Maschine does this and then some.
With Kontakt libraries and/or any plugin.

 

The best thing you can do is buy a bass guitar and learn how to play it. It is a very percussive instrument, and most of the sound comes out of your fingers (and/or plectrum). You can really shape the sound to fit your music.

Ditto guitar, and vocals. You can never beat the real thing when it comes to these elements. I use Addictive Drums for composing, but I always use a real drummer for recording, even if it's with E-Drums. There is something about human interaction that cannot be replaced, as every piece of music is unique and has it's own feeling and dynamics.

The exception of course is electronic music if you are looking for a predictable and repeatable outcome.

 

Last edited: Jul 28, 2017

i'm guitarrist, but i'm poor that's the reason that i ask for a software solution

 

Tried that riff feature and to be completely frank: It´s Soo hard to work with! But anyway: Thatks for your head up Xupito

 

I have been in this situation. But I found my music got stuck with all of my sounds coming out of a computer. My solution was to sell most of my stuff and to carefully look around for some used instrument bargains. I don't have many possessions left now, but what I do have is used well.

 

Sorry, guitar players, but some of us are keyboard players and (like it or not) play guitar, bass and drums (as well as choirs, orchestras, banjos, etc.) off a keyboard. As somebody who has scored a few films, I can tell you that a lot of keyboard-centric composers neither have the time to learn how to play guitar, nor the money (or, in some cases, the patience) to hire a guitar player in order to get that "real guitar/Ampex tape/vintage tube compressor/everything else is bullshit" sound that I'm led to understand is the only way possible to get people to like your music. Sometimes, you can tell it's fake and sometimes, you can't. Depends on the playing and the sound you are playing with. Guitar players have a natural bias against keyboards -- sometimes, I feel like it's more "threatened by" -- but if it helps, you can also trigger synths from a guitar. The system works both ways.

As for the OP, try IK Multimedia's MODO, best bass VI on the market. Once you have that, you can pretty much scour the Internet for MIDI bass tracks, which is pretty much exactly the same as loading up the included drum tracks in EZDrummer or Superior Drummer 2. Even better ... just make your own?

 

Last edited: Jul 28, 2017

I also play keyboards. I have an 88-key piano action keyboard and a few few real synths too. I started off with a laptop and a computer mouse, which for a long while was the total sum of my music making equipment, and then I worked my way up from there.

Personally I don't think it's a big deal to use guitars to make guitar sounds. In fact I encourage it as it is the only way to capture the unique playing style of an individual person. No two players can get the same sounds out of the same guitar, as there are way too many variables involved. Ditto keyboards, I use them to make piano and synth sounds. They are just different things that do different jobs

I worked hard and sacrificed a lot to obtain my very humble collection of musical instruments, and I am very satisfied with the role that each one plays in the music making process. It has also been my strategy to only buy used gear below market value, so that in the event of a sudden firesale, I have more of a chance to break even or possibly come out ahead. And most of us are only one paycheck away from needing to do that

 

Last edited: Jul 28, 2017

That's great, but again, some people aren't multi-instrumentalists, just keyboard players. I could understand your argument even ten years ago, as sampled basses, guitars and even drums were a bit more static and "fake" sounding than they are today, but with today's VI sample libraries, you have a drum kit that was already recorded in a great room with mics, A/D converters and outboard gear most of us couldn't afford, even if we were die-hard analog buffs, and with enough round-robin samples, mic-bleed samples and articulations that even a seasoned drummer would be hard-pressed to tell the difference between that and the real thing. Saying that a sampled bass is inferior to a real bass is a bad argument, simply because a sampled bass is a real bass, recorded in an ideal facility with ideal gear by a professional engineer and, most of the time, with parameters a real bass player could only dream about. Bass too noisy? Just turn down the fret or pickup noise while playing back your MIDI performance. Playing too close to the bridge? Switch positions. Wish you could do a legato slide or a pull-off in that one section? Insert a keyswitch or extend a note. Want a more consistent performance? Turn the round-robin down or even off.

