Steinberg Virtual Bassist Operation Manual
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Virtual Bassist 31 ENGLISH Fret Buzz Depending on the setup of the bass and the playing style, the strings might touch the frets causing a buzzing or rattling sound. In Virtual Bassist you can adjust the amount of buzz in your bass. The right dose of Buzz will enhance the natural feel of your bass tracks. Fret Noise When a bassist moves from one hand position to another the hand slides over the strings and frets creating a squeaking sound. This fret noise is an important part of a natural bass sound – a fact often ig- nored in bass emulations. Virtual Bassist gives you control over the amount of fret noise in your bass track. Select Mid for a little, Full for a lot or Off to completely remove fret noises from the track. Compression, Drive, Master These three knobs can also be found on the Amp & FX page. Since these three controls are very useful for changing the sound of your bass, for your convenience they are also available on the Play page. The Compression control varies the Amount control on the effect board’s compressor. Drive raises the gain of the preamp and Master the master volume of the amplifier’s output. Learn more about Compression, Drive and Master on page 44.
Virtual Bassist 32 The bass sound lock Activating the bass sound lock (by clicking on the lock symbol at the bottom right of the bass) will lock all settings that influence your bass sound, e. g. the knobs on the bass guitar and the bass selector. It will keep these settings even when you change the Style. Guitar controls You will notice that the bass guitar graphic on the left of the Play page has four knobs and a slider for varying your bass sound. Volume The Volume knob controls the output level of the Bass to the amp, just like the volume knob on a real bass guitar. Turning this up will help to overdrive your sound. Tone The Tone knob is also just like the tone control on a bass guitar. Turn- ing the Tone knob to the left will cut high frequencies and soften the sound.
Virtual Bassist 33 ENGLISH Attack Bass players can change the sound of their playing by choosing to play with their fingers or a pick. Playing with the fingers produces a softer sound while playing with a pick produces more of an attacking sound. The Attack knob in Virtual Bassist adjusts the strength of the attack allowing you to seamlessly produce the kind of attack sound you want, from fingered to picked or in between. Damp Bass players can subtly vary their sound by damping the strings with their hands, to make the sound duller and decay faster. The Damp knob emulates this behavior, turning it to the left makes the sound softer and more percussive. At the maximum left position Virtual Bassist will play deadnotes. To emulate the sound of old bass strings try a setting between 10 and 2 o’clock.
Virtual Bassist 34 Pickup position The sound spectrum a bass guitar produces depends on the position of the pick-up. A cool thing about Virtual Bassist is that it allows you to adjust the position of the pick-up. Moving the slider downwards from the neutral mid position increases the bite, while moving it up produces a warmer sound with more bass. Chord recognition Virtual Bassist contains an intelligent chord recognition system, it al- ways plays the correct bassline for the chords it receives from the MIDI input of your sequencer or keyboard, although for some chord types the bassline may not significantly change. The MIDI input can consist of a complete chord or simple one-finger notes—you don’t need to make any special settings because Virtual Bassist will always know what to do. Playing chords If you play a complete chord in the Pitch Range (for example, the notes C, F, and G for a Csus chord), Virtual Bassist will automatically recognize it. For the best possible chord recognition, all the notes of a chord must be played. Playing three notes is sufficient for major, minor or sus4 chords, but for other chord types (maj7, 7, 6, dim, mmaj7, m7, m6, m7-5, sus2 and 7sus4) you need to play all four notes.
Virtual Bassist 35 ENGLISH Chord inversions In most cases, it doesn’t matter what inversion of a chord you play. However, there are some exceptions where the bass note has to be the root or tonic note: •m7: For example, in Am7 the A must be the bass note because Virtual Bassist would otherwise interpret the chord as a sixth (C6, in this case)—although the chord uses the same notes on the keyboard, it should have a different root note when played on a bass guitar. •dim chords (for example, Adim uses the same notes as Cdim, Eb-dim and Gb-dim). •+5 chords (A+5 uses the same notes as C#+5 and F+5). •m6 chords (Am6 uses the same notes as F#m7-5). One-finger chords For the chord types major, 7, minor, and m7, you don’t actually need to play all the notes in the chord. Although playing a single note al- ways indicates a major chord, you can indicate a different chord type by playing an additional key. Chord display The chord display at the top of Virtual Bassist’s Play page shows the currently playing chord. Virtual Bassist will always play a fitting bass line to any chord although for some chord types the bass line may not significantly change. Additional key Chord None major Next left white key 7 Next left black key minor Next left white and black keys minor7
Virtual Bassist 36 The Groove Match page On this page you can adapt existing grooves and rhythms, edit Parts and Fills in the Macro Groove Display and set the overall timing with the Micro Groove settings. In the Part Browser you can edit the keyboard layout in the Remote Range. To switch to the Groove Match page, click the Groove Match tab at the top of Virtual Bassist.
Virtual Bassist 37 ENGLISH The Macro Groove display The Macro Groove Display shows a timeline of the currently selected Part or Fill. Parts can be up to four bars in length. Just like the Piano Roll editor in your host application, the red rectangles show the pitch, position and length of each note in the Part or Fill. Attention! The vertical pitch information does not necessarily represent the true pitch of the note, it’s presented this way for easier navigation. Key Follow When the Key Follow button is active any Part or Fill played via MIDI will automatically be selected in the Parts Browser and its rhythmic structure will be shown in the Macro Groove Display. Changing the timing of individual notes The timing of all individual notes in a Part or Fill can be moved back- wards or forwards (by up to an 8th note) by dragging them left or right. When you move a note and it overlaps with another, Virtual Bassist au- tomatically removes or shortens the previous note to maintain a realistic monophonic bassline. Muting notes To mute a note simply right-click it and it becomes grey. In Virtual Bassist 1.0 the pitch of a note cannot be edited.
Virtual Bassist 38 Modifiers The Modifiers section on the Groove Match page allows you to create variations of Parts and Fills quickly and easily. A Modifier is simply a preset which shifts or mutes notes in a selected Part or Fill to change its rhythmic structure. Each Modifier produces two versions (A & B). The table below explains how each Modifier will change the selected Part or Fill. The Macro Groove Display is updated when a Part or Fill is modified. Modifier preset Variation A Variation B Simplify Keeps 8th notes. Keeps 4th notes. Downbeats Plays only beats 1 and 3 of the bar.Plays beats 1 and 3 of the bar plus the 8th note before beats 1 and 3. For a triplet groove beats 1 and 3 play plus the last triplet before each. Backbeat Plays only beats 2 and 4. Plays beats 2 and 4 plus the last 8th note before beats 2 and 4. For a 16th triplet groove, beats 2 and 4 play plus the last triplet for each. Offbeats Plays only 8th note offbeats. For a triplet groove every 3rd triplet note is played.Plays 8th note offbeats plus the next16th note after each. For a 16th triplet groove every 2nd triplet note is played.
Virtual Bassist 39 ENGLISH Compare This button allows you to quickly compare your newly edited Part or Fill with the original version. Reset Reset restores the Part or Fill to its original rhythmic structure. OtherThis is a complex variation which plays notes on the following 16ths of the bar: 1, 4, 7, 9, 12 and 15. For a 16th triplet groove every 1st and 3rd triplet is played.Plays only beats 1 and the 8th note before beat 4. For a 16th Triplet groove the following trip- lets are played:1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11. Root Notes Plays only the root notes in the Part or Fill.Mutes the root notes of the Part or Fill. Randomize Produces a random variation. Produces an alternative random variation. Modifier preset Variation A Variation B
Virtual Bassist 40 Micro timing settings The Micro Timing Section of the Groove Match page allows you to adjust the timing or feel of Virtual Bassist. The intensity of the timing changes is controlled by the Swing knobs. The Swing knob on the Groove Match page is connected to the Swing knob found on the Virtual Bassist Play page. Swing Technically speaking Swing is the process of moving the timing of off- beats of a bar backward or forward in time, this will change the way Virtual Bassist feels when it plays and may also help you adapt the Virtual Bassist performance to an existing recording. The three Swing buttons (1/16 Swing, 1/8 Swing and 1/4 Swing) un- der the Micro display allow you to select whether sixteenth, eighth or quarter note offbeats will be moved and the Swing knob allows you to adjust how far they will be moved and whether they are moved for- ward or backward in time. Virtual Bassist will play triplets when the swing knob is set to ± 100 %. Bar Stretch Selecting Bar Stretch moves all notes except the first beat of the bar in a Part or Fill forward or backward in time, to accentuate the down- beat.