James
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JamesI somewhat accidentally found a way to minimize, or to some degree eliminate the fret buzz issue. Using the Modern Bass that comes with EZB I selected the Warm (or something close to that name) preset. And used that in tandem with the Key Switches options. From there it was a bit of trial and error. I do all my MIDI in my DAW so it was the MIDI in a virtual instrument track that had EZB on it and then a MIDI track with it’s output directed to the EZB track. Then I penciled in a D0 which is what the Keyswitch manual says for Repeater or Index Finger and used the trimmer tool to make the note the entire length of the song. That seemed to at least help. And if I recall correctly, in my DAW (Pro Tools) I think I had to drag the note to D-1. I did try putting the note directly in the virtual instrument track but that did not seem to work. Anyway, give it a try and see if it yields any results. The Keyswitch thing along with the correct preset seemed to be the trick. If you do your MIDI in the EZB grid editor/composer window there is a drop down menu there for selecting the play style. This is essentially the Key switch thing in a drop down menu.
Still it would be nice if TT would clean up the fret buzz thing in future library updates. I have yet to purchase any EBX expansion basses so maybe they addressed it in those.
JamesHey Jordan, Thanks for the tip. I did find the Keyswitch mapping and experimented with D0. This also led me to checking out CC 64 and CC 67.
Keyswitch D0 (repeater), while not exactly resolving the round-robin different articulation/volume issue 100% did improve it in that it resolved the annoying string/fret buzzing issue. Penciling in a D0 in the DAW virtual instrument track (making the D0 note length the the entire song) along with the bass MIDI notes did not work. The workaround that did work was penciling in a D0 in a DAW MIDI track, making the note length the the entire song and then assigning the MIDI output to the EZB virtual instrument track.
Just to see what would happen, I did try this with a couple of measures of F1 eighth notes in EZBass MIDI composer/grid editor. There were menu items there that helped get the results I was after which were Middle Finger and Index Finger (Index maybe the same as Keyswitch “Repeater”?). Both menu options of those when selected took the place of the D0 keyswitch option. Middle Finger here also worked but sounded essentially the same as Repeater — at least with the repeated 8ths. Downside is I would have to do all the bass MIDI notes in EZB which I would prefer to avoid.
I did try CC64 to see if that would add more “realism” but it seems because durations of the eighth notes are a full 480 ticks CC64 did not make an audible difference. CC67 was really a nice find in that it further seemed to even out volume and timbre differences as well as getting more of the sound I was looking for in the first place — more like a “real bass player.”
Thanks for the tips. Anything else you have to share on this is welcome.
JamesYes, I’ve tried working with velocities. That was my first thought as well. Right now all notes are same velocity across the entire track. I experimented with different velocity level and it just made the notes lower in volume and did change the timbre slightly, but did not resolve the the too-noticeable changes between repeated notes. FYI, being an “old school” user I do all the MIDI in the virtual instrument track in my DAW.
JamesGood to see I am not the only one annoyed with EZBass notes that have fret buzz? I am surprised that TT would have let this slip through in product development. My guess is it had to be intentional to create a more “realistic” performance. Sure would be nice if the sound library is ever updated (resampled/rerecorded) at some point that the fret buzz be either eliminated, or an option that users can dial in. Maybe on an rawish sounding indie rock track I guess it adds “realism.” But if working on a track (a ballad for example) where the bass might be more exposed the fret buzz calls attention to itself and detracts from the overall song/track causing the listener (or client) to fall off the track and think “didn’t the producer hear that fret buzz.” I don’t have any of the EZBass expansion packs so maybe it is addressed in those, but if not it would sure be nice if TT would address this in future updates. Reducing the velocity of the notes helps some, but even then the buzz is still there. And with the note velocities reduced the timbre and volume of the bass changes which even a compression and EQ plugin have a hard time making up for.
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