We finally have a first beta version of MIDI Bass 3!
Let me start by saying that real-time, polyphonic MIDI from bass strings is difficult: The combination of low notes, low latency and polyphony is fundamentally at odds. Roughly, an octave drop means double latency and polyphony (ie. no hex-pickups) means maybe another doubling. If that wasn’t bad enough, bass guitars produce more fret noise and much more energy slushing around those thick strings.
So this isn’t for everyone. But I believe these bass models are our fastest tracking models yet, on par with the monophonic guitar tracker, but adds full range, MPE, and even some polyphony!
That’s from a jack connection. There is another case for hexaphonic bass pickups, and that’s going to be part of the next HEX update.
Download for Mac and Windows:
MIDI Bass 3 is part of the MIDI Guitar 3 distribution while BETA testing. Download it here.
Additionally, MIDI Bass 3.0.61 also available for Macs in TestFlight,
It’s free to use in this TestFlight version, but you need a forum account to download it here.
Unlike MIDI Guitar 3 and most audio software, this MIDI Bass 3 is sandboxed on Mac. This is a requirement by Apple in order to be in TestFlight. Sandboxing gives you the highest level of safety, but it also means that 3rd party plugins which are not sandbox-safe (or attempts to write a file where it hasn’t got your permission), will fail to load inside MIDI Bass 3, or even crash it.
The MIDI Guitar 3 distribution isn’t sandboxed (but still enables as many security entitlements as possible), and will include the MIDI Bass 3 tracking models in the near future.
There is a vast space for combining the bass guitar sound with synths leads or ambients. The application should make such things easy to setup and control.
@JamO, especially in small bands, like trios, it’s very useful and fills out the sound a lot if the bass can play additional rhythm or (power) chords, especially if the lead guitar is playing a solo, for example.
It would also be nice to have the option of using bending for other control purposes independently of the audio bass tone…
this would be a really useful feature. converting string bend to pressure or filter control isn’t something you’d use in every song, but at least a couple in the set would greatly benefit from this additional technology.
@JamO, I would like to remind you of my feature request from Oct 2024:
‘Guitar audio input including bending tones + autotune = audio guitar output without bending tones + independent bending use as universal finger controller for audio/midi effect units’ (unfortunately I don’t know how to link this correctly in this post)
I imagine the bending of the bass guitar in such a way that it no longer audibly influences the bass tone and can be used as a completely independent controller, like a continuous foot pedal (not only usable for modulation) for all conceivable purposes.
If we have a new bend modulator, we can use that to control something - say a lowpass filter cutoff - for each note, by bending the string. Then, we also want to remove the bend from the midi, which we can do for example with the chromatic module (maybe it needs a new remove bend option). Something like that?
No, I meant something else, much more far-reaching control that uses the bending of the string like a foot pedal, as I described in the ‘Feature Request’ category in the autotune/bend module in Oct 2024.
This can be used for all kinds of stepwise triggering of additional chord tones, e.g. for short accentuated string and brass fill ins, as a multi-octave pedal and also as a continuous bend controller for all kinds of sound effects (and all without bending of original audio bass tone)
It’s a little terse to read but im sure you are onto something. I’ll dig in once I get more time!
I’ll just make a first baby step by making a bend modulator - ie. make “bending being able to work like a foot pedal”. That can be used for all sorts of things.
Perhaps once again for a better basic understanding: Bass is not a lowered guitar.
Bass is not as often a soloist as a guitar, but often has a supporting function in a band context, which can be supported by additional functions such as playing chords.
Bending as a means of expression doesn’t play as important a role with the bass as it does with the guitar, which is why the bending of the bass guitar can often be used with ‘isolated bending’ as a universal controller for typical additional accompaniment functions.
You could think of it as a ‘third hand’ for the bass player
I have been biting my tongue for fear of being annoying. THANK YOU for this news! I’m dying to try MIDI Bass 3! I have no Mac but I don’t care! We finally have news! YAY!!
Very true, but would the principles applied to tracking bending not apply to fretless bass, where slides and wide vibrato are very common, even a “raison d’être” as a point of difference between fretless and fretted bass?
