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.
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?
I updated to 3.60 today and I can now confidently say that you did it, you magnificent bastard, you did it!
The bass tracker is already miles ahead of anything I’ve ever tried thus far—it just performs much better, with less latency and more precision, than any alternative I’ve tried. Add to that the fact that the hex input will support low tunings… this is the way, and the only reason for me not dump my hex pickups in the trash.
Absolutely incredible work. What a thrill to witness it unfold.
