Having struck production gold last year when working with development partner Muramasa Audio to give guitarists an astute all-in-one single-screen guitar amp and pedalboard plug-in in Electrum, independent development teams federation United Plugins is proud to announce the availability of Bassment — working with Muramasa Audio again, this time to seriously satisfy bass guitarists by building a multi-effect all-in-one single-screen solution around a flexible bass amp simulation — as of April 5…
As an all-in-one single-screen bass guitar solution, Muramasa Audio’s Bassment plug-in comprises several colour-coded components (further visualised as control- laden virtual effect pedals) — namely, AMP, with an input GAIN going all the way from gentle to brutal settings alongside perfectly tuned five-band (LOW BASS, HIGH BASS, LOW MIDS, HIGH MIDS, and TREBLE) EQ controls, a self-explanatory DRY/WET control, and more; AUTOWAH, implements an automatic wah-wah filter following the INPUT LEVEL, best suited to funky styles; CABINET, comprises 15 simulations combined with 15 adjustments to assemble a true virtual amp simulator with several parameters to produce a much smoother and more natural sound that avoids all the unnatural resonances present with almost all IRs (Impulse Responses); COMP (compressor), reduces the volume of loud sounds or amplifies quiet sounds, thereby reducing or compressing the audio signal’s dynamic range; EQ, provides a powerful graphic equaliser that is useful for further customising the tonal response; (noise) GATE, removes any noise, hum, and leakage from other instruments that may still be present in the input signal and become amplified by Bassment’s amping and distortion stages, as well as allowing users to create a contemporary choppy sound useful for modern metal genres where everything needs to be very precise and snappy-sounding attacks are always appreciated; LEVELLER, controls the volume changes of the signal by automatically riding volume; MODULATION, lets users blend multiple effects rather than requiring several stompbox simulations, allowing all algorithms involved to be perfectly synchronised, thereby easing operation; and SUB, adds subharmonic frequencies to allow users to play (single-note) guitar to sound like a bass guitar.
Fortunately for any bass guitarists speedily seeking to change their sound with the greatest of ease, changing the running order of those color-coded components is simply a case of dragging and dropping them into the desired position in the effect processing chain — and all without worrying about adhering to real-world setups to encourage experimentation, albeit GATE is usually the first such component in the effect processing chain. Conversely, positioning the EQ before the AMP will also affect the character of the distortion, while positioning it after will only change the tone. It is worth noting here that it is also perfectly possible to bypass any of those color-coded components at any time by simply double-clicking on the relevant rectangular blocks bearing their name — no need to take a deep dive through muscle memory-taxing menus in search of hidden options since everything is already accessible on one screen, in other words.
Today’s teeming marketplace means most — even great-sounding — guitar software suffers from flawed design, doing little to enhance efficiency and comfort when put to work in a musical environment. Ergonomics is, of course, central to Muramasa Audio building Bassment as a multi-effect all-in-one single-screen solution around a flexible bass amp as flexible as they come, effectively following the same principles previously applied so successfully when executing Electrum to give guitarists an astute all-in-one single-screen guitar amp and pedalboard plug-in.
Put it this way, though: there is much more to Bassment than its easy-to-use and easy-on-the-eye GUI (Graphical User Interface) — itself readily resizable and available to view as a photorealistic 3D affair or flattened as 2D graphics at the convenient click of an appropriate button without affecting the sound or CPU (Central Processing Unit) load — might first suggest, such as an ANALYSE INPUT LEVEL that ensures everything sounds the best it possibly can, no matter what equipment is being used. Ultimately, activating the onscreen button and then playing as hard as intended for a few seconds sees Bassment setting up its input level automatically to find the perfect sweet spot to match the audio signal’s strength with the processing involved’s ideal working point; perfect gain-staging and volume balance helps users to get the most out of Bassment. Better still, EQ MATCHING really represents Bassment’s secret weapon, whereby it is simply a case of loading a short piece of a desired bass guitar solo sound and looping it for analysis using the ANALYSE TARGET SOUND button before analyzing the user’s own bass guitar sound using the ANALYSE YOUR SOUND button — be prepared to be amazed at Bassment’s ability to automatically match the resulting sound with amazing accuracy!
Additional Bassment features well worth highlighting here include an advanced TUNER section, super-fast and super-accurate in response to ensure that the bass guitar performance being processed will never be out of tune, as well as global settings for INPUT (for cranking up the input gain), BASSMAN (for controlling the level of the SUB), OUTPUT (for controlling the plug-in’s overall output level), and LIMITER (for protecting the output signal from exceeding 0dB).
On the face of it, then, Bassment basically provides everything needed to achieve a perfect sound for any bass guitar quickly and easily within a single-window while making use of its internal 64-bit audio processing to handle any sampling rate up to 192 kHz (or even higher) plus smart bypass and intelligent sleep on silence attributes, all aimed at separating it from the sound of the (plug-in) crowd in today’s teeming marketplace.
Muramasa Audio’s Bassment is available to purchase for a time-limited introductory promo price of only €19.00 EUR until May 5, 2022 — rising thereafter to its MSRP (Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price) of €129.00 EUR — as an AAX-, AU-, VST-, and VST3-compatible plug-in (using internal 64-bit audio processing capable of handling any sample rate) directly from United Plugins here: https://unitedplugins.com/Bassment/
A 15-day, fully-functional trial version of Bassment for macOS 10.10 and newer and Windows 8/10 can be downloaded for free from here: https://unitedplugins.com/download/
Note that no iLok, dongle, or internet access is required for Bassment activation. (All United Plugins software uses license files for activation and owners can freely use purchased software on all their computers as long as they are the user.)
See and hear Bassment in action in United Plugins’ illuminating introductory video here: