Sam Spacey Epica Bass review

All about the bass

  • £89
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MusicRadar Verdict

Epica Bass ably fulfils its straightforward remit and sounds lovely doing it.

Pros

  • +

    A huge number of samples.

Cons

  • -

    Not the most varied set.

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The second in the Epica series packs almost 27,000 samples into its 5GB footprint.

Epica Bass draws on the sounds of a number of analogue synths (Sequential Circuits Pro 1, ARP Odyssey, Oberheim SEM, Yamaha CS-30 et al), processed by a serious rack of outboard (UBK Fatso, Neve preamp, Eventide H8000 and more).

The scripted Kontakt engine is impressive, featuring seven effects, a multimode filter, arpeggiator, scale filtering and modulators (three LFOs, three envelopes and velocity). Most pertinently, though, it also gives access to the sample playback start position, which can be modulated and even randomised.

Synth bass isn't the most diverse of instrument types, and while the 430 categorised presets - Monophonic, Arpeggio, Multi (as in, Kontakt Multi instruments), Polyphonic and Raw (as in, raw waveforms) - certainly capture a good spread, they are, by their very nature, a bit limited in range.

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