Available for download, Waves Bass Slapper is a virtual instrument that puts the sound of slap-bass under your fingertips, allowing you to achieve funky slaps and plucky patterns by means of your MIDI keyboard. In sampling this virtual instrument, Waves made sure to slap, pop, and more, in various neck-positions, opting to record the notes as a bass player would choose to play them on the fingerboard. This aspect of the sampling process is important, as different positions change the articulation of all those desirable and musical effects surrounding the slap—the thumb pops, hammer-ons, muted hits, and so on. The resulting tones are more authentic as a result of this method.

Over 3,700 samples have been utilized in fashioning this virtual instrument, including slaps, pulls (with pointer and index fingers), hammer-ons, hammer-offs, percussive samples, release samples, slides, and special effects. Each of these samples have been recorded at different velocities. Round robin samples are also on hand, so you don’t get that machine-gun effect when you repeat the same note over and over again.

Bass Slapper comes with a standard and a high-definition library. The former is more useful for the recording stage, or for rigs where storage space is at a premium. Once you’ve recorded your samples, you can load the high-definition library and use those for mix. Bass Slapper is compatible with Mac and Windows platforms, and is compatible with AU, VST, VSTi, VST3, and AAX formats. The virtual instrument also works as a standalone application.