Ron, that is a pretty informative post. I was considering upgrading from Biab 2004 to the current Ultra Pack because I am dissatisfied with the double bass sounds from VSC and Cakewalk TTS-1 (a synth in Sonar). About half of my Biab stuff is standards as recorded by the vocalists in the 40's and 50's -- as they say 'any tune Frank would sing'. For example this afternoon I was working on Fly Me to the Moon using the midi 'Coc-tail' style. I like the double bass note selection but just not the sound. However I have now extensively sampled the Realtracks swing bass demos and consider them to be non-authentic for my purpose. Compared to the original recordings they are too busy, as you said, sounding more like soloists with much jumping around between octaves; they have way too much fingerboard buzz when playing up the neck; and the bass is very nasally. It is more nasal than any double bass I have ever heard. I own and have played a double bass for about 10 years on and off and have experimented with different strings and although I am not very good I have some knowledge of how the instrument can sound. I guess that the Realtrack swing basses were meant just for hard core jazz, although I understand that you feel they are lacking in that area too. I have tried putting some serious eq on the demo tracks which helped to a certain extent with the buzzing, but not enough, and just couldn't eliminate the nasal quality.

I listened very closely to the demos of Garritan Jazz & Big Band on their site and was blown away at the sound for just $149. I thought Biab 2004 would do me just fine if it could sound like that, but I didn't think my computer can run it. It just has a Celeron 2.3 GHz processor with 1 GB ram. I was toying with the idea of upgrading the computer instead of Biab but if Garritan Jazz & Big Band won't work with Biab then there is no point. Not sure what to do now. There are many sounds in Realtracks that I could use but not having a good double bass for the old standards could be the deal breaker.

At the moment I am using a 30 day demo of Forte DXi. I like its double bass sound much better than the other synths I have (as far as sounding generally like the old recordings of the standards), but the rest of the sounds are not much of an improvement to my ears. I tried the demo of the Xpansion Tank 2 but the demo did not come with a double bass at all. I may just keep my powder dry until there are some Realtrack basses that suit my needs.

(Just to clarify -- I am not trying to re-create the original arrangements, just to have a sound that is more or less in the ball park. The midi styles are usually good enough for what I want.)

Jim