UJAM Virtual Bassist Rowdy

Full Description

Unleash the energy

The driving force behind some of the biggest alternative rock songs in history, Rowdy harnesses the sound of distorted, gritty and energetic picked electric bass guitar. Reserved for those occaisions where only the most aggressive and powerful sound will suffice, nowhere is safe from the thunderous and energetic wall of sound of Rowdy. Capable of cutting through dense punk, rock and even contemporary metal productions, your low-end has just got bigger, brawnier and even less controlled than ever. Don't sabotage your mixes, let UJAM Virtual Bassist Rowdy be the ace of spades up your sleeve to take your productions to a new level.

Aggressive perfection

Getting the right sound for aggressive bass guitar is a fine art. Careful to straddle the line between wild and balanced calls for a bit of DIY. Virtual Bassist Rowdy has been crafted by capturing a hand-selected, vintage bass guitar that has been modified to allow for the unhinged sonic quality needed to cut through a dense mix of thrashing guitars and pounding drums. It's not only the equipment you use but the player that makes the attitude. A studio veteran has been called upon to bring the energy and intensity needed to make Rowdy as exciting and driving as possible with every note played. Several key pieces of gear were called upon to craft the signature sound of Rowdy, from vintage stacks of amplifiers to an assortment of fuzz and distortion pedals, the pieces all come together to make the ultimate bass for those that live life on the edge.

Let's get ready to rumble

There's nothing quite like the sound of a fully overdriven stack of bass amps. Fuzzy and unyielding, Rowdy is on hand to inject full-blown low-end with a searing top-end to your productions. Designed to be the solution for audio destruction, Virtual Bassist Rowdy is the perfect bassist for all things punk, metal, hardcore or grunge. Maintaining a core tone, Rowdy comes with a wide array of unique tonal shaping options to customise your sound to any mix.

All starting with the customised vintage bass guitar, UJAM Rowdy offers flexible control over everything from the character, to the amplifier and effects. Typical of any distorted bass sound, a Fuzz control lets you shape the sound of your instrument with added bite and grit before hitting the amplifier of choice. Three amplifier choices are presented, including Metal, Cream and Crisp. Turning things up to 11, Metal is the most aggressive, with globs of fuzz and saturation. Dialing the sound back slightly, Crisp is a perfect mid-point with a hint of distortion whilst remaining clean for a balanced sound that is still very much aggressive. Distorted bass guitar can eat up into a lot of the headroom and frequency space within a mix and so to give you a more clean sound, Cream has been included. Cream is still aggressive but achieves this more with a spikey top-end to carve through cymbals and distorted guitars instead of relying on excessive distortion. A direct mode has also been included for experienced producers to call upon third-party amplifier and cabinet simulations for added versatility.

Each of the Amplifier models can be manipulated through the Drive and Character parameters onboard. Drive adds saturation and harmonics before the amplifier, letting you take even the cleanest Cream amplifier to crunching territory. The four character controls let you traverse everything from Tame to Fat and Hard timbres of your instrument. These controls aren't simple EQs, but instead dynamic changes to the response of your bass, changing the overall tone and dynamic range of your sound, making it easy to find what suits your mix.

A staple of aggressive musical genres, Virtual Rowdy Bassist features an instant Drop-D switch to access lower fundamentals and extend the range of your note choice. Alongside this switch, there are four additional effects that help you to refine your sound to perfection. An octaver is presented via the onboard slider to bring up the level of your effect that's ideal for solo sections or for adding sub energy to your tracks.

Controlling the relentless sound of your bass is made simple with the expertly tuned Compressor and EQ dials. Letting you reduce the dynamic range and carving the frequency response between Vintage, Normal and Modern to find a pocket in any mix with pounding drums, crunching guitars and distorted vocals. Lastly, 15 Finisher effects are included, spanning everything from chorus, phaser, rotary effects alongside reverbs and many others, allowing you to get creative with your sound design and move away from static bass tones.

A composers dream

While it might sound different from any other virtual bassist, Rowdy still serves the same purpose. Get your listeners off their feet and dancing to the beat! Crucial in maintaining the energy and intensity, the role of the bass player in rock, punk and metal is to complement the sonics while typically following the rhythm of the drums, mimicing the guitars performance for one cohesive sound. It's important that the rhythms and grooves inject the spirit of non-conformity to your productions and for this reason, UJAM Rowdy is comprised of two operation modes.

