The Sound Board

MODO Bass 2 is out.

• New CS version available for anyone for free
• New fretless bass instruments available for purchase: Fretless Jazz and Fretless Bass Man
• New fingerboard option to turn any bass fingerboard to fretless or fretted*
• New double bass instruments: Studio Upright and Rockabilly
• New MICS tab to tweak the microphones position for double basses
• 4 new fretted basses available for purchase: Punk Bass, Fusion J-Bass, Horn Bass and Aluminum
• New PATTERNS tab with over a thousand bass patterns of all genres and styles**
• New Custom Shop implementation to purchase any bass a-la-carte
• Redesigned sound engine for Pick and Slap playstyles
• Improved sound engine for Hammer On/Pull Off, Bend and Slide articulations
• New redesigned GUI
• Apple M1 Native compatibility

*Included with SE versions and above
**Free starter set of Patterns included with CS.

Audio demos can be found here.

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IAs I think I've said a few times now, Modo Bass is a strange product for me that I think is really very good, but I never ever use, either reaching for the comfort of Trilian for a specific sound or - usually - the real bass hanging on the wall next to me. Curiosity meant I did install the free version of MB2 (it does load all my v1 instruments), and it felt remarkably similar - but of course I don't have the new basses, including those uprights. The pick still doesn't sound great to me, slap is ok but fingered is really good. Doubt I would ever use the patterns, but the fretless option looks useful. I'm a little wary now that even the full version doesn't come with all the instruments, it feels like a bottomless pit.

t's a very steep upgrade price for v1 users - $149. If it ever drops to $49, I might try it for the acoustics.

The two acoustics are on their way to being half-decent but no more than that. Certainly no match for the better sampled instruments that one can buy.

On the whole v2 is a bit underwhelming, I find, but given how good v1 is, that was only to be expected. MODOBass 1 is, in my view, a tour de force of modelling, so good that it makes an equally sensational follow-up an impossibility. (If it were a possibility that would mean there’s a lot in v1 that can be seriously improved upon, and I don’t think there is. Little things, yes, but nothing fundamental.)

It is disappointing though that the pick hasn’t improved more. That was the one thing I was looking forward to. (The slap articulation doesn’t work very well in the (full) version I installed earlier today: more clicks than slap sounds. I think we’ll see an unpdate soon to fix this little problem.)

Haven’t tried the patterns yet and it’s not something I’m eager to explore, but for other people this feature might be a valuabe addition, I don’t know.

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Well I've stumbled upon this plugin here and got interested in it while looking for a new plugin. So for those of you who’e actually used MB2, especially with the new upright or fretless basses how real does it feel to play? Like, do the acoustics vibe right in a mix, or does it still feel a bit "modeller-y"?

Would love to hear your thoughts before I sell a kidney for the full bundle

I'm still of much the same opinion as I was three years ago (see my post above). In fact, last year, when cleaning up my plug-ins folder, I uninstalled MODO Bass 2 — MODO 1 giving me everything I expect from this software — and it was only after reading your post, yuroyuro — a very warm welcome, by the way! — that I installed it again today and spent another half hour with MODO's acoustic bass. Summing up my impressions of that half hour: I'm going to uninstall MODO Bass 2 again after posting this message. I have no use whatsoever for it. (Granted, the electric basses have some improvements over the v1 versions, but not in a way that matters to me and certainly not in a way that is still audible after the bass is processed and mixed.)

But if you want a very playable, expressive and decent sounding collection of electric basses, MODO Bass 2 is without a doubt an excellent choice. If however your interest is mainly in more or less believable upright acoustic basses, I would look elsewhere.

A particularly annoying problem with the MODO2 Upright, I find, is that it is very unevenly resonant from one note to the next. (I.o.w. the frequency peaks change drastically from one note to the next and are in several cases *very* pronounced too.) Making it a rather challenging instrument to turn into a consistent, solid and stable presence in a mix.

You've probably already heard all the demo audio material of MODO Bass 2 that is available online, but if you're still interested in some examples — comparing the MODO Bass 2 Upright with, for example, the uprights from Ample Sound, Premier Sound Factory, Native Instruments, Bolder, Trilian, ... — I can make you a few. Let me know and I'll leave MODO Bass 2 installed until those audio examples are done.

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