Installing BASS.

Double-click BASS-macOS.dmg. A window opens showing the items below. Most people need only the first one.

BASS.vst3

/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3

Ableton Live and most other DAWs

BASS.component

/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components

Logic Pro, GarageBand

BASS.app

/Applications

Optional. Runs on its own, with no DAW at all.

BASS.vst3 does not open. Double-clicking it does nothing at all, and that is normal. It is not a program you run. It is a part your DAW loads, so you only ever drag it. BASS.app is the one that opens when you double-click it. That is the standalone version, and putting it in a plugin folder will not make BASS show up in your DAW.

There are two places macOS keeps plugins. Either one works, and which you have depends on how your other plugins were installed.

Shared

/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3

At the top level of the disk. For everyone who uses the Mac.

Just yours

~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3

Inside your own home folder. Never asks for a password.

To open either one, press Shift-Command-G in the Finder, paste the path, and press Return. If you already have other plugins installed, one of those two folders exists already. Put BASS in that same one.

The shared folder asks for your Mac password, because it belongs to the whole computer. That is expected. Use one folder or the other, not both, or you will end up with two copies of BASS.

Can't find either one?

Do this instead. It always works, and nothing is hidden.

1. Make a new folder anywhere you like. In Documents is fine. Call it Plugins.
2. Put BASS.vst3 inside it.
3. In Live, open Settings › Plug-Ins and set VST3 Plug-In Custom Folder to the folder you just made.
4. Click Rescan.

Apple has checked and approved BASS, so macOS will not warn you about it and there is nothing to allow. If you do see a warning that the file is damaged or comes from an unidentified developer, either the download did not finish or the file is not ours. Tell us rather than working around it.

Unzip BASS-Windows.zip, then copy what's inside into place.

BASS.vst3

C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3

Ableton Live, FL Studio and most other DAWs

BASS.exe

Anywhere you like

Optional. Runs on its own, with no DAW at all.

BASS.vst3 is a folder, not a file. Copy the whole thing, not the contents.

Copying into Program Files asks for administrator permission. If you would rather not give it, put the folder anywhere you like and tell your DAW to look there. In Live that is Settings › Plug-Ins › VST3 Plug-In Custom Folder.

Windows does not block plugins the way macOS does, so there is no warning to click through and nothing to allow.

A DAW only looks for new plugins when it starts. If yours was open while you installed, it has not seen BASS yet. Quit it and open it again.

Ableton Live

Live 10.1 or newer. That is the release where Live gained VST3 support, so Live 9 and early 10 will not see BASS at all.

1. Open Settings. That is Cmd-comma on Mac, Ctrl-comma on Windows. Go to the Plug-Ins tab.
2. Turn Use VST3 Plug-In System Folders on. It usually already is.
3. Click Rescan.

   If you have never used a plugin in Live before, the Plug-Ins panel in the browser needs an Activate click first, before anything at all shows up.

4. Browser › Plug-Ins › BASS. Drag it onto a MIDI track.

FL Studio

Options › Manage Plugins › Find more plugins. BASS then appears under Generators.

Logic Pro and GarageBand

These use the .component, and validate it on the next launch. Load it from the Instrument slot of an instrument track, under AU Instruments.

BASS is an instrument, not an effect, so it only loads on a MIDI or instrument track. It won't drop onto an audio track in any host.

To play your own instruments with a line BASS generated, drag the MIDI chip above the lane straight onto a track. The WAV chip beside it drags the audio the same way. It is 24-bit, in time, loops cleanly, and carries the slides and accents.

Dragging is the way to do this, not a shortcut. Some DAWs, Ableton Live included, ignore MIDI sent out of an instrument plugin. Dragging works everywhere.

BASS works on its own. If you also own STAB, the two find each other inside the same project, and BASS follows STAB's key, scale and chord roots as they change. You need STAB 1.0.5 or newer, in the same DAW session on the same computer.

1. Put STAB on one MIDI track and BASS on another, in the same set.
2. Look at the fish. A sword through it means BASS has found STAB. A plain fish means it is on its own.
3. Press play. Change the key or the scale on STAB and BASS follows inside the bar. Hit BITE for a new line in the same key.
4. Turn LOW CUT on in STAB so it leaves the low end to BASS.

There is no MIDI cable, sidechain or menu to set up, and nothing to undo: close STAB and BASS carries on alone, in the key you last had.

1. Restart the DAW. Properly quit it, not just close the project. This is the answer most of the time.
2. Check the folder. Open the path above and make sure BASS.vst3 is sitting directly inside it. Not in another folder within it, and not still in the disk image or zip.
3. Check the format. Logic and GarageBand read only .component. Everything else listed here reads only .vst3. And BASS.app is not a plugin at all, so if that is what you moved, no DAW will find it.
4. Rescan. In Live that is Settings › Plug-Ins › Rescan. Ableton's own page on this is VST/AU plug-in doesn't appear in Live's Browser.

Still nothing? Get in touch with your operating system and your DAW, and you'll get an answer.

One purchase covers Mac and Windows. Both files sit on the same download page, so if you work on both, take both. There is no licence key and no activation, and you may install it on any machine you own.

New computer? Open the receipt email you got when you bought BASS and use the same download link. It serves the current files, so a later download picks up any update for free. Opening it from a different computer may ask you to type the email address you bought with. That is Gumroad checking it is you, not a broken link.

You can also make a free Gumroad account with that address at any time, including long after buying, and the purchase will be sitting in your Gumroad library. Simplest of all, copy the BASS.vst3 folder straight off the old machine.

Lost the email? Get in touch from the address you bought with, and the receipt gets resent.

BASS does not check for updates or install them on its own. A new version is just a new copy of the same file, so putting one in place is the same drag-and-replace as the first install.

Quit your DAW first. Windows in particular refuses to overwrite a plugin file that's currently loaded.

Get the current files from wherever you got them the first time: the download link in your Gumroad receipt email, or your Gumroad library if you made an account. Both always serve whatever is newest, so there is nothing to hunt for.

macOS

Drag the new BASS.vst3 onto the old one and choose Replace. Same for BASS.component or BASS.app if you use those.

Windows

Copy the new BASS.vst3 folder into C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3 and choose Replace the files in the destination when Explorer asks.

Start your DAW and you're on the new version. Rescanning is for a plugin your DAW has never seen; an update doesn't need it, though running one never hurts.

Anything already dragged out as MIDI or WAV is a plain file at that point, untouched by an update. Projects with BASS on a track open the same way they always have.

Not every release gets an email. To check what you are running, read the fine print under the screen: it shows the version. Behind, and you are due for the files above.

There is nothing else to clean up. BASS installs no background service, writes nothing outside its own folder, and phones nowhere. Delete BASS.vst3. Delete BASS.component and BASS.app too if you copied them. Then restart your DAW.