Often you'll want to add a liberal dose of analogue 'mojo' while brightening up dull top end and adding oomph to lifeless bass. This is where an exciter plugin comes in handy, and we happen to have just the one for you: STA Enhancer CM is a terrific exciter created by clever software developers Audiffex, and it's free to Computer Music readers. Baz is a bass saturator, compressor and exciter. It is a simple but deep effect. Main features: Frequency splitting (incoming audio is divided in low and high frequencies for separate processing and mixing). Downloads Renaissance Bass by Waves is a Virtual Effect Audio Plugin for macOS and Windows. It functions as a VST Plugin, an Audio Units Plugin, a VST 3 Plugin, an RTAS Plugin and an AAX Plugin.

Looking for good sounding free bass guitar VST instruments, AU plugins and sample libraries? You’ve come to the right pace! Check out our selection here:

4Front Bass

Format: VST, AU, RTAS, 32 bit + 64 bit
OS: Windows, Mac

Audio Example:

You’re looking for a simple bass plugin without any need for constant tone tweaking? Then 4Front Bass by George Yohng will be your best bet. I think it’s the first plugin I’ve ever come across that claims so unapologetically “This plugin has no settings”. And truly, it doesn’t need them. 4Front Bass is one of the most popular bass guitar plugins I’ve come across, and it’s simply because of its very useable tone.

Samsara Cycle Audio Om Bass 2

Format: VST, 32 bit
OS: Windows

Audio examples:

On Samara Cycle Audio, you can find a big collection of free VST instruments and effect plugins. One of them is Om Bass 2, a much-improved successor of the original Om Bass. This VST plugin is a fun one: With 128 presets to try and a ton of settings, you can shape your bass tone to your liking.

The bassoffers eight different styles (finger, generic, muted, pick, slap, sub, wah,pop) that differ greatly in tone. The “tone” knob will shift the sound moretowards a more full-bodied bass sound when you turn it to the left or a morebiting sound with present mids when you turn it to the right. You can then useenvelope shaper, EQ, delay, tremolo and distortion to adjust the details.

I found Om Bass 2 more realistic in the more “subby” tones. The more guitar-like tones are more on the synthetic side. Depending on your project, that may or may not be a good thing.

Ample Bass P II Lite

Format: Standalone, VST2, AU, RTAS, AAX (32 bit + 64 bit)
OS: Windows + Mac

Audio examples:

Ample Sound is known for its many guitar and bass sample libraries. What makes their products interesting for many users is that they don’t require Kontakt like many other sample libraries do. Instead, Ample Sound products come with their own player and can be embedded via VST, AU, RTAS and AAX or even played as standalone.

With AmpleBass P Lite II, the company has released a free lite version of its Ample BassP II, a sampled Fender Precision Bass. The free version comes with fewersamples, a reduced sample depth and a lower range of playable notes (instead ofB0 – F4, the lite version can only do D1-F4). What’s also missing arealternative articulations such as legato slides, palm mutes, slap, tap, staccatoand natural harmonic.

But let’stalk about what Ample Bass does haveto offer: 443 samples at 16 bit / 44.1 khZ, sustain, hammer on and pull off andaccent articulations are included in this free bass guitar plugin. It alsocomes with different velocity layers (and separate sample cycles for each one),an auto buzz system, poly legato and a capo feature. For a more realisticsound, you can turn up the fingering noise.

All these features make Ample Bass P Lite II not only one of the most realistic virtual bass instruments on the market, but also a dynamic and interesting instrument.

Get Ample Bass P Lite II on the Ample Sound website.

Free DirectBass 2.0

Format: Kontakt 3 and higher (full version of Kontakt is required!)

Audio examples:

Free Bass Exciter Vst

Pettinhouse is a project by Andrea Pettinao. On his site, he not only offers about a dozen guitar, bass and drum sample libraries, he has also released free versions of many of his products. This Free DirectBass 2.0 is taken from his DirectBass 2.0 library and recreates a Yamaha TRB 5 string bass guitar. Like other Pettinhouse libraries, the realism of this free instrument is noteworthy, especially because this library is really simple to use. As this bass guitar was recorded directly (un-amped), it makes sense to process it with an amp simulator (I used Guitar Rig for the audio examples).

Autodafe Acoustic Bass

Format: Kontakt 5 and higher (full version of Kontakt is required!)

Audio examples:

This Acoustic Bass Kontakt library is a little different from other bass guitars on this list because it is, as the name implies, sampled from an acoustic bass (not an electric one). The library contains three instruments: acoustic bass, muted bass and picked bass. With each of these instruments, you have the option to adjust the ADSR envelope. If you’re looking for a more acoustic type of feel, this might be an interesting library to check out.

Best Free Bass Vst Plugin

CoreBass Cherry Slides

Format: Kontakt 4 and higher (full version of Kontakt is required!)

Audio example:

So you’ve found a good bass library, but need some extra sound effects to make it sound more realistic or interesting? Then here’s a free bonus library: CoreBass Cherry Slides. 45 slides, no regrets.

Get Cherry Slides from Orange Tree Samples.

Alternatives

Didn’t findwhat you were looking for? Maybe one of the following bass plugins andlibraries is more to your liking:

Samsara Cycle Audio FabBass (VST / Windows / 32 bit)
Project16 Fingered Bass (VST, AU / Windows + Mac / 32 bit + 64 bit)
SpearGear: Raspier (VST / Windows / 32 bit)
VB-1 (VST / Windows + Mac / 32 bit + 64 bit)
Chronos (Kontakt 5+)
FS Ibanez Electric Bass Guitar (SFZ)
FS Washburn Acoustic Bass Guitar (SFZ)

Over toyou…

Do you happento know some other cool bass plugin or library? Let us know in the comments!