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Midi data -> into iFretlessBass, slide problem when playing notes

Hey everybody,
I'm sorry it's not the snappiest of thread titles!
In a nutshell, I want to go next level in my iFretlessBass playing. I've modified the presets, it's fantastic what you can do with a bit of EQ tweaking. But now I want to go further. As far as I'm aware, the XY-pad can help with this.

Please stop me immediately if I'm wrong about this: the XY-pad can affect built-in sounds played from within the app, yes?

Or does it only effect midi data coming into iFretlessBass from an external app playing its own sounds?

Basically to bolster my dynamics, I want to use the XY-pad like I do in ifretlessBrass, to dynamically change the volume while I play (as much as I love love most of the bass presets, some are too heavy and constant for what I'm doing).

I notice in the drop down XY-pad menus, there's entries for things like Balance, Tremulo, even Timbre, which sound very intriguing. But I'm guessing they will work with varying levels of success depending on the app sending the midi.

I've managed to get external app sounds to play within iFretlessBass (good for me as I'm a bassist not a keys player), but I'm having a problem where the pitch of the sound I'm playing jumps up to the next tone as soon as I make the slightest slide on the screen. (It also happens when I move the XY-pad). So I end up hearing different notes from the iFretlessBass bass instrument and the external app. (In my example, iProphet).

Can anyone help?

I found iFretless developer site and YouTube vids to be a bit thin on info here.

A video to describe what I'm doing, it might be a very obvious thing I'm overlooking!

Ps- if anyone can help further with info about effecting those other parameters like Timbre, Balance, Tremulo etc I would love to learn how. It would be super exciting to learn how dynamic you can making things aside of playing two sounds simultaneously.

PS , hopefully last question, , velocity CC, what is it? And how do I use it? Also, what are MSB, LSB etc? (listed in the parameters drop-down).

Massive thanks!
It's late.
Must sleep..

Comments

  • edited January 2017

    Ok I'll rewrite it a bit:

    1) The xy-pad : can it be used to modify sounds generated by the app? Or is it only for apps that are coming in from another app?

    2) when xypad options are available (ie not greyed out), what do the terms MSB, LSB etc (in the parameters drop-down) stand for?

    3) (also only available when XYPAD available) what does the VELOCITY CC do?

    4) Alot of those parameters sound really interesting (things like Tremolo, Timbre, BALANCE, Pan), but how do you use them? I found very little about this on the developer's site.

    5) The potential of combining two sounds (the stock bass sounds from the app), and another from an external app is great. But a common problem I'm unable to resolve is this:

    When I play play both together, sounds great, bass plays, external app sounds plays too. But when I begin to slide up the frets the external app sound doesn't slide. -instead it just jumps up to the next whole note. How can I prevent this?

    6) with regards affecting the external app sounds when playing..... It would be absolutely amazing to be able to..... Use xy pad to effect L-R planning, jump up/down octaves, Tremelo/modulation! (These would add so much richness to the playing). And I'm REALLY intrigued to hear what TIMBRE might do.

    Is any of this possible or have I misunderstood the whole reason for the XYPAD?

    :-) thx for reading.

  • Not an answer to your direct question as I have very little (well, actually, none) experience of the X/Y pad in iFretless, but I do know that bends and such is tricky stuff to get right. Often what you describe (full note jump) happens and you have to tweak things.

    However, for all your other general midi questions there's lots of info out there. A quick google returned this as a result which looks like a good explanation for most of the terminology you ask for.
    http://tweakheadz.com/midi-controllers/

  • Hello.

    Thanks for trying to help me.

    I had read of that article and it definitely gives some clues about what those terms mean. I'm still not really any clearer about how to use those parameters in the app but hopefully someone in the know can help.

  • You need to make sure the pitch bend range matches in both iFretless and the destination app. You didn't say what external app(s) you are trying but it makes a great deal of difference because they are not all created equal when it comes to midi support.

  • As far as I'm aware, the xy pad only affects external instruments - those connected to the midi out of ifretless.
    The parameters that it can change in an external instrument are midi CC's. These are a long established set of commands that midi instruments share (usually). It means that one keyboard can control a sound bank somewhere else and there is some consistency.
    If you have an app that follows the midi command standard, then the x and y movements can change the value of whichever CC you've chosen. Thumbjam allows the main volume and pan to be changed in this way, for example. Each app is different, and you need to research if you have any apps that follow the general midi standard. Some apps allow you to specify what each CC can change. Thumbjam may change the main volume, but you can tell Animoog to use the same CC to change something completely different.
    If you want to experiment with sounds then Animoog is recommended.
    What you are doing when you slide is sending pitch bend info. The app you are sending midi to has to receive this. Usually they need to have the same values. Both having a value of 2 for example.
    With Thumbjam you don't need to change that value, as it seems to know when you change the need range in ifretless!
    Hope that helps.

  • @sonosaurus said:
    You need to make sure the pitch bend range matches in both iFretless and the destination app. You didn't say what external app(s) you are trying but it makes a great deal of difference because they are not all created equal when it comes to midi support.

    Hi sono, yes I forgot to mention, I was using iM1 as my external app.

    So I'vegot some answers now:

    • the xy pad is for modding external sounds only (bit of a shame but no matter)

    Regarding CCs, long and short of it, they are app specific, and more on the 'advanced' end of the spectrum. If I come to experimenting again I may end up returning here for help!

    I would love to see someone demonstrate the potential of this xy pad, because I might only be dreaming with those dynamics I was talking about a couple of posts up. But I'll probably get in to it myself soon anyway.

    Also, regarding the 'jumping slide' problem. Seems I was tweaking the wrong slider (transpose and tuning). ---- I was tweaking the slider at the bottom of the UI, this made sense to me because they are in the same place as the options regarding external app input! But the app required me to actually tweak the parameters of the INTERNAL app sound (ie the bass guitar) -- even though it wasn't the bass sound that was jumping.... It was the im1 synth,,, Anyway I guess it probly makes sense but didn't to me at the time.

    So ill just leave this screenie in case anyone has the same problem:

  • I still think ifetlessBass would benefit from letting us use the XY for sounds produced by itself (ie the bass sounds). It's avilable in ifretlessSax and Brass , why not here therefore?

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