Toontrack EZBass

Full Description

Adding bass to your songs has never been easier

An essential part of any composition, bass is often the trickiest instrument to get right. Melodic and percussive at the same time, bass is the glue that holds down your beat and the voice that enhances your vocal, keys or guitar melodies. The concept of EZBass is to make creating professional bass sounds and performances accessible to players, composers, producers and engineers of all ability levels, without the complicated learning curve.

With EZbass, there are multiple ways of adding bass to an already-written song. Simply click the ‘Add Groove’ button to get a basic rhythm going, use the drum or keyboard MIDI in your song to have EZbass automatically create a matching bassline, tap in the rhythm you want your bass to play using the ’Tap2Find’ feature and then have EZbass list all matching variations, use a previously recorded guitar, bass or rhythm performance and then have EZbass convert the audio to MIDI or perform the bassline yourself using a MIDI controller. No matter what kind of musician you are, EZBass provides you with a streamlined interface to ensure your creative vision can be realised to the fullest.

Professionally-performed MIDI at your fingertips

At the forefront of EZBass is creativity. Songwriting and composing is put at the heart and soul of the software, allowing musicians and producers to create exciting and professional songs faster than ever. With this in mind, in addition to the sound library, EZBass comes loaded with an expansive MIDI library, containing files spanning a myriad of genres and playing styles.

Providing you with the broadest palette of options, you will find everything from funk, metal, disco, country, blues and much more onboard, all performed by professional bassists to give life and realism to your productions. Housed in Toontrack's famed library, searching for the right file is incredibly simple through the filtering options from style, genre, playing style and tempo.

In addition to advanced filtering options, EZBass contains the Tap2Find function, allowing you to tap rhythmic elements of your desired bass line, with EZBass then searching the built-in MIDI library for similar files to load into your song arrangement.

Take control over your performance with Grid Editor

Altering your MIDI performance is made simple and easy with the onboard Grid Editor, allowing you to dive into the minutia of your playing to more accurately match your composition. Whether you're creating a MIDI bass track from scratch, using one of the built-in files from your MIDI library or using Audio Tracker to match an existing audio file, Grid Editor offers comprehensive editing tools. Going far beyond the standard piano-roll you may be familiar with from your DAW, Grid Editor lets you fine-tune everything from timing, velocities, articulations per-note, add hammer-ons and pull-offs and slides all within one intuitive window.

Adding, slicing, removing and quantizing notes can all be performed within the Grid Editor, ensuring you don't need to leave the software for any kind of edits you may need to do to match your MIDI to your track more accurately. EZBass's Grid Editor also lets you create musical groupings for simultaneous edits to alter the swing, note length, randomization or nudge notes by a set value by selecting a range of notes based on a specific parameter.

The smart bandmate

Create matching basslines from your existing keyboard or drum audio and MIDI files instantly using the Drums and Keys tab - just like a real bandmate at rehearsals! As simple as dragging your file into EZBass and letting the intelligent engine do the work for you, you will be able to unlock the perfect starting groove for your tracks quickly and easily. Providing you with a range of options, you can choose to have your bass parts follow the kick drum of your drum MIDI or fill in the gaps with ghost/percussive notes to complement your drum pattern. Once selected, you can then navigate through your MIDI library for similar results to import full melodic performances into your production instantly.

Turn any melodic audio file into a bass with Audio Tracker

Powered by the same engine as Superior Drummer 3, EZBass's flexible Audio Tracker lets you convert virtually any audio file into MIDI. Ideal for converting poorly recorded bass, rough guitar ideas, synth bass or even basic vocal melodies to production-ready bass guitar, the Audio Tracker takes the stress away from manually programming in your ideas. Designed to handle monophonic tracks, the Audio Tracker's intelligent processing allows you to convert percussive material to plot the rhythmic groove of your bass. You can even record your bass, synth, vocal or guitar directly into EZBass and have your audio converted automatically!

The sound of a professional bassist, in the palm of your hands

For any producer, musician or mixing engineer, EZBass provides you with a full range of tones spanning everything from vintage to modern through the inclusion of two sampled instruments. Chosen specifically to complement each other and provide you with the best-in-class sounds, the two bass instruments are fundamentally unique from each other to offer everything from classic bite and growl to clean and pristine tones. Sampled in painstaking detail from standard concert tuning to notes ranging A0, EZBass is the best alternative to a world-class musician in your studio.

