Originally Posted By: XilburQost

Low indeed, but those values are from the MIDI guitar track exported from BIAB.

On a related note, nearly always when I export a song from BIAB to MIDI for use in Reaper, the bass track is so low that I have to raise it an octave in order to make it playable on a VST bass emulation (Waves Bass Fingers, SONiVOX Classic Bass, Cakewalk SI-Bass). I don't know if that is a BIAB thing, or Reaper.

Now that I mention it, I recall there's a General MIDI spec thing where Yamaha(?) offsets middle C an octave from the standard, so maybe that's what's going on? I think I've discussed this here before; so many moving parts! smile


This problem has been discussed before. Both guitar and bass are written an octave higher than they sound. This is so the notations can be on one staff, treble for the guitar and fewer ledger lines for the bass. BiaB's output is the actual octave the instrument uses. How this is utilized is based on your VSTi. If the VSTi uses the actual octave then all is fine, however if the VSTi expects the notation octave then you must raise the track one octave to get the proper sounding note.

This explains both of your issues. Your bass VSTis expect the notation octave, most all of my bass VSTis' expect the notation octave also, thus you must raise the track an octave.

You didn't mention the guitar VSTi so that VSTi is using the actual octave. The lowest guitar note using standard tuning is E2 so a G1 is impossible, unless you are using some nonstandard tuning, however I have never heard of a tuning going as low as G1. Note that most all guitar VSTis utilize the notation octave and only most if not all GM sounds ignore them; this also applies to other instruments playing out of their normal range.

I hope this helps.

Note the middle C assignment, either C3,C4, or C5, is an arbitrary labeling. All middle Cs are MIDI note 60 regardless of what C number it is called. So if all possible go by the MIDI note number. I know this is very confusing at times.

Last edited by MarioD; 05/05/21 08:29 AM.

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