Toontrack EZbass - now includes Trilian key switch mapping info

[pinki]

Thanks for that- it does kind of confirm that I don't really like any of the sounds in EZ Bass which is crazy- I mean it's me I'm sure, not EZ Bass!
Every preset seems to have lots of odd harmonic overtones.

[deastman]

This looks pretty cool, but I’m not sure it’s worth $149 USD to me. I have a Fender American Elite Pre with active electronics, fed through a Line 6 Helix floorboard with custom impulses which covers most of my bass needs. For any sound that can’t nail, Modo Bass and the Scarbee samples does it for me. The only thing that would really make a difference would be if I could play an actual bass to control a virtual bass in real time with all the articulations, but that isn’t happening anytime soon.

[Rajiv]

The only thing that would really make a difference would be if I could play an actual bass to control a virtual bass in real time with all the articulations, but that isn’t happening anytime soon.

This is my main use case as well. I play bass on most of my tracks, but my timing is terrible. I usually have to do many many takes to get it right, and even then I'm mucking about with the audio to align it to the drums. It's very time-consuming.

EZBass has a feature where you can import a bass track in .wav format, and EZBass will turn that into MIDI with articulations. So I imported my bass line. The feature works pretty well... I found that it has good recognition of the pitches, slides, and ghost notes that I played. Of course, the timing was all off, since I seem to suck at that. So I had to do a lot of MIDI editing. But I could mix and match my bass patterns with some of the ones in EZBass, particularly for fills and for adding a little variation that I didn't think of in the original part. Did it save me a lot of time? Maybe some.

I expected EZBass to sound way better than my bass (which is a G&L L-2000 going directly in through the Focusrite Scarlett gen 2 and using Waves CLA Bass to make it fit in the mix). But it really didn't. Surprisingly it sounded about the same. If anyone is interested, I can post a comparison. I had some crashing problems that Toontrack helped me fix yesterday (great customer support on a holiday weekend!), and I haven't checked yet to see if my bass line is still intact.

[deastman]

The only thing that would really make a difference would be if I could play an actual bass to control a virtual bass in real time with all the articulations, but that isn’t happening anytime soon.

This is my main use case as well. I play bass on most of my tracks, but my timing is terrible. I usually have to do many many takes to get it right, and even then I'm mucking about with the audio to align it to the drums. It's very time-consuming.

EZBass has a feature where you can import a bass track in .wav format, and EZBass will turn that into MIDI with articulations. So I imported my bass line. The feature works pretty well... I found that it has good recognition of the pitches, slides, and ghost notes that I played. Of course, the timing was all off, since I seem to suck at that. So I had to do a lot of MIDI editing. But I could mix and match my bass patterns with some of the ones in EZBass, particularly for fills and for adding a little variation that I didn't think of in the original part. Did it save me a lot of time? Maybe some.

I expected EZBass to sound way better than my bass (which is a G&L L-2000 going directly in through the Focusrite Scarlett gen 2 and using Waves CLA Bass to make it fit in the mix). But it really didn't. Surprisingly it sounded about the same. If anyone is interested, I can post a comparison. I had some crashing problems that Toontrack helped me fix yesterday (great customer support on a holiday weekend!), and I haven't checked yet to see if my bass line is still intact.

Hmm. My timing sucks too, and I often rely on Melodyne to fix that. If the analysis in Toontrack is an improvement on that, it might be a more compelling reason to try it.

[WatchTheGuitar]

I'm mainly using it to create bassline MIDI for other instruments, but I also wasn't overly impressed with the straight sound though that improved with EQ and other effects.
It was pretty telling that the two basses you get don't include a Precision or a Ricky, they're obviously setting things up for later expansions.

[kovacs]

I am loving EZ Bass so far. I get that some here are looking for specific sounds etc, but for me this is an incredible tool for composing new pieces. I just love how I can drag piano or drum midi or even audio files in and magically get a bass part out. The many styles and lines are so cool. I look forward to seeing what expansions will come out eventually.

