In Summary

Like all virtual instruments, great sounds need direction from the composer. When it comes to bass, writers need a virtual player who can slot in with the big idea. Here we show you how to get a great sounding part even if you don’t play bass…

Going Deeper

Engineering composers have quite a few awesome tools at their disposal. Time and again though, when using a virtual instrument (VI) the problem isn’t getting great sounds; it’s getting the right musical result from them. Recent developments have brought some drum and keyboard instruments that can actually ‘listen’ to the music to come up with a sympathetic part, but this is still a rare luxury in the VI world.

Writers in possession of a decent bass and the skill to play a part it can just go ahead and record one. For non-players though, the options until now have been to either get someone in, or use MIDI sounds that could only really be excused once safely buried in the mix!

Using Toontrack EZbass

In the video we use EZbass to get an engaging bass part into the mix from scratch. We show how it can take MIDI from any controller to do ‘keyboard bass’ properly, thanks to its finely sampled fret and finger noises that sell its sound to the listener. For the guitarists out there, we then show how to use EZbass’ Audio To MIDI magic trick to convert an impression of a bass part into something much more substantial. We also use some old tricks such as ‘varispeeding’ the session to buy a little time to play faster parts more accurately. Better still, in any DAW the pitch of reference audio can be kept the same for the ultimate easy hack for for non-virtuosos…

Welcome To The New Age…

With EZbass in the mix, writers have a great way to get the bottom end right without some of the tragic bass sounds that used to haunt adverts and children’s TV the world over. Its two in-built basses are well-chosen, representing opposite ends of the spectrum, with rounded vintage tones balanced with the poke of a high-end five-string. Firing in the right MIDI is a cinch if you have a controller hooked up, but better still, guitarists can get in on the action as well. That will be music to the ears of any non-keyboardists who discovered in the days of tape that detuning and varispeeding a guitar doesn’t work well at all… With Toontrack already further developing their audio-to-MIDI magic for their drummer and keys player, their bass player could benefit a lot from the same interpretive moves, but for now it’s about as EZ as it could be for anyone with a guitar or controller in their hands.

A Word About This Article

As the Experts team considered how we could better help the community we thought that some of you are time poor and don’t have the time to read a long article or a watch a long video. We are going to be trying out articles that have the fast takeaway right at the start and then an opportunity to go deeper if you wish. Let us know if you like this idea in the comments.