IK Multimedia / MODO Bass 2

[Piet De Ridder]

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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[Guy Rowland]

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.

[Piet De Ridder]

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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