Markbass Studio 1

The Markbass Studio 1 plug-in (which is available for $199) was created by developers Overloud, who have recently launched their own TH1 guitar-amp simulator (which we reviewed in SOS March 2009). Three Markbass valve heads — the TA501, R500 and Classic 300 — are emulated, along with six cabinets ranging from 1x15 to 8x10 in configuration. There’s also a compressor, and the usual wide range of options when it comes to miking up the virtual speakers.

Unusually, Markbass Studio 1 uses Pace copy protection, but not the iLok system: authorising it requires you to fill out a typical challenge and response form via the Markbass web site. The CD includes VST, RTAS and stand-alone versions, each of which must be installed separately, for some reason.

When you load up Markbass Studio 1, you’re greeted by an enormous on-screen amp head next to a tiny cabinet. Both are sitting on a shelf where the rest of the controls reside. Presets are saved and loaded using the buttons along the bottom centre, in banks of eight. I found this system quite irritating, as there’s no way to see the names of more than one preset at once, so you’re often reduced to blindly hovering the mouse over a button to find out what that preset is called.

One thing that’s immediately apparent with all the models is that there are a lot of controls. Even the simplest of the heads has four EQ bands, while the TA501 has several additional tone-related parameters. On top of that, there’s a compressor which can be switched pre or post the preamp and EQ, while the final output can draw from no fewer than five different sources: direct, room and rear mics, a separate tweeter signal, and a simulation of the amp’s DI output. This latter can even be phase-reversed with respect to the miked signals.

Although each of these signals has its own level control, the overall output of the plug-in is just the same whether you have them all at zero or all full up. This makes it easy to A/B different sounds at the same level, but can sometimes be confusing — even if all the levels are down, it still outputs a full-level signal, so it’s not clear what that signal represents.

Interestingly, though, despite the possibly excessive number of controls and options, Markbass Studio 1 always sounds like Markbass Studio 1. The qualities that I first heard in that small solid-state combo are here in abundance, no matter what you do to the controls. So what this plug-in won’t give you, for the most part, are the gritty overdriven and distorted bass sounds you might find in hard rock or punk, although I suppose you could always use a separate distortion device. Its strengths are more likely to be in pop, jazz, soul and other genres where what’s needed is a warm, solid sound to anchor the mix. In general, the tone controls provide gentle massage rather than fundamental alteration of the sound; likewise, the various mic and DI options sound convincingly like subtly different takes on the same source signal, and the built-in compressor does pretty much what you’d want a compressor on a bass amp to do.

All three amp models cover a lot of similar ground, but they’re not exactly the same: to my ears, the TA501 head provides a more precise, sharply defined sound that might suit slap bass and modern pop/rock, while the Classic 300 delivers a deeper, more rounded tone that lends itself well to vintage sounds. It’s not a jack of all trades by any means, but despite the annoying preset handling and unnecessary proliferation of controls, this plug-in is definitely the master of some. Sam Inglis  0