Welcome to Bazantar from Mark Deutsch. The Bazantar is a custom five-string acoustic bass equipped with an additional twenty-nine sympathetic and four drone strings. Its melodic range is more than five octaves, and its sympathetic range is four octaves. The resulting interaction of melodic, sympathetic and drone strings creates an unexpected resonant landscape that is characterized by a surprising richness of textures.
Bazantar contains over 2,700 samples, divided into two main categories: multisamples and phrase samples. Multisamples consist of plucked and bowed presentations, with and without vibrato, up to 10 loops per note, and dynamic sustains/swells. We took a line from Mark Deutsch, who plays the bass traditionally and with the back of the bow (Colonel Legno).
We’ve added various controls (e.g. pedal volume, release volume, noise reduction, EQ), a visual speed editor, and a large selection of reverb and convolution effects. The instrument was recorded in a rich church environment with two sets of microphones (close/internal and ambient/player), so users can customize the sound to their liking.
MICROPHONES AND OPTIONS
“Bazantar” was recorded in a lush church setting with multiple microphone positions. We’ve combined dozens of different microphones into two main mic stands. The first is a close, dry angle. The other is Far Stem, which gives you a more ambient and traditional orchestral perspective. You can use them individually or stack them together.
ADVANCED ARTICULATIONS
Bazanatar also features a variety of advanced articulations, including four types of expressive arcs, plucked (jazz-inspired) pizzicato, multi-sampled taps, sustains with and without vibrato, and a huge collection of additional phrasing material. So you get the best of both worlds with multiple samples and phrases.
FRONT FX AND CHAOS FX
Bazantar contains two parallel effects systems. The first is our new Front-Faced FX, which allows you to control the most fundamental effects (like step filtering, pitch, delay, and our new texture delay). You can also go deeper with our Chaos FX system, which includes Phase Modulation, EQ, Bit-Crusher, Distortion, Dual Delays and more!