Help creating basslines from drum+key MIDI

[Michael Zucker]

So far I’ve been VERY impressed with the tones and built in grooves on EZBass.  But I’ve already been having a difficult time generating the basslines I want from drum and keys MIDI.  I am using Cubase 6.5, SD3 and EZKeys.

The drag and drop from Cubase doesn’t work, but that is just the DAW as I understand, so I export my “finalized” drums and key MIDI into files and import that way.  Took me a while to figure that out but so far so good…

The first real hurdle I see is not being able to combine BOTH drum and key MIDI files to generate the bassline.  Perhaps there is a way to do this?  i.e. I would love to get the chord changes from the key MIDI file and the exact hits from the drums and use them together to make a bassline, is that possible?  Right now if I want to generate off of the drums I have to manually edit the chord changes, which is a pain.

The next issue is if I instead generate off of the keys MIDI there are options for left hand or chords, but nothing in the middle?  Can I change the location on the keyboard where EZBass considers the left hand?  As an example I tried this on a simple piece and is only grabbed the lowest note, there are notes within an octave of the lowest note that carry the bass melody, but if I select “left hand” EZBass misses all of these and instead just plays the low note occasionally.  Can I change the range for the left hand to fix this?  Or even just turn some setting to say in general “play more notes” or “play less notes”?  If I use the chord method then it does generate bass notes for the full low melody that is in the keys MIDI, but it’s also strumming everywhere and not what I want.

I think these issues are probably a combination of me not fully understanding how to use EZBass yet and perhaps some lack in functionality that I assumed would be in the software.  From the ad I definitely assumed I could very easily generate an bassline in EZBass from work/compositions that I’ve already made using EZKeys and SD3.  I’ve watched the demo videos and see how to generate basslines from one OR the other, but if the functionality exists maybe you guys could make a demo specifically showing us how you can easily make a bassline taking into account BOTH drum and keys MIDI?

Thanks!

MZ

EZbass version: 1.0.2
Operating system: Windows 10

Topic

[Henrik Ekblom]

Add the chords either by

• dragging the keys MIDI either straight to the Song Track
• or to the Drums & Keys tab and from there to the song track

Then drag the drums MIDI to Drums & Keys to generate the MIDI, and drag the MIDI to the song track – below the chords. Now you have both

 

If the follow left hand function in Drums & Keys isn’t following all notes – can you lower the keys MIDI one octave before importing to EZbass?

• We will have look at this, so it will be possible to play higher on the keyboard and still get left hand bass notes, as you said!

Henrik Ekblom - User Experience Designer
Toontrack

1

Thanked by: donskills

[Scott]

Having the same exact problem.   Only registering certain notes.   Leaving out others.   Using Follow Left Hand function.

 

“if I select “left hand” EZBass misses all of these and instead just plays the low note occasionally.”   This.

 

Thanks guys!

EZbass version: 1.0.2
Operating system: macOS Mojave (10.14)

[Scott]

Hoped the latest update would address this but still the same.

 

When it works it’s wonderful!    But it’s only playing notes occasionally.    Is this something you guys are looking at maybe?   Am I missing something?

Appreciate the help!

 

EZbass version: 1.0.3
Operating system: macOS Mojave (10.14)

1

Thanked by: donskills

[Scott]

And just to clarify.   It is – in fact – as the initial gentleman mentioned not following as soon as you start to travel upwards.  Lower notes seem fine but when you go above Middle C things go south.   Thx!

EZbass version: 1.0.3
Operating system: macOS Mojave (10.14)

[Henrik Ekblom]

Yes, this will be looked into! We have many new things that are going to be implemented, and bugs/issues to fix, but we work as fast as we can

Henrik Ekblom - User Experience Designer
Toontrack

2

Thanked by: donskills and Didier Martini

[Scott]

Appreciate the response Henrik and look forward to any future updates!

1

Thanked by: donskills

[Michael Zucker]

Henrik Ekblom wrote:

Add the chords either by

• dragging the keys MIDI either straight to the Song Track
• or to the Drums & Keys tab and from there to the song track

Then drag the drums MIDI to Drums & Keys to generate the MIDI, and drag the MIDI to the song track – below the chords. Now you have both

 

If the follow left hand function in Drums & Keys isn’t following all notes – can you lower the keys MIDI one octave before importing to EZbass?

