| My
first instrument was Virtual Guitarist, a piece of software that behaves
pretty much like a real rhythm guitarist when you feed it with chords
from a MIDI keyboard. Next was Groove Agent, a modern-day version
of the drum machines we recognise from home organs in the seventies. Both these instruments were produced for Steinberg.
Then there were so many voices calling for a virtual bass player that I could not resist creating one. My head was (and still is) filled with cool ideas about future creations, but I felt that I had to do this bass thing before I went on.
I've been communicating with plug-in developers ever since my first music PC with Cubase VST 3.5, but it wasn't until November 2003 that finally I met my long time plug-in hero Dave Brown. We discussed producing all sorts of fascinating and creative tools, stuff we’d really want to see in the shops, and started making plans for our first creation – the bass player. |
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My first recording was the Fender Jazz Bass, a good place to start; plug-and-play indeed! Lars Westin, who’d helped me with my previous instruments, edited the audio files while Dave started building the software base upon which wonderful new virtual instruments can be created.
Bass players Mads Vinding, Jan Hellman, Johan Axelsson and my brother Dan helped me recording the instruments I needed, following my very particular specifications for this VSTi.; normal notes, loud notes, slides up and down, hammer-ons and pull-offs, staccato notes, noises...
I considered recording the really loud basses (the Rickenbacker and the Thunderbird) in my own studio at home, but I wish to remain friends with my neighbours so I went to FlatPig Studio in my hometown of Oxie instead. There, Robert Ahrling and Dejan Milenkovits did a fine job on those basses. You may think that "FlatPig Studio" is a strange name for a studio. So did I, so I asked Robert for an explanation:
"The name 'FlatPig' originally came about when I was recording as an artist in a studio many years ago. I tried to explain to the sound engineer what the bass drum should sound like. In my attempts to explain, I told him: 'Well... if you take a pig and throw him out of the window from a ten stories high building and imagine the sound it would make at impact... SMACK!'. He replied: 'Like a flat pig???'. 'Yes! JUST like a Flat pig!'<" |
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When I did Virtual Guitarist for Wizoo two years earlier, I had plans to let Francesco Maisto do the GUI (Graphic User Interface) for the bass plug-in. I'd seen a his game GoldYard and was delighted, but as it happened, the graphics for VG were done elsewhere. Now, in early 2004, it was time to call Francesco again, and in May we met for the first time. My Italian friend made our excellent GUI in a surprisingly short time and then continued by designing this very website! And I think he’s making computer games in his spare time… As usual, it was a relief to hand over the entire audio content (all the bass instruments) to Uffe Börjesson. After having worked for almost a year with a project, one easily gets "deaf". I always give the all-important mastering job to Uffe and rest assured that the sound is as good as can be.
My friend babusjka not only shot and edited the majority of the photographs used in BROOMSTICKBASS, but also designed publicity material, the manual, DVD label and the packbox for our virtual instrument. Musician extrordinaire PoA Sörlin helped us by doing a lot of quality checking and creating some of the wonderful demo MP3-s you'll find on this website. The cool cats responsible for the styles in BROOMSTICKBASS are Nils Erikson, Johan Axelson, Per Almered, PoA and myself.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot the Product Manager for Broomstick Bass: Per Almered! Per was the guy with his nose above water at times when the rest of us were deeply buried in development and work. I've said it
before and I'll say it again: Had it not been for my wonderfully
talented friends and partners, there certainly would not
have been a BROOMSTICKBASS for you to play around with! |
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