Broomstick Bass Vst

[Marcelene Vasconez]

Inaddition to the mentioned Broomstick I can mention the following that I miss:

Groove Agent 2 by Steinberg themselves.

USM by Steinberg themselves

Darbuka

Wizooverb

Key Rig

Bass Rig

The advantage of 64 bit is so great that you should leave 32 bit altogether. The difference between the two, as I am sure you know, is 64 bits ability to access more than approx 3,5 Gb of memory, given that you have more than 4 Gb in your machine that is.

As mentioned: There is nothing in the market that replaces Broomstick Bass. I have Trillian and i is very good. It is however not the same thing. It is not just to compare the samplings. Broomsticks ability to give you a fast working bass groove is not even considered in Trillian, nor any other bass software that I am aware of. And as mentioned by another OP: some of the samplings in Broomstick are still among the better. I find both the Mini Mooog, Taurus and Chapman to give Trillian competition, for a fraction of the price.

Have you tried to rewire it in Reaper? When Broomstick stopped working for me I had at least a year of utilization by rewiring Reaper in Cubase and loading Broomstick in Reaper. It may be that some other DAW is also capable of running Broomstick that you can rewire in CB8.5. Many have a free trial period. Reaper is very cheap and solved the problem for me for a while. However and sadly not anymore so I have the mentioned two computer solution with CB 4.5 on the old PC and 8.5 on the newer MAC.

i do miss Broomstick Bass. I read somewhere the developers just made it to show off and demonstrate their programming abilities and were snapped up by some other company afterwards which is why it was dropped from support

Of course, musical auto-accompaniment is not a new idea, but the type of 'virtual band member' provided by Groove Agent or Virtual Guitarist has taken the process to a new level by including a high-quality sample collection. Whatever your own personal take on auto-accompaniment in the creative process, with virtual guitarists, drummers and singers already available, bass players were the next obvious target. So is Broomstick Bass a valuable 'session musician in a box' or a bunch of 'cheesy keyboard-style' presets? Let's get the lowdown...

Second is the auto-accompaniment section. This consists of dozens of individual styles, each grouped into a general musical genre (see the 'Style File' box for details). As described more fully in a moment, each individual style actually consists of eight variations (bass riffs or patterns) and these are adjusted automatically to fit the chords arriving at the MIDI input.

The third element is the DSP section. This provides a collection of the more common processing options used with bass sounds and includes a three-band EQ, a pitch-shifter, compressor, chorus and overdrive. Finally, a Manual mode is included where Broomstick Bass can be used as a playable virtual instrument using any of the sampled instruments from the library.

The main screen of Broomstick Bass is divided into three areas. To the right, the user can select the required instrument and this displays an image of the selected instrument. This section also includes the master volume control, a switch for Poly/Mono mode and smaller knobs for adjusting Glide, Release and Release Noise. The Release simply changes how long a sample is sustained after a note is released, while for added realism, the Release Noise control attempts to add more (or less) of the finger noise created as a note is released.

The bottom section of the window contains a virtual keyboard. This can be used for triggering patterns or individual notes if an external MIDI keyboard is not available. The shaded area of the keyboard is the 'Control Octave' and this is used to select patterns in Auto mode or articulations in Manual mode. Both of these modes are described more fully below.

The first free 'Gift Pack', which can be downloaded from the Bornemark web site, includes two new instruments; a Hofner 500/1 bass (made famous by Paul McCartney) and a suitably aggressive Elektron SidStation patch.

The left side of the window is somewhat busier. This includes the Auto/Manual switch which flips between the two main modes of operation. At the top of this section is the Style selector used in Auto mode. If the Link button is on, selecting a particular style also loads the appropriate instrument. The Memory tab brings up 16 user slots where you can save the current configuration of Broomstick Bass. You can automate the process of switching between these with MIDI continuous controllers, so the tab provides a simple way to move between different setups mid-song. This can include a change in the instrument used, but this may well cause a slight glitch as it involves loading the sample data on the fly. Running two instances of Broomstick Bass provides a workaround to this problem, as the plug-in only produced a CPU load of three to five percent when running under Cubase SX on my test system. A further useful feature is the Metronome button (with the drum kit icon) and this provides a basic drum pattern (in a suitable style) to audition the bass lines against. While it will not replace something like Groove Agent, it is certainly helpful to have.

