Sebastian RothHello Toons,
so far EZbass is awesome and makes my day beautiful, but I can’t find any option to force a certain note to be played on a specific string. In other libraries there is usually a keyswitch for that.
In my situation I want to play some higher notes and EZbass decides to play them on the higher strings – but I want it to stay on the current string and to go up the frets instead. Is there an option or workaround for that?
Thanks
Sebastian
Hello Toons,
so far EZbass is awesome and makes my day beautiful, but I can’t find any option to force a certain note to be played on a specific string. In other libraries there is usually a keyswitch for that.
In my situation I want to play some higher notes and EZbass decides to play them on the higher strings – but I want it to stay on the current string and to go up the frets instead. Is there an option or workaround for that?
Thanks
Sebastian
JamesI’d love to be a fly on the wall of the studio where the producer is telling the session bassist that he should play that bass riff on a lower string. 🤬🫣🤕
JamesIf it smells that bad on your end I suggest you check your own pants / sewers for blockage.
If you don’t have anything to add other than childish insults perhaps you could save some bandwidth…?
Exposed Nerveyeah this seems like a really bad omission. For instance i like to do slides in my riffs, and on my guitar i am doing a chromatic slide of an octaved 2 note chord like frets 8/7 7/6 6/5 5/4, but on EZbass it wont let there be a slide between 5/4 because the 5 is an open string! There is a notable tonal difference between the fretted notes and the open ones, and you can hear the difference between the lower gauge string and the higher one. This is why on my 7 string guitar (tuned to A) i like to play chords and riffs up past the 5th fret of the A string instead of on the D string, to get that lower string tone.
I dont understand why you would go to so much effort sampling bass guitars like this, with this kind of quality, and not include every note on the fretboard in the software, at least up to the 12th fret on each string (for a full octave) with a way to select the string a note is using. I bought this program only recently, and I kind of feel like I was misled by the claim that this is like having a real bass guitar as an instrument in your backing because in effect its like having a truncated bass guitar, one that i cant mirror my guitar riffs accurately with because it doesnt have the same frets available. Like the rest of the program is great and the sounds are great etc but this is a really disappointing factor for me.
I would like to add my name to the list for the requests for this feature and hope you can bring it to a reality.
Glenn StantonI’d love to be a fly on the wall of the studio where the producer is telling the session bassist that he should play that bass riff on a lower string. 🤬🫣🤕
EZbass version: 1.1.8
Operating system: macOS Monterey (12)
actually, it’s up to the producer and/or arranger to make that call. a lot of times you’re hoping the session pro has the instincts to do it in a way that benefits the overall performance. but sometimes an arrangement calls for different choices to get the tone just right, and can be critical in getting the mix later on to gel correctly.
of course if it’s a “modern producer” without knowledge trying to micromanage a pro, then it would be fun to hear… “hey Leeland, can you play that riff on the low string” LOL
and definitely – all EZ products should have every note on the given instrument sampled. what’s the point of not doing it right the first time?
Glenn
www.runnel.com
www.reverbnation.com/fossile
Christian SchormannTo James: With all due respect, it is a mistake to assume that the same notes played as open strings versus fretted positions, or even the same note played on different strings (by changing frets) sound the same. It is very common for a guitarist or bassist to make use of the differences in tone you get by choosing the appropriate fret position.
To several other comments: Many sampled string instruments in fact do have the same notes sampled in different fret positions in addition to the open strings. I would be shocked if EZ Bass did not do this, and from my use so far, I think it has all the necessary samples. What it lacks, in my humble opinion, is a mechanism to force string selection through Midi. Other sampled string instruments support this, for example (to just mention one) the Ample Guitar series.
To Hendrik: I partially buy your simplicity argument. I am very supportive of software that is easy to use, but in a well executed design simplicity does not need to be the enemy of proper creative control. It is perfectly fine to have the current behavior selecting notes by default as-is, but that does not mean you can’t have the ability to override the default string choice using for example extra midi key modifiers. Again, other products out there do exactly that quite nicely – the default choice is usually doing a good job, but when needed I can add extra midi keys to override the selection desired. I would also think that this is a fairly trivial feature, given the complexity of what EZBass has already implemented in other places.
From my perspective, I consider this an important feature to get my bass riffs to sound the way a real player would want to play them. Please consider this for a future update – I would consider it essential for my future use of the product.
1
Thanked by: Glenn StantonGlenn Stantoni mainly use the Ample basses and guitars for this reason – much more flexible for selecting the right tones.
Glenn
www.runnel.com
www.reverbnation.com/fossile
stpete111For anyone here debating against the logic of including this feature – if EVERY single other VI bass library didn’t have this feature, then your argument might be sound. But they do. Every single damn last one of them. The omission from EZBass simply makes no sense whatsoever.
1
Thanked by: JAMES LLONCHGlenn Stantonmaybe it’s called EZ for a reason? 😉 that said, string selection is a key part of playing a real instrument, so it should be included — however — in defense — there may be some articulations etc which EZB has which make this harder to implement? dunno, but hopefully the next significant dot version will have it. in the meantime i use the MIDI…
Glenn
www.runnel.com
www.reverbnation.com/fossile
Robert HaysThe value for this feature is in slides – if you can’t force the program to use the same string for both notes then sliding is not very useful, a lot of the best slides are from high up the neck to low down the neck and the ‘automatic’ selection algorithm won’t do this.
Bear-Faced CowConsidering how EZBass handles slides, this isn’t really an issue. I’ve used slides in a few songs in which I use EZBass.
jord
Robert HaysIt is a real issue – you can’t force it to do a full neck length slide, or even a half length slide – so it is a real issue. You can only get short 2-5 fret slides.
Bear-Faced CowNo, it’s not an issue. I am already doing full slides across the neck using EZBass.
Jord
Robert HaysSo how do you do it? I just tried to do a full neck run and it switched strings – how do you keep it from doing that?
Bear-Faced CowYou need to use your ears and not your eyes. It doesn’t matter what the graphics show. What matters is how it sounds.
I run the base through an amp sim into a compressor and tape plug-in. Sounds like a full neck slide no different than if I had played it on my bass. That is all that matters.
jord
Christian SchormannI don’t know about this particular use case (slides). However, in my use, I have ample situations where the choice of string definitively makes a difference in sound. I don’t care, to Jordan’s point, how things are displayed on the fretboard, I care about the sound of my bass lines, and for that the right string choices matter.
No products in the cart.