Virtual Bassist ROYAL 2

Name: Virtual Bassist ROYAL 2
Price: 111.95 USD
Author: UJAM

by UJAM · Instrument · Fingerstyle electric bass instrument

Not rated yet

A fingerstyle vintage electric bass for pop, rock, indie and singer-songwriter music, with 60 styles and 1,380 phrases.

Three amp settings, four sound characters and 15 Finisher modes shape it; it lists at $119 and was $9.52 on sale.

Best for: Bass. Genres: Pop, Rock & Indie, R&B & Soul.

Keywords: bass instrument, beginner-friendly, vintage, sample-based, simple, bright, creative, macro controls, minimal controls, single knob.

What it does

ROYAL 2 is UJAM's "all-round high-end session bass professional": a hand-selected vintage electric bass played fingerstyle, with a rounded tone meant to fit most styles of popular music. You either trigger ready-made bass lines from chords or play the sampled bass yourself.

Player Mode: 60 styles and 1,380 phrases triggered by MIDI keys; the bass lines follow the key and chord you play, with articulations chosen automatically.
Instrument Mode: play the full sampled bass from a MIDI controller, including dead notes, full stops and slides.
Performance sliders: Variation, Swing and Timing to change how the phrases are played.
Sound shaping: four characters that change dynamic range and tone, Rock, Soul and Pop amp settings, and single-knob EQ and dynamics controls.
Finisher: 15 multi-effect modes on one macro knob, from conventional bass treatments to creative ones.
MIDI drag and drop: drag phrases into the DAW's piano roll to edit them as MIDI.
Studio One integration: follows PreSonus Chord and Key Tracks (Studio One 4.6.2 or later).

The product page lists version 2.1. A free trial is available, and the phrases and sounds are royalty-free.

Source: UJAM product page

When to use it

ROYAL 2 is the general-purpose bass of UJAM's Virtual Bassist series, built for songwriters who need a solid fingerstyle line fast. Compared with MODO BASS 2, which models many basses and gives detailed control over every articulation, it is much quicker to use but limited to one instrument and far less tweakable. Next to Trilian it has a smaller sound range but adds the chord-following Player Mode, so you can get a convincing part without playing bass. Within the series it sits between the upright tone of MELLOW 2 and the picked rock bass of ROWDY 2.

Best for: everyday fingerstyle bass in pop, rock, indie and singer-songwriter songs, and quick demo bass parts.
Genres: pop, rock, indie, soul and Latin.
Look elsewhere if: you want an upright (MELLOW 2), a picked rock bass (ROWDY 2), detailed note-level control (MODO BASS 2) or a wide range of acoustic, electric and synth basses (Trilian).
Tip: drag a pattern into the DAW as MIDI, edit it, then play it back in Instrument Mode to keep the articulations.

What producers say

Reviewers of the version 2 series rated it highly for speed and sound, with only the basic mix controls drawing criticism.

Sound On Sound (John Walden, November 2020) gave Virtual Bassist 2 five stars, calling it "incredibly easy to use" and praising MIDI drag and drop and the playable Instrument Mode.
MusicTech (Martin Delaney, May 2020) gave the series its MT Choice award and called ROYAL "the most general-purpose" of the three, with tones from deep and rounded to bright and edgy.
Criticisms: MusicTech found the one-knob EQ and compression simplistic and noted the market is crowded with sampled bass instruments.

Where to buy

Best Service: $111.95
UJAM: $119
PluginFox: $119
AudioDeluxe: $119

Tutorials and reviews

Similar plugins

Virtual Bassist DANDY by UJAM · Vintage flatwound bass instrument · $111.88
Bass Fingers by Waves · Fingered electric bass · $32.93
Dan Dean Essential Bass Collection by Tracktion · Sampled electric bass instrument · $99
Virtual Bassist ROWDY 2 by UJAM · Picked rock bass instrument · $111.95
MODO BASS 2 by IK Multimedia · Physically modeled bass · $29.99
Ample Bass J by Ample Sound · Sampled electric bass (Fender Jazz Bass) · $119
Ample Bass P by Ample Sound · Sampled bass guitar · $119
EZbass by Toontrack · Bass guitar instrument · $168.29
Bloom Bass Groove by Excite Audio · Sampled electric bass phrase instrument · $59
Trilian by Spectrasonics · Bass instrument · $279

All orchestral & other instruments