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EZ Bass NOW Available!


Larry Shelby

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I just picked up EZBass at Sweetwater for $149.   I got the serial number to register within minutes in my inbox.    Probably  could have waited and got it a bit cheaper elsewhere, but I was prepared to pay the full $179 at launch, so  still happy I got a discount and my serial number at the the same time. Installing as I type this......

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5 minutes ago, cclarry said:

There are two basses in the released version...and Toontrack is pretty adept at "Feeding the need"
so I'm sure new ones will be shortly on the horizon

At about $79 a pop if the EZKeys model holds up

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Watch for Bapsi's eyes to start rotating counter clockwise when the MIDI six pack hits.

Im going to have to hold off on this for a while. I have some other things I need right now. (yeah, right). It's not something I want to do being a Toontrack product.

EZ Keys 2 would go right to the front of the line though. I am looking forward to hearing the reviews

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My first reactions, based on a quick runthrough.

Overall, I think this is a triumph and it will be a major asset to my songwriting efforts in the future. Toontrack has hit it out of the park.  

I think both basses sound great.  Of course they will be coming out with classic basses--but I like the way these two sound.  I'm looking more forward to the deluge of MIDI packs.  I am a decent piano player, so I don't buy EZKeys MIDI anymore--but I probably will buy bass expansions.

I didn't have time to check it out long, but it seems like it has surprisingly little control of effects. As far as I can tell it doesn't come with the usual pedals for reverb, compression, phaser, chorus, etc.  Just 8 knobs to tweak the overall presets, of which there are few.  The good news is that these 8 knobs auto-map to the ones in Komplete Kontrol.   Maybe I'm wrong about this.  But most people will be running this through outside effects and Toontrack might have felt that they were better off focusing in other areas. 

Based on my first explorations, the pattern based, EZKeys part is as awesome as it looks in the videos.  Lots of great patterns that sound good and are easy to tweak.  It's a better program than EZKeys in a lot of ways, in this regard--you aren't able to see and edit all the MIDI like that.  The GUI is very simple.  All those things where you drag in sounds--you don't have to read the manual to find them.  This thing is a home run with GUI and looks great too.  Love the way the basses look.

While the basses sound good, they are definitely meant to be programmed and not played.  I found all kinds of problems when I played it fast or at high velocities. You get a whiff instead of a note.  This is the kind of  problem that would be a deal breakers for any quality bass virtual instrument.  If you play it slow and are careful with velocities it is fine.  But I kicked the tires and Modo Bass, OTS,  ujam, the free Ample Sound bass, etc can sleep quietly.   No competition here IMHO.   But this product is not aimed at people who have played a real bass  and have solid piano chops, and have spent years creating and playing  bass parts on a keyboard.  It is great for what it is intended to do.  But it's weird that it doesn't work as well the other way.   Oh well, I already have lots of keyswitched instruments to do that.  

There is a part at the bottom where you can adjust the playing style in various ways.  But this feature doesn't work when you play it--the time you need it the most.   It only works when you use MIDI to play it.

Edited by Reid Rosefelt
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