There is no installer to run. You copy one file into a folder, then restart your DAW. It takes about two minutes.
Built for macOS 10.13 High Sierra and later, Apple silicon and Intel, and 64-bit Windows. Tested so far in Ableton Live 12 on Windows. The Mac build comes off the same signed and notarised pipeline as STAB. Other DAWs read the same formats but have not been checked.
This page is for BASS. Installing STAB is here.
Double-click BASS-macOS.dmg. A window opens showing the items below. Most people need only the first one.
/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/ApplicationsBASS.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.
/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3To 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. If Finder jumps to a different folder when you paste a path, that folder does not exist yet. Make it: right-click an empty spot, New Folder, and name it VST3 (capitals, no space). Do not use the folder called VST without the 3. That one is for old plug-ins, and Live will not find BASS there.
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.
Do this instead. It always works, and nothing is hidden.
BASS.vst3 inside it.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.
C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3BASS.vst3 is a folder, not a file. Copy the whole thing, not the contents. If there is no VST3 folder there yet, make it.
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 BASS.vst3 needs nothing allowed in your DAW.
The first time you open BASS.exe, the standalone, Windows may show a blue window that says “Windows protected your PC”. That is Windows meeting a program it has not seen before. Click More info, then Run anyway. It appears once. The plugin inside your DAW never shows it.
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.
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.
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.
Got STAB too? Put BASS and STAB in the same folder. Live looks in one place for VST3 plugins, so a plugin left in a different folder does not show up.
Live closes a plugin window the moment you open another one. That is a Live setting, not the plugin, and it is the one to change if you want STAB and BASS open side by side.
With Auto-Hide off, a plugin window stays open until you close it, whichever track is selected.
Options › Manage Plugins › Find more plugins. BASS then appears under Generators.
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.
BASS plays in full from the first open. Some time in the first month, click the line on the bezel under the screen that says NOT ACTIVATED. A panel opens over the screen.
XXXXXXXX-XXXXXXXX-XXXXXXXX-XXXXXXXX.That is all. From then on that machine never touches the network for this, and an update never asks again.
In the receipt email, in a box above the download links. Bought before the key existed? Open the download link in that same email: the key is on that page now. It is also in your Gumroad library if you have an account. Own both STAB and BASS? Each has its own key. The STAB key goes in STAB and the BASS key in BASS.
Nothing, for a month. After that the sound drops out for two seconds every thirty, and the MIDI and WAV chips open the panel instead of handing over a file. Paste the key and it lifts within a second.
The same key works on every machine you own, as many as you like. Logic Pro and GarageBand from the App Store keep their own settings folder, so if you activated in Live, activate once more from Logic. Same key.
KEY NOT FOUND means a typo, or the key for the other plugin. NO CONNECTION means try again online: the check needs the internet for one second. Still stuck? Get in touch with the key and the email you bought with.
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 plays its own line whenever your DAW is playing. A clip you dragged out is a copy of that line, not a replacement, so unless BASS is paused its line keeps going, over your clip or instead of it.
Press PLAY to bring the line back. Using the clip on a different instrument instead? Pause BASS or mute its track, so its own line stops.
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.
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.
BASS.vst3 is sitting directly inside it. Not in another folder within it, and not still in the disk image or zip..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.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. One licence key activates every machine you own, so install it wherever you work.
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.
BASS.vst3 onto the old one and choose Replace. Same for BASS.component or BASS.app if you use those.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.
BASS installs no background service and phones nowhere after the one activation check. Delete BASS.vst3. Delete BASS.component and BASS.app too if you copied them. Then restart your DAW.
The activation is one small text file, ~/Library/BASS/license.txt on Mac or %APPDATA%\BASS\license.txt on Windows. Leave it and a later reinstall is already activated. Delete it too if you want nothing left; the key still works whenever you come back.