An authentic-sounding Beatle bass

How about just getting an Epiphone Hofner replica and learning to play bass.  The Rings Beat kit in session drummer 3 with a filter over the top, will also give you the tea towl sound.

JMO

Peace Ben

bitflipper


Check out the demos. To my ear it (Wavesfactory W-FabBass) sounds pretty authentic, especially in conjunction with their tea-towel drum kit.

I really like this approach of offering small, one-trick sample sets for cheap (10 euros).

Hm, doesn't seem to have hammer on's and pull off's...? its impossible to mimick MCartney without those. Just listen to the Come together demo: it only does a slide and completely skips the hammered notes! Not good at all imho... The same goes for Rain, where every note is plucked. Awful, really... Doesn't even come CLOSE to the original this way. The overall sound is indeed quite nice and authentic, that's true, but even for 10 bucks a plucked only bass is too limited. Unless you only plan to pluck away, of course. 

hellogoodbye

Unless you only plan to pluck away, of course.  

Has worked for me for over 30 years now

How about going back to college and becoming a dental hygenist?

How about putting a tea-towel over your head and clucking like a chicken?

How about just having some tea and forget the towel entirely?

Just blue-skying here.

The tone is dead on--it does sound authentic--very authentic in fact.  Shame about the hammer ons.

How do you think it compare to the "retro" bass in Trilian in tone (not in price)?

I've been searching for a great sampled Beatles Hofner 500/1 bass (and Rickenbacker) library for years. I've bought the Hofner bass libraries from Sonic Implants, Sampletank and Vir2's BASiS. I found all of them to be disappointing, with BASiS being the best of the three by far, but nowhere near the standard that has been set by Scarbee first, and more recently, by Orange Tree Samples (I've petitioned both of these devs over the years to do Hofner and Rickenbacker bass sample libraries, I'd even start up a petition at one of those petition sites if enough people will promise to sign up. FTR, I checked into Fab Four and was super excited about it when it first came out, but found the guitars and bases really disappointing and decided not to buy it).  

So, when Waves Factory (Jesus) sent out an email for this new bass library, I was super excited. But my hopes were quickly dashed when I listened to the demos. I mean, it's fine for 10 bucks or so, but I'd gladly pay a lot more for a deeply sampled, well scripted, ultra-realistic Hofner with sufficient velocity layers and round robins that meets the standard I've come to expect in terms of realism and playability from Orange Tree Samples or Scarbee bass libraries, especially for such an iconic sound as the Hofner 500/1. FTR, I wouldn't write off Waves Factory. Their Tea Towel Drum Kit is one of, if not, the best 10 bucks I've probably ever spent on a sample library. It easily would be a killer deal at 50 bucks. I recommend anyone looking for that tea towel sound to check into it, it's far better than I expected it would be. And the dev is working on another drum kit library too, so I'm very interested on that front. 

Glyn Barnes

edrummist


(and Rickenbacker) . 

+10 on that one. I would love to have the Chris Squire tone at my disposal with the knd of control afforded by the Scarbee basses.

Chris Squire is one of my all time favorite rock bass players, but I've always had the tone in mind of another English rock bass player who famously played both a Rickenbacker and a Hofner 500/1. To me that would be fantastic. But I've been hoping for a high end sample dev to do that and asking them for probably ten years now. Nothing. And I'm certain, done well and promoted well, these libraries would be good sellers.  

Earlybird


You can't beat playing the bass, not yet anyway ?

I think everyone would agree that in most cases a well played real instrument will beat a well played virtual instrument.
 
A possiible exception will be keyboards where the same interface is used. You won't beat a top end grand properly mic'ed up but you will beat a crappy one in a bad room.
 
But we can all play everything, or afford to bring in session players (particularly if you are a hobbiest) and some of the latest virtual instruments are very good and will beat a poorly played real instrument if used properly.

bitflipper

You won't beat a top end grand properly mic'ed up but you will beat a crappy one in a bad room.

I'd take that one step further: a good sampled piano will beat any high-end acoustical piano that isn't recorded really, really well, whether because it's in a too-small room or because of improper miking.

The same case can't be as easily made for bass, because recording bass properly is so much easier than recording piano. Take it direct, and the room and mics become irrelevant. But there are still good reasons to use sampled bass. For one, it's easier to get even levels without resorting to gobs of compression. For another, you don't have to worry about the bass player raiding your fridge while the rest of the band is working.

I'd still take Paul McCartney or most any bass player recorded poorly over a 'not quite sounding' McCartney sampled bass recorded perfectly any day.

I'd still take Paul McCartney or most any bass player recorded poorly over a 'not quite sounding' McCartney sampled bass recorded perfectly any day.

I would, too. BTW, I'm impressed that Sir Paul comes over to your place! He won't even return my calls.