• We will have look at this, so it will be possible to play higher on the keyboard and still get left hand bass notes, as you said!

SO this used to work… I believe it was after I completed the latest update to 1.0.6 that now this method no longer seems to work.  Perhaps there is a bug?  I tried several times and different ways but I cannot get EZBass to follow the chords now once I generate midi from the drums.

What I’m doing here, to be clear, is dropping my key midi into EZBass first.  This does successfully generate the chords and midi perfectly to match the keys.  Then what I’m doing is dragging my drum midi into the Drums&Keys section and generating bass using using the kick/snare.  However, when I drag this new midi generated from the drums down into the song section, below the chords, the chord changes are not reflected.  I used this same method many times in EZBass as it was originally described in this post, but it no longer seems to work now.

Anyone else having this problem?  Is it a bug or perhaps there’s a new better way to do this?  What I want is to generate a bass line that follows the kick snare of my drum midi but also the chord changes in my key midi

EZbass version: 1.0.6
Operating system: Windows 10

[Michael Zucker]

It’s definitely seems like something went wrong with the update.  I’ve been trying for hours and using older sessions etc.

This used to work perfectly but something has gone wrong.  Even when I try to use the “Export to Current Sound Track” the chords I already have in the song track get overwritten with a single chord, and thus the bassline is totally wrong.

I’m surprised that no one has caught this yet?  Perhaps there is something wrong on my end, a setting that’s incorrect or bad install?

EZbass version: 1.0.6
Operating system: Windows 10

[John]

Hi Michael,

just tried this

What I’m doing here, to be clear, is dropping my key midi into EZBass first. This does successfully generate the chords and midi perfectly to match the keys. Then what I’m doing is dragging my drum midi into the Drums&Keys section and generating bass using using the kick/snare.

in EZbass 1.0.6 and it works as expected.

Are you dragging from EZkeys+EZdrummer 2 standalone or are you using other VI’s? In a host?

BR,
John

John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[Michael Zucker]

I’m using SD3, EZKeys and EZBass all within Cubase 10.5.

Im dragging both the key midi directly from the song track within ezkeys, and the drum midi directly from the song track within SD3.

As I said this used to work perfectly for me!  But since the latest ezbass update it does not. I’ll try and post some screen shots to illustrate what’s happening.

I appreciate the help!

MZ

EZbass version: 1.0.6
Operating system: Windows 10

[Michael Zucker]

Just tried this running stand alone, same behavior but I did find a work around!

I took a bunch of screen shots to illustrate but it looks like I would need to upload each out to a photo sharing site to post them, so I’ll just try and describe what I am seeing and if someone from technical wants those screen shots I can email them along with a write up.

In stand alone I get the same behavior as described before within Cubase.  Dragging the parts generated from importing the drum midi underneath the song track chords does not produce the right bass part, it stays on one chord throughout.  I can still see the chords in the song track window, but the bass part doesn’t follow them.  If I use the “Export to Current Song Track” I get a similar behavior, except now the the actual chords in the song track get overwritten with a single chord!

Now what I just found that DOES work is if I select the “Replace MIDI in Selection on Song Track…”.  That option is grayed out unless you click and select the chords within the song track.  But once you select them, and then click the “Replace MIDI…” option the bass line is filled in properly.  Immediately after this you have to click to save changes or cancel.  While this process seems to work I never had to do this before.

So now that I have found a workaround this whole topic is less urgent.  However, I used to just be able to click and drag my selections…. maybe I have some option checked somewhere that I don’t want?  The process for doing this either way does seem a bit tedious.  I wonder if in future updates you guys might consider an option to import BOTH drums and keys and to automatically handle things like this?  It seems like a natural extension to me using your other products, I am constantly wanting to generate bass lines that match the drum hits but follow the chords of the keys.  Would be nice if that was simpler to do within EZBass.  Still…. I feel like something is wrong here where dragging the part used to work and now it does not…

EZbass version: 1.0.6
Operating system: Windows 10

[Author]

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