Unless you routinely have a bassist on hand whenever you need one then you might want to take a look at iBassist as a cheaper option than having the bass player on retainer, and of course, it’s almost certainly a cheaper route to getting a bass line done.
The app basically turns your iPad into a versatile bass player to jam or compose anywhere and create grooves for installed drum apps. The app sends progression chords by MIDI, so you can have any synth app running in background audio for a more consistent jamming experience.
According to the developer’s description:
Bass lines are based in degrees, so you can apply any chord progression to any bass line. A valuable tool to apply different bass grooves to your songs. And the jam tool brings musical variations and new ideas on the way.
The Chord Progression editor is quick, easy to use and allows to create or edit your progressions choosing Key Notes – harmony by steps, midi detection or randomizing.
iBassist includes 10 Round Robin sampled natural bass sounds. Different styles and colors, from Modern Finger Bass, to warm Double Bass.
Live Pads lets to play live sessions on the way with 8 assignable pads for Line-Progression-Jam, and change between them by MIDI.
Song Mode. Choosing “Make Drums” in song mode will create the whole song structure drums.
Export Midi function to create MIDI Files with the Bass Line /- Progression – Jam combination or whole song structures.
Built-In Effects: Compressor, Delay, Chorus, Reverb.
Parametric EQ
Whilst this might not be my regular choice of app I can see the appeal of something like iBassist for jamming and working out tracks.
iBassist costs $17.99 on the app store now