That's a thought-provoking question. For me, the answer is no. My Roland Fantom is one of the acknowledged better-sounding hardware synths out there. While I do use the MIDI bass, it's only on the Soloist track while doing unison or ensemble parts where I temporarily mute the RealBass track. I'm so spoiled by the nuances in the bass playing of the Real Tracks that I can't bring myself to listen to the MIDI playing while comping, even if the sound quality is acceptable. It's probably a personal choice, though, for each user, and differences may also be more pronounced depending on genre. Mine is jazz only.

When I experimented with Garritan Jazz & Big Band, I did a little programming of the controllers for the acoustic bass and really liked it, but the amount of work to get an acceptable sound was not worth it for me. As a composer, I want tools that work for me with little effort and just get out of my way quickly and let me do the creative process. The BIAB RealTrack bass does that. If I were producing commercial quality tracks and not composer demos, again my answer might be different.

BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.