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[Billy 86]

Scott wrote:

Please give feedback on what you’d like to see in EZkeys2.

I like to start the day with a good chuckle. This one-liner has been doing the job for more than 5 years now. Precious. 😆

SD3 3.4, EZK2.1.3, EZ Bass 1.3.1, Win11, i9/9900, all SSDs, 64g RAM, Cakewalk, Studio One

1

Thanked by: Reginald K.Son

[Billy 86]

I’ve scoured the manual and can’t find any info on this, but your idea sounds like it may work. Thanks!

SD3 3.4, EZK2.1.3, EZ Bass 1.3.1, Win11, i9/9900, all SSDs, 64g RAM, Cakewalk, Studio One

[Billy 86]

Michael Jacob wrote:

Hey Rick.  The short answer in my humble opinion is “no”.

The long answer is: Considering the fact that this issue was reported over 5 years ago, the root case as been identified as an error in the key definition within the midi files, there have been no updates to the software or midi packs to address this issue and potential workarounds have been published in this topic; I personally think this has a very low priority for the engineering team and I don’t think it will ever be fixed.  We will likely be condemned to deal with workarounds, but I do want to express my appreciation to everyone who has tried to help by posting them.  You and your posts have been very helpful!

That being said, even though I was the one who initially reported this issue, this will be the last time I post here.  This conversation has gone down multiple rabbit holes.  Some of them are about defining and recreating the issue, some on workarounds and others debating general music theory attempting to say this isn’t even a bug at all.  Obviously some of those were more helpful than others.  For all the reasons above I think this issue will never be fixed and continuing the conversation is pointless, so I’m going to bail out.

Thanks everyone for great conversation and your support us in trying to get this thing fixed.  I hope you have better success than I did, but I’m done with it. Please don’t be offended when you don’t see any more responses from me.

Well said.

SD3 3.4, EZK2.1.3, EZ Bass 1.3.1, Win11, i9/9900, all SSDs, 64g RAM, Cakewalk, Studio One

[Billy 86]

Would be nice, but it’s not possible. Functionality in EZK is light years behind all the other products. And it will probably remain that way as they’ve demonstrably abandoned any further development of EK. A real shame. Whatever Midi editing you want to do has to be done in your DAW. Drag the Midi out and try to work on it there. It can be a real nightmare.

SD3 3.4, EZK2.1.3, EZ Bass 1.3.1, Win11, i9/9900, all SSDs, 64g RAM, Cakewalk, Studio One

[Billy 86]

Thanks for the great info, particularly about the presets relying on a completely different SDX, which I don’t have. That’s a head-scratcher. And pretty disappointing to hear. Count me out of the C&V SDX.

SD3 3.4, EZK2.1.3, EZ Bass 1.3.1, Win11, i9/9900, all SSDs, 64g RAM, Cakewalk, Studio One

[Billy 86]

Thanks for the info guys…

SD3 3.4, EZK2.1.3, EZ Bass 1.3.1, Win11, i9/9900, all SSDs, 64g RAM, Cakewalk, Studio One

[Billy 86]

Scott wrote:

In my experience with EZkeys, the thing that I’ve had to understand is that if the original MIDI is say, G major, and you want your song in E minor, simply dragging the MIDI from the Browser to the Song Track will not automatically flat all the 3rds for you and make the original G major progression a minor progression. That would have to be done using the Chord Wheel and manually adjust the chords to your liking.

So, if the original MIDI has a major tonality, it will still have a major tonality when dragged to the Song Track. Personally, I think a new tag should be implemented so you can filter major/minor (or all 7 modes actually) so if I’m writing a sad minor ballad, I won’t have to click through a bunch of Major progressions to find a minor one. Or, adjust a Major progression manually.

Thanks Scott. If not to choose a key for the song, which presupposes a tonal center with accompanying scale architecture based on a transposition, what is the purpose of the Key tool? What should I expect it to do? This what I don’t understand based on what the Operation Manual says about smart transposition. What exactly is that?

SD3 3.4, EZK2.1.3, EZ Bass 1.3.1, Win11, i9/9900, all SSDs, 64g RAM, Cakewalk, Studio One

[Billy 86]

Michael Jacob wrote:

Billy86, I’m not quite clear on why you are expecting a B major chord in the key of E minor. The major 3rd would be D# which would be an accidental in the key of Em, but your larger point is well taken.

Point taken… I’ll use the B7 as an accidental for a stronger resolve to the Em root chord. Going from a Bm to a B7 is easy in the chord tool. What’s not easy (and this is EZ Keys 😉 — is having to manually do all the work, manipulating every chord for an entire song — particularly given the 90s-era GUI (but that’s a whole other conversation and a years-long well of of frustration in the forum.)

There seem to be no shortage of interpretations of the issue of the Key Tool. And that’s fine. Thanks for all the replies. For me, I think it comes down to TT managing UX expectations.  I’m frustrated because, my expectations, based on language in the the Operation Manual, is not being met.

Page 11 of the EZ Keys Operation Manual: “Last to round out the MIDI Browser audition feature, note that you may elect to hear the MIDI material in their original key, or in the key set in the Song Track (emphasis mine). The default is to hear the EZ Keys smart transpose version (emphasis mine), aligned to the Song Track…” I don’t think its a huge jump in reasoning or programming logic that, if you hear the MIDI material smartly transposed in the preview, one could then say, yep, that’s what I want, and drag it to the Song Track in its smartly transposed state.

