EBX HARD ROCK

Bass, presets and MIDI tailored for genuine hard rock.

The Toontrack Hard Rock EBX is an expansion for EZbass designed for use in bombastic, heavy and genuine hard rock productions where the bass has an unquestionably central role.

THE INSTRUMENT

An Ace of basses

The Rickenbacker.* Just the name alone paints a vividly stark picture of hard rock history. Since the late ’60s, this monumental instrument has been joined at the hip of countless iconic players and in the process become just as much of an icon itself.

“When looking to capture the ultimate hard rock bass, there really wasn’t much discussion as to which one to pick,” comments Magnus Melkersson, EZbass lead R&D technician. “The look, the tone, the feel and the sheer stature of it – this bass literally fumes of hard rock from top to bottom.”

The specific model captured for this EBX is an iconic 4001 dating back to 1974. With its neck-through construction, full-wood body and unique two-pickup/output design, the tone of this beast of a bass is as unique as its statuesque appearance.

SOUNDS AND ARTICULATIONS

Seeing as the Hard Rock EBX seeks to capture that distinct and piercing hard rock tone, it was sampled solely with a pick option. It does this to its fullest extent, though, and includes all the articulations, like down and upstrokes, percussive sounds and subtle ghosts notes, you need to produce strikingly expressive bass tracks.

THE PRESETS

Since both of the original standard mono and stereo outputs were recorded, the presets present anything from basic tones to most creative combinations of dual signal blends routed through different effects, amps and cabinets. To further give you the option of easy external processing, a clean direct input (DI) preset option is of course included.

“The instrument we captured isn’t only one of the most iconic, but also one of the most versatile in rock history,” comments Ulf Edlund, EZbass lead sound designer. “To me, the presets we came up with only further fuel the spectacular width of this chameleon of a bass. Our goal with the presets was to pay homage to the hard rock heroes whose tones and basslines defined an era at the same time as we wanted to add something new to the table. Listening back to the finished result, I genuinely think we pulled it off.”

THE MIDI

The included MIDI library covers a broad repertoire of bassline variations inspired by hard, heavy and riff-oriented rock songs where the bass has an obvious center stage role. As always – with the onboard features in EZbass, you’ll be able to customize, slice and dice this MIDI to fit your songs, your palette and your spur-of-the-moment ideas.

 System Requirements 

 1 GB free disk space, 4 GB RAM (8 GB or more recommended).

 A working EZbass 1.1.1 (or above) installation.