How do you play EZBass from a midi keyboard?

[Big Jim]

I waited a while for this and was excited to download it first thing this morning. Rushed home from work to finish the install and play with it. I bought this for one purpose; to play my own bass riffs from my midi keyboard. Not interested in anything else in the program. So far after an hour fooling around with it, I can’t get a sound out of it with my midi keyboard. I can click on a string on the PC and it plays, and I can click on the screen keyboard and get a sound. Every other midi driven program I have recognizes my midi keyboard as soon as I open the program. This one doesn’t and I can’t find any reference material to help.

All suggestions are welcome.

EZbass version: 1.0.2
Operating system: Windows 10

Topic

[Scott]

Are you using the standalone EZbass or in a DAW? If standalone, can you post a pic of your Audio/MIDI settings showing you’ve selected your MIDI device?

Scott Sibley - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[Big Jim]

Standalone. Based on your email I was able to locate the midi option selector. Once I got that done I was able to play a scale from the keyboard, then it no longer played. I tried every possible option in the Audio/Midi settings and nothing resulted in a return of the ability to play from the keyboard. I closed and reopened the program and turned the midi keyboard on and off and attempted all the settings each time without getting the sound back. Frustrating.

[John]

Hi,
can you still post a pic of your Audio and MIDI devices settings, please?

BR,
John

John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

1

Thanked by: Big Jim

[Big Jim]

I was happy this morning, but it didn’t last. Fired up EZBass and it worked…for a while. I was even able to record about eight measures of a track before it quit again. I have attached a screenshot of the settings per your request. The program recognizes my midi keyboard properly as MIO.

Other findings:

It takes 15-20 seconds after the program is activated to be able to get a sound by clicking a string.

Same thing if you switch basses.

When playing, sometimes a note will “stick,” i.e. it shows as a fingerprint on the neck but nothing will play. When you click that it disappears and the string will play, but the midi keyboard may or may not play. I varied the touch controls on the midi but there may be something in the software to correct this.

With EZ drummer, which I use as “my drummer” on all of my tracks, there is a track option that allows easy output of a wav file to be imported into my DAW. As this program allows recording I’m sure it has a similar option but I could not find it intuitively by looking around and clicking things.

The bass sounds great, much better than what I have been using. However; if I can’t get this working properly and quickly I am going to have to give it up and move on to something else. I have three singles in final production and I want to record new bass tracks, ideally with EZBass.

Your efforts to help are greatly appreciated.

 

[Big Jim]

Is there anybody out there? Day three of what I expected to be a great experience with the kind of program I am used to from Toontrack. But so far, other than one scale on day 1 and about 8 measures I was able to record on day 2, this dog don’t hunt. It will play by clicking the string, until it sticks, but it will not play more than a few notes from my midi keyboard before stopping, no matter what settings I use. I have tried them all, more than once. Turned the keyboard on and off, taken the program down and back up.

I use the same midi keyboard for Native Instruments, Kontakt, Strum and many other midi driven instruments without a problem.

I have been using EZdrummer for a long time and use it almost everyday. Not only did I never have a problem with it, I am still learning new ways to create better drum tracks. I’ve gotten so good with it that some reviewers compliment my “drummer.” I was expecting a similar experience with EZbass but so far I have only experienced frustration.

A couple of Toontrack technical advisors attempted to help, but I still have no working EZbass.

Any advice is welcome.

[Scott]

Another focusrite interface user was having issues and they reinstalled the latest driver did their interface and that seemed to solve their issue. You could try that.

Scott Sibley - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[Erik Phersson]

Big Jim wrote:

A couple of Toontrack technical advisors attempted to help, but I still have no working EZbass.

Have you contacted support by clicking the button ‘Contact Support’ at the bottom of this page?: https://www.toontrack.com/faq/ezbass-faq/

Other than that, as Scott says, we have had a couple of Focusrite users that had problems that has been resolved by updating the drivers.

Erik Phersson - Toontrack
Head Of Development

[FraserB]

I want to be able to play the bass – rather than having it ‘do it for me’ – how can I do that?

It’s choosing a pretty naff bassline.

[Big Jim]

Forgot about EZbass until I got a notification of a reply to my post from May. Never was able to get EZ Bass to work and gave up a week after installing it. Tunetrack refused my refund request. Still using EZdrummer for my tracks; including two that hit the Country Charts in May and August. Too bad that the EZD concept was not used for EZbass.

Operating system: Windows 10

[Author]

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