs, slides and harmonics.
Playing styles range from finger, bridge ,neck, mute, pick and slap.
Hybrid Electric and Synth Bass:
Featuring the ability to layer the bass with analog, FM, physical modelling , vintage digital and raw waveform bass sources. adding extra flexibility.
Effects & Tone Controls:
Uvi soul bass features dual layered effects including a tube screamer, chorus, phazer, feedback compressor, impulse response based convolver, mastering eq, compressor with multiple reverb and delay sends.
Interface:
The interface is clean and intuitive where you can browse presets, patterns control layers, tones performance settings, and also build and tweak effects as well as trigger articulations and key switches.
Key Features:
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Authentic vintage bass timbres with deep sampling
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Includes both electric and synth bass for versatility
- 200 hand crafted presets tailored to soul and funk styles
2. Spectrasonics Trilian
Trilian by Spectrasonics is an oldie but goody.
Released back in 2009 and still going strong and If it ain't broke don't fix it!
At its time of release it was considered the most powerful bass instrument released and is highly suitable for recreating soul samples.
With over 30gb of synth basses from moog, oberheim and more,
Trillian offers multiple electric basses like the Music man studio Bass, Jazz bass and Precision bass featuring detailed multi sampling and articulations.
You get round robin and velocity layers for realism and dynamic string switching for simulating hand positions, ideal for expressive playing if your gonna be cranking out soul samples.
Presets:
You will find presets that fit genres in Motown, Neo soul, Funk and R&b.
Despite its age Trillian is still a top tier bass instrument with a powerful sound engine thats been updated over the many years and features 64bit.
Key Features:
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Extensive library with realistic acoustic and electric basses.
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Synth bass options inspired by analog classics.
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Highly expressive dynamics for authentic performances.
Native Instruments Scarbee Rickenbacker Bass:
Based on the Rickenbacker 4003,
This gem of a plugin by Native Instruments, excels at classic soul and bluesy runs.
Authentic Sound Design:
Rick O Sound Stereo Output:
- Captures the unique stereo output of the Rickenbacker 4003, Splitting signals from the neck and the bridge pickups into two channels for independant processing or blending.
Picked Articulations:
- Features both open picked or palm muted articulations played with a pick for added punch and attack.
Built in effects:
- Jump Amp from Guitar Rig
- Tape saturation for analog warmth.
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SSL modeled compressor and eq
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7 Cabinet simulations
Why It Stands Out
With advanced scripting and built in effects, whether you need punchy articulations or warm vintage tones, this plugin is a must have for producers seeking authentic bass sounds for vintage soul samples.
4. IK Multimedia Modo Bass
A powerhouse bass that gets the job done and very well!
Greatly suited for Soul, Funk & R&b, with expressiveness that models string behaviour, pickup response, body resonance and hand technique.
Over the years modo bass has seen 2 updates from 1.5 to version 2, each time adding more basses and functionality. At present, modo bass 2 features an impressive 22 basses.
Genre Focused Patterns:
A new pattern browser offers over 1000 midi grooves, draggable straight into your daw, sorted by genre, and style.
Tone and FX generation:
Includes 7 stomp box style effects, including distortion, chorus, compression and 2 Amplitude modelled bass amps - (tube and solid state).
All electronics, pickup settings, and. amp parameters. are fully customisable,
Key Features:
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Physical modelling allows customisation of string type, pickup placement and more.
- Includes iconic vintage bass models used in soul music
- Lightweight plugin with realistic performance capabilities.
5. Retrograde Bass for Kontakt
The new kid on the block!
Retrograde Bass by Teletone Audio is a Kontakt powered virtual bass released in July 2023,
Designed to emulate the expressive sound of the 1960s session bass players.
Presenting you with both palm muted style and vintage amp/mic combos, theirs no reason you can't get classic soul bass out of this thing.
In addition:
like some of the other reputable bass vst's, You get the expressive articulations from smooth to open string using the mode wheel and additional synth layers to beef up your low end.
Key Features:
- Authentic 602 style sampling
- Vintage amp and mic modeling
- Warped lo fi textures
- Blend synth layers
- Built in effects rack
Summary:
Whether you're flipping vintage vinyl or laying down a groove from scratch, the essence of soul music lies in emotion, texture and groove.
Tools like Retrograde Bass, Trilian, Modo Bass and Scarbee Rickenbacker offer exactly what you need in the digital realm to recreate that warmth, grit and human feel into you productions.
For producers its all about layering authenticity with intention - Rich bass lines, dusty chords, live feeling drums and expressive melodies.
For musicians its about capturing that imperfect perfection that makes classic soul music timeless.
At the end of the day, soul music isn't a plugin! Its a feeling that these tools are used to translate.
With all this said, lets recreate timeless golden era soul samples.