Will This Replace My Go to Bass Plugin? Native Instruments Jam Bass Review

Wanna watch the review instead? Check out the video here!

Native instruments just released a new bass guitar plugin called Jam Bass, which is part of their session series that allows you to play the instrument on its own, or play some pre-made phrases.

Now, I’m already a huge fan of the Rickenbacker bass guitar plugin which is currently my go-to bass guitar plugin. I’m excited to see if Jam Bass will work its way into my top plugins or even replace the Rickenbacker in my arsenal. No promises yet- but let’s make a beat from scratch and see how it goes.

And for full transparency- Native instruments did grant me free access to the Jam Bass plugin, however they have no say in what I can and cannot say about the plugin. Everything I say is my own opinion.

To start off with the beat, I’ll be putting down some keys first. I’m using one of my other Native Instruments plugins- the Phoenix Keys plugin.

Walkthrough of Jam/Bass: 

And now starting off with Jam Bass- first things first, it does run with Kontakt, but it also works in the free Kontakt player so you don’t need to buy the full version of kontakt to run it. 

Once we open up Jam Bass, you’ll see the pattern tab and can browse through all the patterns. You can choose your favorites and mix and match them on your main screen. You can look up the presets through this main tab, or on the side bar as well. 

Next, you get the bass settings and Amps & FX tabs to further fine tune your sound. A lot of the effects available are based on Native Instruments plug-ins and Guitar Rig. Dig through the options, once you find the effects that you like, you can set up your own chain or multiple chains at that. They give you a lot of flexibility to make this sound your own.

The playback tab allows you to tweak the performance with tools like humanizing the sound or adding some swing. 

In the top right corner you have a sound presets dropdown menu which lets you choose what sounds you want to use with each preset.

Okay, now that we have a lay of the land, let’s start playing around with it. You’re able to play through some notes or even create phrases. There are different types of presets you can choose from- melody and regular presets. 

With the melody presets you have a little more freedom and can play through the notes how you want. It gives you some freedom to customize it more. It’s also an option to choose from patterned presets. 

One note on working with the patterns under the melody presets vs the regular presets, you have to click and hold on the pattern you want to use. While using a regular preset, you can just click on the patterned preset and play away. 

You can also combine them with the red notes as shown above. If you play the presets with the red notes, you can combine the performances to make it your own and add it into your music. It offers you many ways to customize your performances. 

They make it easy to find a sound that’s unique to what you’re looking for. I can look through these preset patterns to see if something already fits the chord progression I’m laying down. If not, then I’ll make it myself.

Skipping around the presets, I like what I’m hearing so far. There’s a nice wide array of sounds available. After listening through a few patterns, I found a couple that I really liked, but ultimately I wanted to play out something myself.

So that’s Jam Bass for you, I think it sounds really good, I can see myself reaching for it from time to time when the vibe calls for it. 

Personally, I’ll be sticking with the Rickenbacker as It fits my general sound more, but for the times when I’m experimenting with something different, this is a solid plugin I’d go for to find that sound. 

One thing Jam Bass has over Rickenbacker is the melody feature with premade patterns. Rickenbacker only allows you to play out the sound yourself. So if you’re looking for some premade patterns to use or gain inspiration from, The Jam Bass is an excellent option. If that’s what you’re interested in, then I recommend trying it out. 

You can check out what my session with the Jam Bass sounded like in the video here. If you end up trying it out- let me know!