The 'Stop' and 'Bar 1' options within the Control Octave provide further possibilities. The 'Bar 1' switch forces any of the longer patterns (some run to four bars) to play only bar 1, while holding down the 'A' key stops the auto bass line until another key outside the Control Octave triggers it again. Usefully, while holding down the 'Stop' key, you can play your own bass line (similar to working in Manual mode). The modulation wheel on a MIDI keyboard also provides access to this basic 'manual' mode; pushing the mod wheel towards the top of its travel stops the auto playback and allows you to play the plug-in as a normal bass instrument. Additionally, with the mod wheel set between 10 and 90 percent of its travel, the pattern engine will just play repeated notes (usually the root note of the current chord) and this can be very useful for linking between chords or over rapid chord changes. Bringing the mod wheel back down to below 10 percent of its travel restarts Auto mode.

Other useful Auto mode features include the Latch option. With this on, a pattern can be triggered by hitting a chord and, even if that chord is released, the pattern will continue until the next chord is played. The Speed button allows patterns to be played in half-time or double time, while the Shuffle knob can be used to add swing to a straight bass riff (turn the knob clockwise) or to straighten out a bass line that is already swinging (turn the knob anticlockwise). Just as Groove Agent can output its rhythms over MIDI, Auto mode in Broomstick Bass includes the ability to output the bass lines created as a MIDI track. I've always found this really useful in Groove Agent, as it allows you to fine-tune the auto-generated parts by, for example, groove quantising. This MIDI output process is well explained in the manual and worked a treat in Cubase SX.

When playing the same note in quick succession (for example, a simple bass line playing eighth notes on the root of the chord) 'machine-gun' effects can often befall sample-based sounds, as it soon becomes obvious that the same sample is being played repeatedly. Broomstick Bass avoids this problem as the playback engine detects repeated notes. For normal notes, re-pitched adjacent samples will be thrown in to add variety, while for Staccato playing, a random selection of four samples for each note are used. This end result does sound very natural, with enough subtle variation to fool the ears.

For a number of the instruments, several different versions are provided. For example, four versions of the double bass are included, providing fingered and bowed sounds, both with or without vibrato. This variety is useful but also necessary as, despite some relatively minor sound-shaping possibilities described below, there is little that can be done to edit the sounds themselves.

The Edit screen provides access to various bass-orientated effects which are both simple and effective in operation. The EQ section permits a reasonable level of tonal control if some minor fine-tuning is required to make the bass sit within a mix. The compressor and overdrive work well enough but don't overcook things, while the chorus sounds really nice and can easily add a little movement and character to any of the sounds. The pitch-shifter, while working well enough with the keyboard-based instruments, did not produce very usable results with the acoustic and electric basses. All these controls can be automated and the MIDI controller numbers are listed in the manual. The Edit screen also includes various settings that control how Broomstick Bass operates. For example, the MIDI Output function can be enabled here. Depending upon the size of your master keyboard, the other useful option provided is the ability to move the position of the Control Octave to any one of four positions.

The blues and rock styles are pretty safe and solid but right on the money, while the funk styles contain some excellent material with plenty of slapping. The classic synth and dance groups include great '70s and '80s moods, particularly the Disco styles. While there is plenty of choice, I wonder whether Bornemark might add some more styles aimed at hip-hop, R&B and other modern styles. These could, of course, be easy targets for future 'Gift Pack' downloads.

As with any auto-accompaniment function, what you can't really expect is virtuoso playing that, all of a sudden, is going to spring a musical surprise. In Auto mode, what Broomstick Bass does provide is a solid and reliable bass line. If more colour is required, then Manual mode includes enough creative possibilities to get the job done. While I'm sure I will still be turning to my Fender Jazz for many of my own needs, I'm also sure there will be times when Broomstick Bass will do the job just as well and with a minimum of fuss.

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