Bass processing is an incredibly important part of any mix, especially for heavy music, where it takes on the dual roles of covering the low end and also adding to the aggression of the guitars. Typically, this is achieved through parallel processing, where the bass signal is split into a high and a low bus and then processed separately. This can involve lengthy and complex signal chains, either with splitters/pedals/multiple amps/cabs/rack gear in the analog realm, or with in-the-box routing and plugins.
But what if you could do it all with a single plugin? I bet you’d be as happy as I was while trying out the Mammoth plugin from Aurora DSP, which does exactly that. It’s a single (not very expensive) plugin that takes your bass from dry DI all the way to polished final mix tone.
As you’ll hear in the above video, Mammoth is as massive as the ancient beast from which it takes its name. This plugin manages to achieve the difficult task of being really powerful, but also very intuitive and easy to use. It contains 3 completely different drive sounds for your aggressive top end, a crossover that allows you to laser-target where you split the signal, and 3 built-in cab sounds with the option to pull in your own if you like.
This is my favorite plugin of 2020 so far, and it’s gonna be a tough one to beat – I was able to get, with VERY minimal tweaking, some of the best (and a wide variety of) bass tones I’ve ever heard. Top notch work from the pretty young Aurora DSP, looking forward to whatever else they’ve got coming up!