That’s not happening. I’m choose Em key and hearing it relative to the key of G. As a guy with a background in technical writing, based on the information in the Operation Manual, I would expect it to do what it says. So, I’m curious: Given that it’s not doing what the manual describes, what is the Key tool supposed to do? What is its purpose? How does everyone use it to aid their composing?

A final thought… for me, underlying the various user frustrations with the software, big and small, is that TT has demonstrably abandoned developing it. For years. Though they keep saying things are being addressed and fixes are coming. This is a thread started six years ago.  TT said they were looking at it six years ago. Being real, I get it: from a business standpoint, they’re focused on what is probably more lucrative: EZ Bass, EZ Drummer, Superior Drummer 3, all of which I own and think are amazing. On the EZ Keys front, which holds the promise of being such an amazing composition tool, all we get are new MIDI packs to continue to buy and stick into the same hamstrung software.

Just be honest with us, TT. If this is how it’s going to be, if this is as good as it’s going to get with EZ Keys– whether the GUI, or these persistent potholes — just tell us and relieve us of our misplaced hope. Man, do I ever hope I’m wrong (see, there I go again… hoping!). I hope an amazing new version with lots of features transitioned from EZ Bass and Superior Drummer is just around the corner. I’d even pay an upgrade fee, like I just did with IK Multimedia upgrading from Amplitube 4 to 5 for all the cool new features and fixes, and like I do with Native Instruments. But, apparently for now, all I can do (which it seems is their default suggestion, and what many of us in this forum do and share and is much appreciated) is to keep figuring out work-arounds to make up for their disinterest. Geez, now that I said it, it sounds like a dysfunctional co-dependent relationship. Please, love us! Hey, there’s a song in there somewhere! 😉 Keep making music! It dulls the pain. Cheers!

SD3 3.4, EZK2.1.3, EZ Bass 1.3.1, Win11, i9/9900, all SSDs, 64g RAM, Cakewalk, Studio One

[Billy 86]

Have been following along on this thread, and now add me to those not understanding what EZ Keys is doing in the Key selector. My issue occurs when selecting a tonic for a song key.

Just bought a new MIDI pack, Power Ballads and things are sideways. Same issue in Rock Ballads, Emotional Ballads, Country Pop, Piano Pop, Americana… and more.

For example, I want to write in the key of Em (the relative minor of G Major). Em should be the tonic/root. I set the key to Em and drag in Midi from the Library, and all the progressions are in the key of G. Thus, a I-IV-V in Em should be Em-Am-B Major. But I get the chord progressions relative to the G Major scale: G-C-D. The Em is being treated like the vi chord in the key of G, not the I chord (tonic). G is being treated like the root/tonic chord.

Clicking between G and Em in the Key selector has no impact whatsoever on the chord progressions in the song track. I read  (from 2015):

Unfortunately, that doesn’t work for this issue.

Reply To: EZ-Keys selecting incorrect key signature version: 1.3.0
Operating system: Windows 10

SD3 3.4, EZK2.1.3, EZ Bass 1.3.1, Win11, i9/9900, all SSDs, 64g RAM, Cakewalk, Studio One

[Billy 86]

Thanks for all your contributions to the forum, but, gotta disagree here. Just a definition of terms/approach, I suppose.🙂

“Noodling it more akin to blindly setting something to see if it will work.” For me, this is exactly what I feel I’m doing. Shifting the pitch with no relative starting point (we can’t tell the starting “default” pitch) is “blindly setting something to see if it will work [ ie, fit into the song.] .

SD3 3.4, EZK2.1.3, EZ Bass 1.3.1, Win11, i9/9900, all SSDs, 64g RAM, Cakewalk, Studio One

[Billy 86]

Have just been thinking about SD3 “tuning” capabilities. Unless you can actually tune a drum to a specific note (for example A, 440 Hz), then it’s not “tuning.” It’s just noodling with the pitch. If you don’t know the starting point of a drum’s tuning, you can’t know how many semitones/tones/cents to to move. Maybe beyond the scope of the product.

Waves’ Torque plug-in reads the actual pitch frequency and you have a reference point and you can actually tune the drums. You’d have to route out of SD3.

SD3 3.4, EZK2.1.3, EZ Bass 1.3.1, Win11, i9/9900, all SSDs, 64g RAM, Cakewalk, Studio One

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Thanked by: David Maxim

[Billy 86]

Concerning that this continues to be an issue after, gulp, 5 years? Can that be right?

SD3 3.4, EZK2.1.3, EZ Bass 1.3.1, Win11, i9/9900, all SSDs, 64g RAM, Cakewalk, Studio One

[Billy 86]

+1

SD3 3.4, EZK2.1.3, EZ Bass 1.3.1, Win11, i9/9900, all SSDs, 64g RAM, Cakewalk, Studio One

[Billy 86]

Badger_5 wrote:

Here here. I concur. A colour capability would be nice too.

Reply To: moving track positions in the mixer version: 3.2.2
Operating system: Windows 10

+1

SD3 3.4, EZK2.1.3, EZ Bass 1.3.1, Win11, i9/9900, all SSDs, 64g RAM, Cakewalk, Studio One

[Billy 86]

EteKurttekin wrote:

“We are all still waiting for tracks to be able to be moved around in the SD3 mixing console” what he said. Thanks!

Reply To: moving track positions in the mixer version: 3.2.1
Operating system: macOS Mojave (10.14)

+1

SD3 3.4, EZK2.1.3, EZ Bass 1.3.1, Win11, i9/9900, all SSDs, 64g RAM, Cakewalk, Studio One

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