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BassFlex vs Trilian

Trilian and BassFlex both play a bass from MIDI on Windows, but they are built very differently. Trilian is Spectrasonics' bass instrument: sampled, with over sixty electric basses, an acoustic bass and synth basses, 3,189 sounds in all, on Windows and Mac. BassFlex is modeled, not sampled: presets for electric, acoustic and upright basses, a download of 24.3 MB, and $79.

What they have in common

Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit, as a standalone program and as a plugin.
Electric, acoustic and upright basses in one instrument.
An amp, effects and an EQ. Trilian has 33 effect units. BassFlex has a bass amp, cabinets, reverb and an eight-band EQ.
All of your own computers. Spectrasonics lets one user authorize Trilian on as many computers as needed, and BassFlex is one license for one person, to use on all of their own computers.

Where Trilian stands out

Mac as well as Windows, with AU, VST3, VST2 and AAX plugins.
Many more basses. Over sixty electric basses with 4, 5, 6 and 8 strings, plus an acoustic bass and synth basses.
Techniques you can choose. The electric basses come in fingered, picked, fretless, slapped, tapped and muted variations, with sampled legato and glide.
Parts built in. An arpeggiator, strumming, chord voicings, pitch slides and MIDI capture. BassFlex has no patterns of its own: its parts come from ComposerFlex, a MIDI file or your playing.
A standalone program with Flow Capture, which records audio, MIDI and the sound at once.

Where BassFlex stands out

Small. A 24.3 MB download that installs at 50.6 MB. Trilian is a 36 GB download, with 72 GB free needed during installation.
A demo. BassFlex has a demo you can download and try before you buy. Spectrasonics' pages offer audio demos, and no trial.
Your own settings. Over 70 sliders in panels for the pluck, string, pickup, body, amp, cabinet, reverb and EQ.
Four slots (A to D) to switch between sounds or layer them, with Compare, Vary and Randomize.
Your song to a file. It renders a MIDI file to FLAC, or to WAV with the included command-line renderer.
No account. A license key and your email address, entered once for each Windows user on each computer, with no account and no online activation.
Built to play ComposerFlex's songs, our songwriting program, on the same PC with no setup. Articulations such as palm mute, slide, slap and pop arrive from ComposerFlex, not from special keys.
$79, where Trilian is listed at $299.

Which to pick

On a Mac: Trilian.
For a very large choice of basses, or built-in arpeggios and chord voicings: Trilian.
On Windows, for a small download you can try first: BassFlex.
If you'd rather have no account, and a price of $79: BassFlex.

Owning both

Trilian is a large library to browse, and BassFlex is a small instrument you can open and play at once, so the two sit well side by side on one PC. BassFlex's demo is here; Spectrasonics' pages offer audio demos and no trial, so go by those. This page doesn't compare how they sound. That's for your ears.

The facts side by side

Every fact about Trilian is from Spectrasonics' own pages, checked on 7 November 2026. Prices are list prices in US dollars; sales come and go.

	BassFlex	Trilian
How it makes its sound	Modeled. It computes every note as you play, from the physics of plucked strings: the upright and acoustic basses sound through the body, and the electric basses through a pickup, some of them with a bass amp and cabinet. It plays no recordings.	Sampled: recordings of basses played on the maker's own sampling engine, with synthesis functions added in version 1.5 (the maker's words).
Price	$79, one-time	$299 for the full download; an upgrade is offered to owners of the maker's earlier Trilogy
Download and disk space	24.3 MB download, 50.6 MB installed	36 GB download; 36 GB of free disk space, and 72 GB during the download installation. The whole library must be installed
Memory the maker asks for	4 GB, with 4 cores or more and 100 MB of disk (the minimum we state for every Flex program)	8 GB of RAM or more recommended; a 2.4 GHz or faster processor
Runs on	Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit	Windows 10 or later; macOS 10.15 or later (Intel and Apple Silicon); 64-bit hosts
Forms	Standalone and VST3	Standalone (with Flow Capture, which records audio, MIDI and the sound at once); VST3, VST2 and AAX on Windows; AU, VST3, VST2 and AAX on Mac
Needs another program	Nothing else	Nothing else (its own engine)
Copy protection	A license key and your email address, entered once for each Windows user on each computer. No account and no online activation.	Spectrasonics' own authorization system
Computers per license	One license for one person, to use on all of their own computers	One user, who may install and authorize it on as many computers as needed
Demo	A demo to download and try before you buy	No trial on its pages (audio demos only)
Basses included	Presets for electric bass, acoustic bass guitar and upright bass; four slots to layer sounds	Over sixty 4, 5, 6 and 8 string electric basses, an acoustic (upright) bass and synth basses: 3,189 sounds in all. An arpeggiator, strumming and chord voicings, 33 effect units

More: virtual basses compared: modeled and sampled, a table of 15 products, and all about BassFlex.

If something here is out of date, write to [email protected] and we'll correct it.

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