[WatchTheGuitar]

Added some info in the OP about mapping Key switches from the bass MIDI out of EZbass into Trilian. It's not 100% perfect, but it seems to work. I'll add some UJAM (and other e.g. MODO bass) maps when I get time, but please post more below and I'll add them to the OP.

[Spitfire31]

UJAM would be very interesting for me…

[evertonfan]

I think that Toontrack are doing some really interesting products. Superior Drummer 3 & EZKeys are great products & using EZBass over the weekend....I was blown away how amazing it was. Great fun, intuitive & fairly straightforward to use (created some really great bass-lines for songs I have been working on really well). Sounded great!!!! But....but....but....yep, exported & stuck the results into Trillian & it sounded poo! So here is the big dilemma of using EZBass......does one just stick to using the basses on offer within EZBass, which sounded kinda OK. Or work on mapping between EZBass & Trillian / Modo Bass, both of which I use extensively. I know the model that Toontrack will employ (similar to EZKeys) is the introduction of new bass instruments & MIDI for EZBass, which is fine. I get that totally......But I don't use EZKeys for what their piano sounds like.....I will export any EZKeys work into a really nice quality sounding piano & this works everytime. The fact that on first go exporting did not work well with EZBass is the only downside I could see. Otherwise, EZBass was really great fun to use.

[WatchTheGuitar]

exported & stuck the results into Trillian & it sounded poo!

Did you see my notes in the OP that cover mapping the EZbass MIDI key switches to Trilian key switches?

[jmelhede]

Is there any integration between EZBass and SD3 - I'm new to EZBass and haven't gotten SD3 yet (still considering). Thanks.

[jmelhede]

If you like me would like an updated version of EZkeys, you should head over to Toontrack.com Forum and join the "preasure" on getting an EZkeys 2.0 version with the great development from SD3 and EZBass. Still love my EZkeys though

[MMaarrkk]

I was on a hunt recently for a good bass plugin, but this flew under the radar. Personally, sounds good for what I need at the moment. But If I'm not mistaken, it doesn't have a demo you can download, or does it? Because I wouldn't mind trying it out at least somewhat, before buying it fully.

[WatchTheGuitar]

I was on a hunt recently for a good bass plugin, but this flew under the radar. Personally, sounds good for what I need at the moment. But If I'm not mistaken, it doesn't have a demo you can download, or does it? Because I wouldn't mind trying it out at least somewhat, before buying it fully.

On the Toontrack forum someone asked about a trial and the official answer is there will be one, but no sign of it yet.
https://www.toontrack.com/forums/topic/ ... of-ezbass/

UJAM just had a sale on their bass plugins, but it just finished, still I’d recommend their Mellow 2 and Royal 2 basses next time they’re on sale.
For more realistic bass, Trilian is still the king and for sheer range of bass tones (as it builds a virtual bass for you to play based on your spec) MODO Bass is worth checking out.

Another one I like specifically for mellow bass tones is Sound Dust’s Sponge Bass, but you need the full version of Kontakt to host it
https://youtu.be/3S_DLQZWk2c

[MMaarrkk]

I was on a hunt recently for a good bass plugin, but this flew under the radar. Personally, sounds good for what I need at the moment. But If I'm not mistaken, it doesn't have a demo you can download, or does it? Because I wouldn't mind trying it out at least somewhat, before buying it fully.

On the Toontrack forum someone asked about a trial and the official answer is there will be one, but no sign of it yet.
https://www.toontrack.com/forums/topic/ ... of-ezbass/

UJAM just had a sale on their bass plugins, but it just finished, still I’d recommend their Mellow 2 and Royal 2 basses next time they’re on sale.
For more realistic bass, Trilian is still the king and for sheer range of bass tones (as it builds a virtual bass for you to play based on your spec) MODO Bass is worth checking out.

Another one I like specifically for mellow bass tones is Sound Dust’s Sponge Bass, but you need the full version of Kontakt to host it
https://youtu.be/3S_DLQZWk2c

Greatly appreciate the recommendations. As I mainly like to use my VSTs as instruments, the UJAM products caught my eye. I've heard great things about Trilian, but it's quite a massive library, which is great, just not what I'm looking for.

Thank you for aiming me at the right direction.