Converting DI bass audio to midi does not work

[PAUL]

Sending a DI audio bass track at 155 bpm to...

Sending a DI audio bass track at 155 bpm to be converted to midi does not work in ezbass.It tracks way to slow and misses 1/3 of the notes even with fast track turned on.This is the only reason I bought ezbass and it does not work.

EZbass version: 1.0.2
Operating system: Windows 10

Sending a DI audio bass track at 155 bpm to be converted to midi does not work in ezbass.It tracks way to slow and misses 1/3 of the notes even with fast track turned on.This is the only reason I bought ezbass and it does not work.

EZbass version: 1.0.2
Operating system: Windows 10

Topic

[Markus Wagner]

1. You should not work with distorted sound here. The cleaner the better, because distortion makes it almost impossible to discover the transient between two notes (attacks). They almost sound like sustained notes.
(Is distortion the result of your Limiter effect now? Take another one, this one is not good. You can also manually edit your outliers first before limiting).

And why is the first note so much louder than the rest of the audio? Your attacks are not even enough.

I also have experience with Superior Drummer’s Drum to Midi conversion. It is the same behavior. You need a good clean audio with not too much difference in volume/level of your peaks so after normalization a get a constantly good level so they will not fall under the line of recognition. After level compensation, you might want to cut lower frequencies and emphasize picking / fingering frequencies for better transient detection.

2. Some split points have not been recognized because of too little difference in volume, but they are there. Bring the velocity lane a little bit deeper.

3. It is not that bad now, a little editing will always rest. But you can make things better if you devide your audio into sections. Then you can take advantage of individual settings. Inside a song, there might be some louder and less louder parts.

EZbass version: 1.0.3
Operating system: Windows 10

• The post has been modified 8 times, last modified 5 years ago by Markus Wagner.

1

Thanked by: Henrik Ekblom

[PAUL]

The distortion you here is my laptops built in mic being overloaded by my studio monitors.Just look at the wav file and you can clearly see zero clipping.My UAD Apollo interface was not in the red.The audio you hear is from my laptops built in mic.Just look at the wav file and you can clearly see.

EZbass version: 1.0.3
Operating system: Windows 10

[Markus Wagner]

And now you have successfully compensated for your big differences of your attack levels from your clean and dry DI signal and finally you could normalize at a higher average level?

Just want to know.

EZbass version: 1.0.3
Operating system: Windows 10

• This post was modified 5 years ago by Markus Wagner.

[BlueGenes]

yea, I agree with Henrik, the video itself is a fail…   way to distorted, you need to back down the signal..

[PAUL]

I will repeat once again……my signal was fine.My laptop mic was overloaded by my monitors.The audio you hear is my built in laptop mic.Signal was fine.

EZbass version: 1.0.3
Operating system: Windows 10

[PAUL]

Somebody show me video proof of audio tracker working!Open ezbass standalone and please record a 155 bpm chugging bass line and then render to midi.Or do it at 90bpm cause it ain’t gonna work………PERIOD!I demand proof Toontrack!Your manual has audio tracker deleted in it…….WTF is up with that???

EZbass version: 1.0.3
Operating system: Windows 10

• This post was modified 5 years ago by PAUL.

[Markus Wagner]

In general, of course the quality of Audio Tracker’s result is a question of clearness. It depends on how good the notes have been seperated from each other, and how destinct the transients are to make decisions.

But after further evaluation of the bass.wav upload, I must agree with Paul that there is an inexplicable thing why some transients will not be detected.

Furthermore the interpretation of some velocity values are a little bit strange. Some peaks are at a quite high level, but are shown as low value.

As an example, I made a screenshot where at 30.1.00 I would expect a transient detection, but there is nothing. Even “Fast Detection” doesn’t help here.

So I also would like to ask Toontrack to improve the quality of the Audio Tracker.

(I know we can manually edit things here, but I think it is possible getting it with less effort.)

(Ps. I’m sure Toontrack is currently working on the manual and I’m happy the product has been released. Concerning songwriting it already does help me a lot instead of starting completely from scratch. It is a good thing you can compare your audio with the Midi results and make changes easily.

This is the Beginning, not the End !)

EZbass version: 1.0.3
Operating system: Windows 10

• The post has been modified 10 times, last modified 5 years ago by Markus Wagner.

[PAUL]

It just does not work………PERIOD!Audio tracker 100% does not work.Somebody prove me wrong with a video and zero post editing after the conversion.Melodyne works 10X better and so does the audio to midi function in Studio One……….but those suck to because of all the post editing of the failed tracked notes.Both blow ezbass away in that department but all are still a fail.There is no software on the planet that can do this correctly and if the manufacturer claims it then they are selling snake oil.Prove me wrong……..upload a video!

EZbass version: 1.0.3
Operating system: Windows 10

[Henrik Ekblom]

But I really don’t think Toontrack has said that the Audio Tracker will work with all audio without any kind of editing (if that was the case, we wouldn’t have added any tools for manually editing the tracked results). If you have gotten that impression we’re sorry – that’s not what we want users to think!