Player Mode gives you access to the 1380 phrases spanning 60 different styles to ensure that you never run out of ideas for your songwriting. Divided into common songwriting sections such as intros, fills and verses, you can hone in on a specific part to fill the gap in your production. The smart technology behind the Virtual Bassist series means that not only will Rowdy automatically follow the key and chord you play, but it will also intelligently select the most musical bass articulations available to support your tracks.

For experienced performers, Instrument mode lets you experiment with the full offering inside of Rowdy. Unlock every note and technique included with the meticulously sampled instrument via your MIDI controller or keyboard. Expressive control is afforded with the inclusion of muted notes, slides and stop techniques which can be accessed via the key switches and modulation/pitch wheel bending.

Get realistic results faster than ever

Rowdy caters to any musician or producer looking to inject your work with professional bass sounds in a matter of minutes, regardless of your skill set or ability. Built around the frustration-free design, there are no deep menu dives, complicated non-musical terms or cluttered interfaces, just a simple layout that lets you get the results you want fast with complete creative freedom. With practically zero learning curve required, you can supercharge your productions with bold and energetic bass sounds. As well as non-bassists, seasoned veteran bassists with their own equipment will still be able to benefit from Rowdy. Production-ready sounds from the get-go and ultra-realistic results combined with ease of use means you can get your ideas down faster than ever before your creative flame burns out. Simply punch in your MIDI performance and let Rowdy do the rest without worrying about connecting your large system and losing that one special idea.

Providing you with only a few key controls, you are awarded the flexibility to customise the performance of your Virtual Bassist to get realistic results quickly. Micro timing parameters are presented to add humanisation to your performance, enhancing the natural swing and feel of a realistic bassist. Newly introduced MIDI drag-and-drop of your performances or phrases ensures you can speed up your workflow to follow your creativity without any barriers slowing you down.

The plug-in experts

Trusted by some of the world's biggest brands across a wide range of industries including BMW, Warner Bros, Sony, Universal, Ubisoft and many more, you're in the hands of professionals when choosing a UJAM product. Following a mission statement to make music more accessible, offering industry-leading sounds in a simple to use format, UJAM plug-ins are on hand to help you create music faster, better and easier. Originally starting with the landmark Virtual Guitarist release back in 2002, UJAM's vision was realised following years of development in all areas of music production products that you know today. Built for musicians by musicians, UJAM has products for all abilities, from bedroom producers to Hollywood composers. Each plug-in delivers authenticity, sound quality and ease of use to ensure that every time you open it, you will be inspired to create.

Features

• Supercharge your productions with aggressive and distorted picked bass guitar
• Unhinged and wild sound that's perfectly suited for non-mainstream music genres including punk, rock, metal and grunge
• Professional tonal shaping options powered by AI articulation modelling means this is the only suitable replacement for the real thing
• Ideal for producers or musicians to create realistic and professional bass lines, regardless of skill level
• Frustration-free design lets you write, perform and record bass faster than ever
• Recorded using a heavily modified vintage bass guitar through a range of crushing amplifiers and fuzz pedals
• Resizable GUI in any DAW
• Intuitive MIDI drag and drop of phrases speeds up your workflow
• Play the Rowdy Bassist freely in Instrument mode or use Player Mode to unlock pre-built phrases and styles
• Choose between 60 styles and 1380 phrases in Player Mode to ensure you never run out of ideas for your tracks
• Phrases included are made up of typical sections within a song including intros, fills, verses and more
• Micro-timing functions add humanisation to your performance, creating swing and feel for natural and realistic movement
• Mod/pitch wheels can be used to bend the notes up to two semi-tones as well as activate palm-muted techniques
• Adjustable Fuzz control before amplification offers extra bite and aggression to your tone
• Four unique character styles let you change the aggression, dynamic range and overall tone of your performance from Tame to Hard
• Three amplifier settings deliver vastly different sonic qualities
• Proprietary signature drive control adds harmonics and saturation to your tone
• One switch Drop-D function lets you explore lower fundamentals in your performance
• Blend in octave signal for a wall of sound or to use as a melodic element
• Brand new, 15 Finisher effects ranging from simple to complex lets you find the right sound for any style, genre or mix
• Sweep between vintage, neutral and modern EQ settings to help carve your sound to fit the context of your mix
• Simple compressor slide reduces the dynamic range at higher settings to create a consistent sound

Specifications

System requirements

• Operating Systems:
  • Mac: macOS X 10.11 or later - 64-bit
  • Windows: Windows 8 or later - 64-bit
• Format:
  • Mac: VST, AU2, AAX
  • Windows: VST, AAX
• RAM: 4GB
• Disk space: 7GB
• Display: 1280 x 768px

General

• Authorisation: Internet connection required
• Product code: VB-ROWDY2