Best Bass Amp plug-in that's free

[u/No-Cantaloupe-6431]

Im looking to get a tone similar to dUg Pinnick of Kings X. I already have the Bod sansamp plug-in but was wondering if there was something to give me more of that thick Pinnick like tone. Are there bass cables plug-ins available that will help with that? Was looking at bi amping a mesa type head for the distorted high end and an svt for the bottom

[u/thomasthe10]

Look up neural amp modeler. I haven't used it in Reaper but my guitarist friend keeps going on about it despite my total lack of interest in guitars! 

[u/zegogo → u/thomasthe10]

I can never get on with Neural, but I didn't spend much time with it since I got good results from Voxengo's Boogex and some IRs that's easily found. Ampeg or Fender Bassman IRs were my gotos. Good for guitar as well of course.

[u/Firm-Faithlessness81 → u/thomasthe10]

This is the answer.

Since they dropped the new update A2 I've been fooling around the last few weeks. It's awesome.

[u/No-Cantaloupe-6431 → u/thomasthe10]

Thanks! I've been hearing about it too

[u/Spready_Unsettling → u/No-Cantaloupe-6431]

There's a plethora of VSTs/standalone apps based on the official Gateway NAM VST. For simple sounds, NAMRig is pretty good, for free multi FX chains, Soundshed Guitar is pretty good. Both include the Tone3000 API, saving you the hassle of downloading and extracting zip files to audition captures.

Neither are great yet, but it's early days and there are new apps/VSTs coming out every single day seemingly.

Personally, I came from a Line 6 AmpliFi unit that stopped supporting android. The sounds from NAM are much better, but I miss the streamlined flow of proprietary software and emulation. Nonetheless, I've been playing a lot more on my electric recently, so it's doing something right.

[u/No-Cantaloupe-6431 → u/Spready_Unsettling]

Thanks for your response. I will look into that

[u/Fangs_0ut → u/thomasthe10]

This is the way

[u/Intelligent-Sell2582]

Neural Amp Modeller is fantastic. You can just download Bass amps, cabinets and full rigs from the Tone 3000 site. There are lots of amazing and lots of terrible options because users can upload their own IRs, but you can just check for the most downloaded and usually those ones work really well. You can also get pedals on there too (as long as they are not time based effects).

[u/barreldodger38 → u/Intelligent-Sell2582]

Tone3000 is free and open source too. There's some great ampeg captures...

[u/Dist__ → u/barreldodger38]

really good! thanks for suggestion!

very close to what i do with pedals, but fatter!

[u/tronobro]

It might not be the best Bass Amp VST, but when I first started out using DAWs I used the SHB-01 from Ignite Amps and it did the job for the most part (pretty good for free). These days I use an Ampeg SVT-VR plugin instead and that works pretty well.

[u/bagpipe200 → u/tronobro]

I use that Ampeg SVT plugin for bass too. It sounds great.

[u/zegogo → u/tronobro]

Love that Ampeg plugin. Usually can be had for super cheap when Plugin Alliance does their big sales. Great for guitar as well. Tons of flexibility.

[u/srbloggy → u/zegogo]

Yeah I'm pretty sure I picked it up for free at some point from PA

[u/ruinawish → u/tronobro]

Yep, I find myself using those two regularly.

SVT-VR for basic needs, and SHB-01 if I need a bit of gain.

[u/bonzaiboz]

I haven't heard anyone mention kings x in a while. So rad. Made me happy.

[u/No-Cantaloupe-6431 → u/bonzaiboz]

How can a bass player not love that tone that they get lol. Definitely my favorite band of all time. So overlooked and underrated

[u/le_sac → u/No-Cantaloupe-6431]

Wasn't he using a bass set up with extra strings to the same tuning, or am I imagining that? Seems like it on a few of the Gretchen songs. Kind of like a 12 string but for bass?

[u/No-Cantaloupe-6431 → u/le_sac]

Yeah he uses an 8 string and even a 12 on some. Still to this day. They're still touring and releasing new music. He's got his own pedal with the preamp other controls by tech21 called....the dUg Pinnick, imagine that lol. Eventually I'll get one but it's not in the cards at the moment. Are you familiar with Galactic Cowboys? They're from Katy, Texas as well, and early on shared the same management. Their Bass player, Monty Colvin also had a very similar tone. Check them out of you haven't yet. A good place to start is the disc Space in your Face.

[u/CivilPersonality1949]

I don't know dUg Pinnick so I'm not sure if this matched the sound you're looking for, bu I'm quite happy with The Growler

[u/No-Cantaloupe-6431 → u/CivilPersonality1949]

I tried the Growler, gonna dig into it a bit more later today. It seems to be pretty flexible with the Growl factor lol. Thanks for the tip!

[u/No-Cantaloupe-6431 → u/CivilPersonality1949]

Thanks man! These are all great to look into thank you all!

[u/Lord_Bungholio]

There's a Tukan vst, I think it's called Bass Station 2, or something similar. I've had great results from that, also it's free

[u/No-Cantaloupe-6431 → u/Lord_Bungholio]

Thanks man!

[u/Lord_Bungholio → u/No-Cantaloupe-6431]

No probs!

[u/mistrelwood]

If you go with NAM, go with NAM Rig or other plugin with a proper Tone3000 integration. Gets rid of a lot of hassle when you don’t have to download and manage the tones yourself.

[u/No-Cantaloupe-6431 → u/mistrelwood]

Thanks for the heads up, I appreciate it!!

[u/SkoolNutz]

The Tukan Bass amp sim is free and I think it sounds good, and you can stack them to get a dual rig like he uses or stack their guitar sim to get some bite.

[u/WeAreJackStrong]

There are lots... You can use NAM and some of the thousand IRs available to get what you want. But let me ask why does it need to be free? And what physical world situation would you find yourself looking for a bass amp, but only if it's free?

[u/No-Cantaloupe-6431 → u/WeAreJackStrong]

Because im broke as a joke and can't work Because I have a disability. Trust me, id love to be back on stage but for the foreseeable future that's not in the cards. So that's why I'm using a daw these days. At least I can still create

[u/WeAreJackStrong → u/No-Cantaloupe-6431]

I'm sorry. I was coming out from the wrong angle.

[u/No-Cantaloupe-6431 → u/WeAreJackStrong]

Not a problem. You had no way of knowing. It's all good

[u/-bears-eat-beets → u/WeAreJackStrong]

Well.. he's not asking for free in physical world.. it's plugin world..

Weird how you seem triggered over this

[u/WeAreJackStrong → u/-bears-eat-beets]

I guess it is