Steinberg Virtual Bassist Operation Manual

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Fuzzbox
The Fuzz box got its name from the fuzzy sounds it generates. The gen-
uine sound comes from a distorted transistor amplification that cuts the 
waveform’s peaks and changes them towards a square wave. If you’re 
not after the natural drive of your solid state amp give this one a try. The 
fuzz box is standard issue for modern Heavy and Industrial music.
Setting up the Fuzzbox:
1.Use the Drive knob to adjust the amount of distortion, turning it to the 
right increases distortion.
2.Turning the Tone knob towards the left produces a softer sound while 
turning it to the right produces a brighter, thinner sound.  
						

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Compressor
A compressor is a tool to control the dynamic range of an audio signal. 
Technically speaking, it consists of an envelope detector controlling a 
voltage controlled amplifier. Practically it limits volume peaks and al-
lows you to boost the volume of the quieter parts of the signal. Use it 
to accentuate attacks or increase the sustain of your bass notes.
Setting up the Compressor:
1.Select which frequency band of the bass sound you want to compress:
2.Use the Amount knob to set the level of compression from 1 (gentle) 
to 6 (hard).
3.The Speed knob determines how fast the compressor reacts to a sig-
nal from 1 (quickly) to 6 (slowly).
•To accentuate the bass attacks try setting the Compressor to FULL, 
Amount to 2 and Speed to 3.
•To lift the sustain of single bass notes try setting the Compressor to 
SPLIT, Amount to 4 and Speed to 1.
FULL Compresses the whole frequency range, perfect for accentuating attacks.
LOW Compresses the lower frequency band, increasing the amount of bass.
HIGH Compresses the higher frequency band, also increasing fret noise (see 
page 31) and fret buzz (see page 31).
SPLIT Compresses the high and the low frequency bands independently, resulting 
in a soft, dense overall compression. Also increases sustain.  
						

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Octaver
The Octaver adds a second pitched bass signal. This is a very com-
mon effect to make the bass sound fatter or growly. A whiff of a fifth, a 
third or an octave softly added to Virtual Bassist’s signal will make it 
sound much more dense. 
Try turning the Mix knob to maximum and the Tone to very low, add 
some chorus and you will end up with a quite synthetic bass sound.
Setting up the Octaver:
1.Turning the Mix knob to the right increases the level of the second 
harmony bass generated by the Octaver.
2.The Tone knob sets the pitch of the harmony bass generated by the 
Octaver. Fully to the left produces a signal one octave lower than the 
original, fully to the right one octave up.
Please note that the Octaver will work properly only with higher bass 
notes, lower bass notes are too low for the Octaver to track.  
						

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Chorus/Flanger
This is a two in one stomp box. Click the button at the top of the effect 
to switch between Chorus and Flanger.
Flanger
A Flanger adds a whirling, glassy character to the sound. It is created by 
slightly delaying the effect signal, modulating the delay time and feeding 
a portion of the effect back into the input to sharpen the effect.
Setting the Flanger:
1.Click the button at the top of the effect to choose Flanger.
2.Use the Speed control to adjust the modulation speed. Higher set-
tings make the Flanger sound like a vibrato.
3.Using the Depth knob adjusts the delay time and therefore the pitch 
range of the Flanger effect.
4.Now turn up the Feedback control until the effect has the desired 
contour (from subtle to glassy to sharp swirling).  
						

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Chorus
As the name suggests, a chorus seemingly multiplies the signal, liven-
ing up the sound, making it wider and thicker. The principle of the 
Chorus is similar to the Flanger except for the fact that the modulation 
is unsynced for the left and right channels and the pre-delay time is 
longer making the Chorus fatter and less glassy.
Setting the Chorus Effect:
1.Click the button at the top of the effect to choose Chorus.
2.By matching Speed and Depth to each other, you can create a wealth 
of effects. As a rule of thumb: The higher you set Speed, the lower you 
need to set Depth and vice versa, otherwise the detuning becomes 
too strong. A high Speed setting creates vibrato-like effects. 
3.Now carefully turn the Feedback knob up to accentuate the detuning 
effect of the Chorus.
Tremolo
Tremolo (also called amplitude vibrato) is commonly used to liven up 
clean or slightly overdriven bass sounds. It was most popular before 
Chorus became an alternative and it’s typical for many classic bass 
tracks. 
Programming the tremolo is pretty straightforward: You can only con-
trol Rate and Depth. Unlike traditional hardware tremolo effects this 
one can be synchronized to the project tempo. This allows you to use 
it as a “Chopper” effect e.g. for Nu Metal styles.  
						

