Waves

Waves’ latest plugin is built to emulate just
one very speciic instrumental technique:
slap bass, the love-it-or-hate-it thumb-blasting
style personiied by the likes of Mark King,
Bootsy Collins, Stanley Clarke et al.
Bass Slapper (VST/AU/AAX/standalone) is an
entirely sample-based afair. Before you can use
it, you have to separately download either or
both of two sample libraries containing the
3700+ multisamples played back by the
proprietary Waves Sampler Engine (WSE) that
powers the plugin. The main ‘HD’ library uses
lossless compression for maximum idelity and
weighs in at 4.9GB, while the ‘SD’ library uses
lossy compression to reduce the footprint for
laptop or ‘draft’ usage, at the expense of a hit
to sound quality that may or may not be
noticeable depending on the musical context in
which it’s deployed.
The raw samples were captured from
performances by Israeli session bassist Or
Lubianiker, with the intention of encapsulating
his particular sound in terms of the choice of
bass, strings and preamps used. All the
articulations required to construct realistic ive-
string slap bass parts are included, every one
incorporating round robin variations and
mapped to multiple velocity layers. As well as
the basic slap sounds, the roster of articulations
W a v e s
Bass Slapper $69
The uniquely percussive sound of slap bass is something that every
producer should have in their pocket – particularly at this price!
“Helpfully, the mouse
pointer switches
between distinct ‘slap’
and ‘pull’ icons as it’s
moved around”
EQUALIZER
A basic four-band EQ for
simple frequency shaping
LEVELS
Mix the DI and amped
signals and tweak the limiter
SLAP/PULL
Set the split
between slapped
and pulled strings
MODULATION
Apply a vibrato LFO
with adjustable
Rate and Depth
VINTAGE/
MODERN
Balance warmth
and punch
SUB OCTAVE
Bolster your bass
with a synthesised
sub element
DEAD NOTES
Toggle all strings
and frets to
audible left
hand muting
OPEN STRINGS
Force individual
open string sample
triggering
POSITION
SELECTOR
Set a preferential
five-fret range
EFFECTS PEDALS
Four Pre and two Post effects
pedals for sound design
KEYSWITCH
EDITOR
Reveal keyswitch
assignment menus
RELEASE
Adjust the volume level of
the realistic release noises
comprises mutisamples for hammer ons and
pull ofs, index and middle inger pulls, release
sounds, percussives, slides and all sorts of
special efects such as scratches, squeaks,
harmonics and strums.
Pop music
Waves have done a great job of making Bass
Slapper easy to play and keyboardist-friendly.
First of all, a simple slider under the strings of
the main graphic is dragged to set the dividing
point between slapped and pulled/popped
strings. Helpfully, the mouse pointer switches
between distinct ‘slap’ and ‘pull’ icons as it’s
moved around.
Then there’s the Position Selector, which sets
a ive-fret range in which certain notes are played
for performance realism and tonal experiments,
and enables adjustment of playing position to
cater to polyphonic and legato monophonic play.
Assigning the Position Selector to a MIDI control
94 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2018
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CMU254.rev_slapper.indd 94 06/02/2018 12:54