Now, performance-wise ... no. You're probably not going to beat a real drummer or a real guitar player, unless you spend a lot of time figuring out what to do with all those articulations and how to integrate them properly and convincingly. A lot of people aren't willing to do that, especially when they have a tight deadline, so you'll still have plenty of instances where a sampled bass sounds somehow fake.

 

Yes, I am taking about unique individual performance as the reason why I moved to real guitars. I do use software drums, but with midi generated by a real drummer using E-Drums. I'm all for a hybrid strategy, my amp is digital too, I'm just trying to capture the human element

Anyway, sorry to derail the thread. I've been through the same experiences as the OP regarding sound sources, and my path led me to stringed instruments. Of course everybody is different, and we have to find out what works the best for us.

 

Last edited: Jul 28, 2017

From what you seem to want, I'd say collect as many bass guitar loop libraries as you can. You'll get real playing and performance. Cut, splice, loop. I do it a lot and I get a very realistic result.

 

@pelao you are a guitar player. Save your money and invest in Jam Origin's MIDIguitar. Not only do bass samples played with a two semitone pitchbend allow for natural vibrato, the random pitch is very organic since it's triggered by your electric. $100.

The next item I would recommend is the Ibanez Mikro bass. Once setup properly, it is one of the easiest things to play and sounds decent after normal processing. I have the 4 sting. I might pick up a 5 soon.

 

The only thing I don't personally like about using loops is that it's really someone else's recorded performance and not yours ... of course, you could say the exact same thing about a pre-recorded MIDI bass track (for the record, I use neither).

I work with MIDI guitars, basses and drums, etc., but I always try to actually play the tracks I'm recording, rather than drag and drop somebody else's MIDI loops or tracks into my own music. Otherwise ... what's the point of even making music? Worst case scenario, the OP could always try finding a real bass player to work with?

 

Could try this:-

 

But if you aren't a bass player then in what instance is it not somebody else playing? Sorry, I've been copping a lot of criticism for my double negatives lately. Basically there's only a few kinds of approach to bass parts. You can just anchor the root chord, which doesn't require much skill and much of the time that will suffice. (sadly, most people don't even acknowledge this) Then there's the McCartney style where it's almost a lead melody in itself. Then you have jazz fusion virtuosos. You might sound like Jacob Pastorius on a keyboard with the right skills, but demand for this would at best be limited.
Hard to offer advice when the style of song is unknown.

 

The best SOUNDING Bass right now is in my opinion Ik Multimedia MODO BASS. But it's an audio plugin. I haven't have time yet to trie, but maybee you can make midi files with pianoRoll and somehow import it into MODO BASS ?.. Anyone tried this already ?..Check manual or homesite otherwise. Good luck.

 

Any instance where you, the keyboard player, are actually playing bass guitar or bass synth patch? That's still your playing; you're still determining which notes are played at whatever velocity and with whatever nuance or articulation the patch allows you to. The difference between playing a bass guitar patch on a keyboard and just dropping in a bass loop or a bass MIDI loop is, a bass audio or MIDI loop has already been played by whoever created the loop, you're just determining when it starts and stops, and, in some cases, what key it's in.

As far as what constitutes a bass line or how to properly play it, that's a whole other story. If you need to figure out how to write a bass line for your song, you'll either need to have a basic understanding of music arrangement or be part of a band where someone knows how to play and create bass guitar or synth parts. Though, if you play piano at all (using both hands), then chances are pretty high that whatever your left hand is doing is "the bass part".

 

The world's first left-handed piano.

 

I agree with you man. This is a great instrument and very inspiring and fun to play with.
It sounds awesome and there are so many tweak able parameters to play with. Many hours of fun ...

 

unbelievable... Thanks for sharing this.
Can you imagine the laugh and fun any normal pianist could have playing on one of those ?