Hi, Thanks for checking this out. I really like the midi bass lines in Band in a Box. I wanted to bump up the sound quality. I downloaded some bass oriented VSTs (AmpleBass, ManyBass ManyTones, Broomstick Bass, and Sampletank 3 Free). All of these apps play as VSTs in Band in a Box, but all have the same problem: they don't play all the bass notes. They miss and skip notes that are in the original bass line in the program. Do you know if there is a way to have all the bass notes play through a VST? Thanks so much!

First, welcome

Next it would greatly help us help you if we had some basic set up info (yes this will sound like Dell support line but...)

BIAB version/update, Win version, audio HW and settings (are you using ASIO, are you ASIO4ALL or dedicated HW ASIO driver, or MME or..), sample rates/buffer sizes,

what BIAB MIDI sound generator were you listening to BEFORE using, say for example ST3 free bass, that had all the notes?

etc.



Larry

Don,

Also, welcome to the forums.

Following on from Larry's comment, it's also possible that the notes (usually very low ones) are not supported by the VSTs you have tried.

First thing you need to try is to increase the midi buffers and play with the latency setting. The buffer setting determines how far ahead it grabs and processes the data. Missing notes are often a result of the buffers being too small. Typical symptoms of small buffers include missed or dropped notes, popping, clicking, and other sorts of issues with playback.

The trade-off is that latency tends to increase, especially if you are on a factory sound chip with MME as the driver. Nothing is ever free.... what you gain here, you lose there.

That may work well enough. However, the best long term solution is to upgrade to a dedicated musical interface which is capable of running ASIO. Those cards tend to work well under 99.9% of the situations.

Whereas a General MIDI synth pretty much lets you play all the notes of an instrument, oftentimes single purpose synths limit the available notes to a specific range. Oftentimes, you can see that range as the available notes on the virtual keyboard in the VSTi interface. Doesn't mean that the instrument can only play those notes, but those are the notes the VSTi creator chose to implement. Then look at your MIDI input and see if anything falls outside those bands.

Also, some VSTi's are sensitive to the velocity of the notes received and may do different things depending upon the velocity. The documentation (or help file) for your VSTi should tell you that.

A GM synth will generally just play the note, whatever it is, starting with the note on and ending with note off, adjusting the note volume based on velocity. A VSTi, on the other hand, often times has some intelligence based on the input to give you variances of sound.

Thank you so much for your responses. Very helpful! It turns out the VSTs I tried have limited ranges in regard to the bass notes they will play. If a note falls outside the VST's range, the note wont play. There will just be a blank space there. I discovered on Sampletank you can change the octave of its range up or down. This solves the problem and all BB bass notes will play. Thanks again for your comments!

FYI-they are not limited ranges, it is the actual ranges of the bass instruments, i.e. 4 string or 5 string bass. Bass parts like guitar parts are written an octave higher than they sound. Thus if your program (DAW or BiaB) is send out actual how they sound tracks (an octave lower than written) and your sound source is expecting a written track then some of the lower bass notes will not play so you have to raise the part one octave. The revers is true if your DAW/BiaB is sending out a written (an octave higher) track and your sound source is expecting an actual how it sounds track then you have to lower that track one octave.

I occasionally run into this myself.

This is true for the Kontakt orchestral instruments. They stay true to the range of the original underlying instrument. Many others do the same. Glad you caught that and figured out a work around.

Thanks again for responding. You are very knowledgeable!