Another newbie MIDI question...

[Mike Stranks]

Thanks for the recoomendations about Spitfire LABS. Some great virtual instruments there which I'm now using.

But another 'I know nothing' question.

I sometimes want to use a MIDI piano track, but have some, say, bass and drums on separate tracks to add to the mix. At the moment, if I copy the piano track and change the VI to, say, bass, then I get the bass more or less playing the tune, rather than giving me a bass line. Same for drums... This sounds pretty naff when mixed with the piano...

Is there any software (not neccesarily free) that can be told 'this is a drum/bass track' and then adapt the MIDI file so that you get a more representative track, or am I simply going to have to experiment more with the MIDI editor?

I hope I've explained that well enough, but you know where I am if I haven't...

[Drew Stephenson]

I think you're heading into the territory of things like EZBass and EZKeys for stuff like that.

[Rich Hanson]

You would have to edit the MIDI data in order to remove everything but the bass notes. Or just play the bass part into the sequencer.

[Mike Stranks]

Thanks guys

I've been experimenting this morning and on bass guitar have got something that's pretty acceptable simply by erasing everything above C2 or C3.

Crude but effective!

I shall continue experimenting with various instruments and MIDI-edits...

[adamburgess]

Other than editing the notes on the timeline, and keeping the bottom-most notes for bass as a starting point, one possibility is getting an arranger keyboard that will follow a MIDI input and create the bass line, drums, and accompaniment pads etc as it goes... Then re-record that?

I tried to find a software thing as I was using MainStage for my sounds, so would've been handy, but couldn't find anything intuitive at all.

So I got a Korg i3 for literally one gig last year where I didn't have time to program drum tracks but we needed drums. The singer was against anything with a defined structure(!). It was relatively cheap, weighs nothing and plays and sounds great.

So I play piano and it follows the harmony, can stick drum fills in when needed manually or let it do its thing. I'm a bit of a keyboard snob with Kronosseseses and had Nords and other top line stuff, but this little thing I love.

Roland, Yamaha and Korg all do them (cheap up to Genos price), and the sounds don't really matter. Can always change that ITB once it's back as MIDI.

[The Elf]

Here for you if you need me, Mike!

[Mike Stranks]

Here for you if you need me, Mike!

Thanks Paul!

However, this is all low-level, throwaway (play once and that's it!) stuff so I think a combination of using the MIDI editor features in my DAW together with some crude note deletion will do me fine. The bass line I 'created' this morning sounds perfectly acceptable for my needs, but probably would be found wanting if incorporated into a 'for publication' track!

But thanks again for the offer!

[BJG145]

Is there any software (not neccesarily free) that can be told 'this is a drum/bass track' and then adapt the MIDI file so that you get a more representative track

I just remembered a program called "Band in a Box" that I used to use donkeys' years ago when I was first getting into computer-based music. It's outside the usual ecosystem of DAWs that gets discussed on SOS but I seem to remember the automatic arranger wasn't bad.

https://youtu.be/BS0yuTwhcCc?t=1657

https://www.pgmusic.com/

[Sam Spoons]

Band In A Box worked remarkable well back in the day, I used it to create backing tracks for a Christian Music Duo and they were extremely useable. It is not cheap these days though.

[MarkOne]

If you were in Logic/GarageBand land, then the built in Drummer plugin is perfect for what you want. Set up a song structure, name the bits as verse, chorus, bridge, etc, load up drummer select a drummer style and get an instant performance.

They’re pretty convincing too, and you can go quite deep into customising the performance, prior to bouncing it out as midi or audio.

In PC land there is still, I think Rayzoon Jamstix which I believe is the same AI technology under the hood of the Logic plugin.

While I was cranking out backing tracks for our Church worship team during lockdown, Drummer was my best friend, because I would never have been able to program half convincing drums at the rate required.

[Mike Stranks]

Thanks Mark

I've downloaded the free version of Jamstix so will have a play around with that, probably tomorrow...

[Mike Stranks]

Jamstix is good... recommended if you want drums on your recording...

But as someone who is only about 5% 'musical' it's not really appropriate for me, but thanks for pointing it out, Mark One.

I made some good progress with my DAW's MIDI editor last night and ended up with both drum and bass tracks to add to lead-piano which even got the Mrs S seal of approval as she strolled past the 'studio'.

It's good to be exploring an area that was previously a closed-book for me...