The Modern bass features a high-end, American custom-made instrument that's labelled by many as the pinnacle of bass instrument engineering and design. Sampled with an extensive range of articulations including slap, pick and fingers, there's nothing this instrument can't do. Unique from most basses within the market, the Modern bass features single-coil pickups with active hum-cancelling coils to deliver the precise, clean and focused sound of single-coil pickups without the typically associated noise. Both bridge and neck pickups were sampled separately, allowing you to use each pickup separately or seamlessly blend between them. In other words, it’s literally like having two basses in one.

The Vintage bass features a classic American design that's been a mainstay for bassists since the '60s. Remaining as one of the world's most iconic sounds and designs to this day, the Vintage bass delivers the unmistakable midrange growl and rolled treble of J-style basses. This bass was hot-wired to offer the same type of flexibility with the pickup options as the ‘Modern’ bass, meaning you can use each pickup separately or seamlessly blend between them.

Extensive articulations for authentic performances

Crafting realistic MIDI bass performances is made easy with EZBass's range of onboard articulations. Each bass instrument has been sampled with both finger-style picking and plectrum picking alongside other right-hand techniques from thumps, slaps and pops. Diving into the minutia of these techniques, EZBass also lets you experiment with different fingers for finger-style picking to alter the strength of your pluck, altering the response of your bass. Additionally, both up and downstroke movements for plectrum picking allows for highly-realistic alternative picking sequences, avoiding the typical static sound associated with other libraries. These onboard articulations make it easy for EZBass to perform quintessential styles associated with genres such as pop, funk and jazz to more extreme punk and metal genres.

Alongside right-hand plucking techniques, EZBass also contains left-handed articulations via key switching to unlock realistic and authentic fretting hand movements. Everything from subtle grace notes in alternate picked passages to essential ghost/percussive notes in slapped bass lines are provided alongside slides, legato and natural harmonics to provide unprecedented realism and flexibility in your programming.

Dive into production-ready tones with built-in presets

Powered by the built-in processing, EZBass contains a wide range of presets that span a variety of sounds to fit virtually any style or genre you'll come across. Integrated amplifier, cabinet and FX simulations ensure you have access to production-ready tones without ever needing to leave the program and dedicated macro controls let you customise your sounds quickly and easily.

For more experienced producers and engineers with existing effects and amplifiers, both basses within EZBass include DI signals which allow you to process your sound externally.

Features

• The creative powerhouse for engineers, musicians and producers to inject your productions with radio-ready bass tones
• Includes two carefully sampled instruments to cover all eras of music from vintage to modern
• Both instruments have been sampled with finger-style playing and using a pick for extra flexibility
• Range of articulations and tuning including alternate picking, ghost and percussive notes, grace notes, alternate finger picking, slap and pops, thumps slides, legato and harmonics down to A0
• Comprehensive songwriting functionality enables you to arrange, compose, edit and rearrange bass parts entirely within the software
• Tremendous range of MIDI performances that span a broad range of styles and genres which are customisable to fit your requirements
• Dive into the finer details of your performance using the built-in Grid Editor and adjust timing, velocity and micro parameters to enhance the realism
• Use drum or keyboard MIDI and have EZbass automatically create matching basslines
• Audio to MIDI conversion based on the same technology found in Superior Drummer 3 enables you to turn any melodic audio file into MIDI bass performances
• Record your instrument directly into EZBass and seamlessly convert it to MIDI without ever leaving the program
• Tap in the perfect rhythm to your track with Tap2Find and browse matching MIDI files
• Perform original basslines yourself using a MIDI controller or keyboard
• Discover production-ready tones with the wide range of sound presets onboard
• Expertly crafted tones with amp, cabinet and FX simulation onboard for internal processing without needing to use external software
• D.I (Direct Injection) signals of each instrument offer external processing capabilities
• Sub-bass parameter lets you blend synth sine tones for each preset for added low-end enhancement

Specifications

• Operating system:
  • Mac: macOS 10.10 or higher, Intel or Apple silicon processor
  • Windows: 64-bit Windows 7 or newer
• Format:
  • Mac: VST, VST3, AU or AAX and Standalone
  • Windows: VST, VST3 or AAX and Standalone
• RAM: 4 GB RAM (8 GB RAM or more recommended)
• Disk space: 5GB
• Product code: TT450