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Effect routing
Routing display
The effect routing is set up in the most efficient way. All effects are 
connected in series in the following order:
Activated effects are highlighted in the routing display. 
Routing switch
If you take a closer look at the FX Routing you will notice that EQ and 
Compressor are available at two positions in the chain. Depending on 
the sound you’re aiming for, you might want to have the EQ and the 
Compressor in front of the other effects or after them.
To manage the signal flow of the effect board and the position of the 
DI (Direct Injection) box – pre or post Drive – the amp section has 
three routing switches.
For example you want...
1.…the Chorus to affect the compressed signal (Compressor pre).
2.…to compress an already chorused signal (Compressor post).
3.…to mix a clean DI signal with the overdriven signal from a mic’d 
cabinet (DI pre).    
						

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The output section
The output section of Virtual Bassist allows you to choose between 
several recording setups to polish the sound of your bass track. Our 
ultra realistic algorithms put you in the chair of the producer, creating 
recording conditions just like in a real studio situation.
DI/Microphone
Set the slider on the left to DI to record Virtual Bassist through a DI box. 
DIs are used in professional studios to connect the bass guitar directly 
to the mixing console. The DI sound is usually a very distinctive and 
clean sound although as mentioned in the FX Routing section, the DI 
can be placed before or after the Drive in the Virtual Bassist amp. 
Setting the slider to MIC sends Virtual Bassist through its own mic’d 
speaker cabinet. Virtual Bassist’s speaker cabinet has a number of 
configurations and microphone types, explained below.
The DI/MIC slider in Virtual Bassist allows you to set any mix of DI and 
speaker.  
						

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Speaker cabinets
Virtual Bassist has six types of speaker cabinets available which cover 
most speaker configurations used by bass players and offers many 
possibilities to shape your bass sound.
1 x 15” A bass amp combo with a single 15 inch speaker.
1 x 18” A bass amp combo with a single 18 inch speaker.
2 x 15” Two 15 inch speakers in a cabinet.
4 x 10” Four 10 inch speakers in a quad box.
4 x 10” Alum Four 10 inch aluminium speakers in a quad box.
8 x 10” Two quad boxes, each with four 10 inch speakers.  
						

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Microphone type
The Virtual Bassist speaker cabinet is recorded using either a dynamic 
or condenser microphone. The microphone can be placed on axis, 
meaning directly in front of the speaker cone, or off axis meaning that 
it points more towards the speaker’s edge than the cone.
Because the speaker combination selected also affects the sound of 
Virtual Bassist, the above microphone descriptions should be only 
treated as a general overview. The many combinations of microphone 
and speaker types will give you a broad choice of tones for every Virtual 
Bassist Style.
Dynamic 
(on-axis)Dynamic microphone pointed 
directly towards the speaker cone 
of the cabinet.Produces a more cutting bass 
sound with an accentuated mid 
range.
Dynamic
(off-axis)Dynamic microphone pointed 
towards the speaker edge.Produces a slightly warmer sound 
than the above setting.
Condenser
(on-axis)Condenser microphone pointed 
directly towards the speaker cone 
of the cabinet.Produces a clearer less colored 
sound than the dynamic micro-
phones.
Condenser
(off-axis)Condenser microphone pointed 
towards the speaker edge.Produces a slightly less bright 
sound than the above setup.  
						

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Effect management
Effect programs
When you load a Style in Virtual Bassist all effects settings for the 
Style are automatically loaded. In addition Virtual Bassist can inde-
pendently save and load Effect Programs which include only the set-
tings for the Amp & FX page. 
Virtual Bassist comes with 32 factory effect programs plus an effect 
program for each Style (displayed in the Amp & FX page Browser on 
the right hand side of the Amp & FX page). In addition a virtually unlim-
ited number of user effect programs can also be saved and loaded.
Loading effect programs
There are two ways to load effect programs: 
1.Double-click the effect program name in the Browser on the right 
hand side of the Amp & FX page.
2.Click the Load button at the bottom of the Browser on the right hand 
side of the Amp & FX page and locate and load the effect program via 
the standard load dialog that appears.