Imagine trying to cook without ingredients – it’s a no-go, right? That’s content for us in the SCARBEE realm! For the SCARBEE SUN BASS - FINGER, yours truly (Thomas Hansen Skarbye) found himself diving deep into the world of audio bits, recording oodles of them to cook up the instrument of our dreams. In our musical kitchen, we dub this process 'Peeling Potatoes,' and yes, it’s every bit as glamorous as it sounds!
Now, peeling thousands of sonic potatoes (with a dash of complexity and a pinch of huge quantities) meant we needed some specialized tools. Picture us: chopping (cutting), sprinkling a bit of seasoning (tuning), adjusting the flame (volumes), and ensuring each potato (peak) aligns perfectly on the plate, then looping it all into a Michelin-star dish. When it came to the final recordings, I figured, why not tag in a bass player to lay down those last bits? That way, I could keep my sanity intact and channel my full wizardry into the editing and programming!
Cooking Up Bass Magic: The Spicy and Sonic Adventures with MarloweDK
Enter the bass maestro, Thomas Risell (perhaps you know him as MarloweDK, the Groove Master with killer tutorial videos?). Our first culinary adventure together involved recording over 1100 Convolution IR's of various bass cabinets. Then, onto tracking the last articulations, where Thomas bravely battled tuner and volume meters, navigated recording schemes, and nursed his sore fingers through an epic recording day.
Having this gig-savvy pro in the studio was not only a blast but also an insight-fest! He tossed some feature wishes into the pot, a few of which were almost too hot for me to handle and sent us on a months-long journey into the realms of delays and, oh boy, the frustrations! Thomas (MarloweDK) got particularly jazzed about the 'Double' stuff... (oh, that excitement was contagious!)
And you know what struck me when I saw him play with a pick during breaks? We needed a muting system that could mimic that style, which turned out to be a complex but fantastic addition to the fingered style too. Implementing this involved digging deep into my advanced programming trick bag.
SCARBEE IMPACT (picked) and SCARBEE EVOLUTION (finger/slap) for Kontakt 8 will have a smartly designed, fully translated interface—making it not only visually stunning but also incredibly user-friendly for our non-English-speaking customers.