...I think I may have to get the full patch bank when the cash is flowing.
 
Seriously I just treated these as if they were a live recorded bass (I did some fancy tricks on them) and they are a total punch in the face... just like I'd expect from a sweet ass bass track. This is full on metal.
 
They thin out a bit/get kind of hairy in the upper range (like for up the fretboard solos... but most basses do anyway) but the bottom range is exactly what I needed. Still gonna try the Hardgroove Rapture stuff but these are fitting my trying unbelievably well.
 
For everyone else... I am referring to the freebies in the Cake blog but the full banks are in the Cake store for sale. I am doing a full tilt metal mix which ultra thick crunchy guits. I set Dpro to output two mono channels (instead of one stereo channel). Did a wicked low pass on the first channel and left it clean with some compression (big, fat and round) and on the second did a high pass (to focus in on the pick sound/high end then ran it through GR5 through a Marshall emu set to add drive and bite (like Lemmy would... and TH2 can totally acheive this as well). Both sent to a bus with a bit more compression and EQ....
 
Bingo Bango my kick and guits sound like someone kicking f*ck out of my face. Brilliant.
 
Again... many thanks. I'm posting this simply because it is that good and I'm sooper pumped. Gonna try this using ARA to extract the MIDI of parts I've actually played to double up (was previously using Zeta+ on Picked Alembic patch).
 
Cheeeeeers!!!!
 
 
Edit: It has recently come to my attention the EB5 Patches are actually on sale (I think) until Sept 23....
 
https://shop.cakewalk.com/1244/catalog/product.151213/language.en/currency.CAD/?id=S8ih7RkR8y
 
I do not work for Cakewalk or anybody. I do consider myself sponsored by the Cake Forum user base so ya... I'm an idgit but I try to provide useful info when I can. The freebies are really good live bass sounds (for metal anyway and I'm sure much more) so the full bank is likely even more awesome. I know Craig did some extra fancy awesomeness to the full version.
 
 

Nice work Beep.
 
You've come a long way the last couple of years

I bought the full set.  I don't do metal (although I like it) but find the library excellent when I want the bass to come through melodically.  Of course, it is good for any application, but I find it has enough mids and highs to provide needed clarity when the bass is playing an interesting part.

Bristol_Jonesey
Nice work Beep.
 
You've come a long way the last couple of years

Thanks, dood. All credit goes the forum (particularly my buds like you). Still a looong way to go though.
 
Funny thing is the "trick" I describe in the OP is something I learned ealry on (like 6 months in of digging into Sonar). I'm better trained to do it correctly now though and have some better source material so that helps too.
 
Cheeers!
 

konradh
I bought the full set.  I don't do metal (although I like it) but find the library excellent when I want the bass to come through melodically.  Of course, it is good for any application, but I find it has enough mids and highs to provide needed clarity when the bass is playing an interesting part.

Yes, indeed. Very sonically rich (on the free samples anyway) which one would expect from a such a good bass. It responds well and appropriately to the stuff it should (like an amp sim).
 
When I was talking about it going wonky higher up I think it's more about the orchestration and mix I'm working with. After some tweaks I think I can get it to behave better with some volume/EQ/bus automation when a high up noodly part kicks in. Bass patches sound a little weird being fed by un-humanized MIDI anyway which I think is a huge part of the problem on this track (I intend to eventually get right into the PRV and fix it up).
 
Cheers.
 
PS: Apparently those patches are on sale so I updated the OP with a link.

Beepster
The freebies are really good live bass sounds (for metal anyway and I'm sure much more) so the full bank is likely even more awesome. I know Craig did some extra fancy awesomeness to the full version.

IIRC the freebie isn't multisampled to the same degree. The freebie has only one multisampled sound, the tuned coil tap neck and bridge pickups. The full-blown version has all eight possible timbres and multisamples for all of them.
 
Don't forget a little treble boost never hurts either when you want to bring out the pick sounds and get more articulation. Also, the EB5 patches work well with the four CA-X bass amps when you want more of an "amp sound." 
 
And don't forget the bottom octave with the slides! They add realism when you throw them in from time to time.
 
Rock on!!

Oh and I checked out the actual patch I was using in DP. Craig actually already had it set up to have a low and round sound in one of the "Elements" and high and tight in a second "Element".
 
I just took that too the extreme outside of DP. If I had gone in and edited the elements inside DP I could have gotten some sick shiz going too but I wanted to use a sim and some of the Sonar PC compressors (and then combine it all into a bus).
 
Actually now I got an idea (which I won't use for this). DP could be set to multi timbral and maybe Element one could be sent to the Left output (mono) and the Element two to the right (mono) instead of how I did it (using the full stereo image split then tweaking the tracks to essentially do the same thing).
 
Might be fun to play with. Not sure if you can directly output elements that way but if not just panning each one would acheive the desired result (I think).

Anderton
IIRC the freebie isn't multisampled to the same degree.

Ya... I think this is likely the most important thing for me and I know it's been pointed out to me before (but I wasn't sure exactly what the extra complexity was).
 
I think it might stand up better to the crazy solo/noodly stuff I'm feeding it... especially after I humanize it.
 
and I will check it out with the CA amps maybe for some of my blues rock adventures. I wanted a Lemmy sound for this so when straight for a Marshall emu (but maybe the CA chains would do the same thing... I'm just used to working inside sims and getting the ultra control).
 
For a lot of direct bass stuff I usually just toss some stauration on in the PC instead of a sim but I could definitely see the CA chains giving me a much better/more tweakable version of that setup.
 
Cheers!

Beepster
and I will check it out with the CA amps maybe for some of my blues rock adventures. I wanted a Lemmy sound for this so when straight for a Marshall emu (but maybe the CA chains would do the same thing... I'm just used to working inside sims and getting the ultra control).
 
For a lot of direct bass stuff I usually just toss some stauration on in the PC instead of a sim but I could definitely see the CA chains giving me a much better/more tweakable version of that setup.
 

About the amp sims...as you've probably figured out by now the most important thing for me is being able to work at the speed of inspiration. I certainly know how to program amp sims and save presets but I'd still end up tweaking them and that could be time-consuming. 
 
So I created amps for specific genres, and brought all the combinations of parameters I tweak out to "surface" controls so I didn't have to go inside the sim. A lot of times tweaking involves going back and forth between controls, so it was easier to have one knob to adjust them all simultaneously.
 
The main tweaks I do involve the highs (I tend to "load bright" and then tone down as appropriate) and work with the mid freqs to either add "meat" or get out of the way of other instruments, and that's pretty much it. The other controls, like stereo width and such, I'll tweak during the mix.

I sure like that " speed of inspiration " tag you have come up with 
 
Kenny

Andrew keeps asking me to do a video of my "Recording/songwriting on the Fast Track" seminar about how to move really fast with SONAR. One of these days...