Tonight’s musical experiment has been in two parts:
- Getting the output of my bass into Logic X using my Zoom B3 as an audio interface (the two necessary tricks seemed to be to unplug the unit from power adaptor before plugging in the USB cable and switching to USB bus power mode and then looking that the Audio MIDI settings on the Mac to get the right input device)
- Running the bass signal into Bituosity’s (free) MiGiC plugin
The latter step was the one that particularly interested me. If I can get a decent on-the-fly pitch to MIDI conversion using basses and guitars, it will be much easier to play in parts than either putting them in step by step or relying on my rudimentary keyboard skills. To be honest, initial results have been mixed but that is probably more to be blamed on my lack of experience recording live instruments into Logic than a flaw in the plugin. Once I’d deleted a few extraneous squeaks, it tracked fairly well to what I’d played so I think this might be a way forward with, as with all things musical, a bit more practise.