The idea is that the automated part of the tracker will take you a part of the way – the rest will have to be edited manually. How far the automated part takes you depends on the audio – cleaner sound and less polyphony will render better results.

Here’s an example of a 190 BPM bass audio that’s being tracked. The tracker can’t find all nuances of the original play (there is no software available anywhere that can do that), but as stated before – it takes you a part of the way (in the video about 90% of the way).

Henrik Ekblom - User Experience Designer
Toontrack

• The post has been modified 3 times, last modified 5 years ago by Henrik Ekblom.

[Markus Wagner]

I don’t know what Audio Tracker makes use of for seperating notes,.

Here my considerations (This one is for the development team):

I have already experimented with raw DI signals as well as with using plugins before Midi conversion.

1. Currently the level of audio must be constantly at higher levels, lower amounts soon do fall under the amount line. Velocities at lower amounts are harder to distinguish from one another (because of worse resolution).
   I tried to help the Audio Tracker by applying Plugins before, like LowCut Filters, Compressors, Limiters, etc. But it seems it won’t make it better. I guess there are already some internal tools to do that job.
   >> I wish beside the amount control line, there was also something like an input db control of the WAV per region, so normalization would not be necessary. Clipping should also be possible so the user can make it louder than 0db to compensate spikes and dips.
2. To improve recognition for seperating notes, EZbass should be able to learn better what is the specific characteristic sound of articulations like fingering / picking / slapping, etc.
   There should be no need of a significant increase of transients / peaks to detect a new hit on a continously vibrating string. It has some characteristics which an algorythm should be able to see.
   >> I wish that Audio Tracker could detect hits and seperate notes even if there was no significant change in volume, just by analysing the sound characteristics.

What appears to be the simplest is ultimately the hardest: Playing the same note on the same string on and on.

EZbass version: 1.0.3
Operating system: Windows 10

• This post was modified 5 years ago by Markus Wagner.

[PAUL]

Wow……..new update today made audio tracker even worse……if that is even possible?

EZbass version: 1.0.4
Operating system: Windows 10

• This post was modified 5 years ago by PAUL.

[Markus Wagner]

I don’t think Audio Tracker has become even worse (see changelog in 1.0.4).

Paul, for the moment we have here, I think you can get acceptable results of your bass.wav with the threshold knob set at about 3 o’clock,

I would also give you the advice to create significant regions, so you can do individual adjustments.

Then you should be able to finish quickly.

EZbass version: 1.0.4
Operating system: Windows 10

• The post has been modified 3 times, last modified 5 years ago by Markus Wagner.

[Jay Ramsdell]

Hi Paul,

I agree, it doesn’t do what it claims to do.

As a test I created a midi track inside of EZBass, it sounded sounded great.  It was nothing to serious at all, just 1/8 notes and 1/4 notes, no triplets, no slides, no distortion, no anything really.  I converted it into a wave file and put it my DAW ran it back through the tracker and it absolutely sucked…it was terrible…an would have been unusable if I wanted to actually use it.  You can’t blame my attack or poor playing or anything, it just doesn’t do what it says it does.  I don’t know how Trey Xavier got it to track like that playing heavily distorted guitar, mine can’t even handle a simple bass line created within it’s own programming and easily gets confused by half steps, the timing wasn’t even on the grid???  say what???  It was a perfectly gridded midi bass track to begin with!

Now, with all that being said, I do plan to still use it, but not the way I intended.  I’ll have to map out all my bass tracks, which is very time consuming.

Yes, a little disappointed to say the least.

Regards,

-Jay R.

EZbass version: 1.0.5
Operating system: Windows 10

2

Thanked by: Sean-Lee and PAUL

[PAUL]

Jay Ramsdell wrote:

Hi Paul,

I agree, it doesn’t do what it claims to do.

As a test I created a midi track inside of EZBass, it sounded sounded great.  It was nothing to serious at all, just 1/8 notes and 1/4 notes, no triplets, no slides, no distortion, no anything really.  I converted it into a wave file and put it my DAW ran it back through the tracker and it absolutely sucked…it was terrible…an would have been unusable if I wanted to actually use it.  You can’t blame my attack or poor playing or anything, it just doesn’t do what it says it does.  I don’t know how Trey Xavier got it to track like that playing heavily distorted guitar, mine can’t even handle a simple bass line created within it’s own programming and easily gets confused by half steps, the timing wasn’t even on the grid???  say what???  It was a perfectly gridded midi bass track to begin with!

Now, with all that being said, I do plan to still use it, but not the way I intended.  I’ll have to map out all my bass tracks, which is very time consuming.

Yes, a little disappointed to say the least.

Regards,

-Jay R.

EZbass version: 1.0.5
Operating system: Windows 10

I figured this out after the first hour after I installed ezbass.Everybody said I didn’t know what I was doing and was using it wrong.I have been using Toontrack products since Superior Drummer 1 came out and I know what I am doing.Audio tracker DOES NOT WORK period.

EZbass version: 1.0.4
Operating system: Windows 10

• This post was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by PAUL.

[PAUL]

BUMP!Hey all you knowitalls that say the audio tracker works…….WHERE ARE YOU NOW???

[Author]

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