Programming Advanced Slides

Our new virtual bass instruments are powered by truBass technology, which allows you to program extremely realistic slides from fret to fret on each string. There is a slight learning curve, however, once you read below and download the MIDI examples, you will become an expert in no time.

For this example, we are going to be using EuroBass III to program a realistic truBass slide on the low B string, from the 12th fret to the open string. You can download the MIDI from here and import it onto a track in your DAW, or follow along below. (Remember to check your middle C standard, i.e: Reaper users will need to drag the MIDI up one octave!)

CLICK TO ACCESS SLIDE MIDI EXAMPLES

 
To program a truBass slide, begin by opening up the piano roll for the MIDI section you wish to program.

1. First, draw in a Force String articulation that covers the entire length of the slide. For the B string, this defaults to G8, so you may need to scroll up to the top of your piano roll to find it. This will ensure that the slide starts on the same string that it is expected to end on.
   
   
2. Next, draw in the plucked note that your slide starts from, which is your Start In our example, this will be the B1 note, which will be played on the 12th fret of the B string thanks to the Force String articulation we just placed.
   
   
3. Draw in the note that your slide will end on, also known as the Destination In our example, this is the B0 note, which will be the open B string.
   
   
4. Draw in the Slide Trigger articulation, which defaults to B-2 on the piano roll. This lets the instrument know to prepare for an upcoming slide and should be placed before or at the same starting point as the destination note, but never after it.
   
   
5. Place your next note after the slide has finished, which will be plucked as normal. For this example, we're sliding down to and ending on a huge open chug of that B string for maximum impact.

TIPS

• Make sure that the slide you're trying to program is possible to play on a real bass! A real bass can't slide from its highest pitch to its lowest on one string, and neither can MIDI basses.
  
  
• If your slide is starting on the wrong string, check that your Force String articulation is set to the correct string.
  
  
• If your slide isn't sounding right, check the order of the MIDI note placement in the section. From left to right in the piano roll, the starting points should be
  • Start note >
  • Slide Trigger (B-2) >
  • Destination note
    
    
• The Start note will begin to slide from the point where the Destination note begins. In our above example, the 12th fret is played and held and does not start "sliding" until halfway through the slide section. Bringing the beginning of the Destination note closer to the beginning of the Start note will trigger the slide earlier. Pushing it further away will make it start later.
  
  
• If the note is sliding too fast, you can change speed by lowering the velocity of the Destination Try experimenting with the velocity/speed of the slide and where the slide is triggered to fit perfectly with your track!
  
  
• The Slide Trigger can be placed between the Start and Destination notes, or at the same starting point as the Destination note, but can not be placed after it. When in doubt, try placing the Slide Trigger in between the two starting points of your Start and Destination See below for the do's and don'ts of slide note placement.
  

Slide Speed Guide

When programming truSlide sections, you can control the speed at which the Start note reaches the Destination note by changing the velocity value of the Destination note.

The higher the velocity of the Destination note, the faster the slide. This means that the velocity value should be adjusted to suit the individual part for different track tempos, sections, passages and riffs. Below is a general guide to slide speed velocity values:

Note: If your slide speed isn’t changing, make sure you’re adjusting the velocity of the Destination note and not the Slide Trigger, as in many DAW’s they will overlap in the section where velocities are adjusted. Adjusting the velocity value of the Slide Trigger has no effect.

Multi-Note Slides

truSlide sections can be tweaked even further by programming multiple notes between the Start and Destination notes.

Say you want to slide from the 12^th fret to open but want to stop and hold on to the 7^th fret halfway through before continuing, just program the note in between and adjust the starting points of each note.

Below is an example of how this would look and be programmed in your piano roll.

1. After drawing in the Force String articulation, firstly draw in your Start This is the plucked note that the slide will start from. In this example, we’re again using B1, or the 12^th fret on the B string.
   
   
2. Secondly, draw in the Slide Trigger (B-2 by default). This lets the instrument know that there is a slide coming, so is best placed between the Start note and the first Destination.
   
   
3. Next, draw your final Destination This is the note that the slide will end on. In this example, we’re again using B0, or the open B string.
   
   
4. Lastly, draw in any notes you want to specifically tweak within the slide. In this example, we’re sliding down from the 12^th fret (B1) and holding on to the 7^th fret (F#1) before continuing to the open note (B0).

As long as the Slide Trigger sits between the beginning of the Start note and the end of the final Destination note (as in the above image), all notes programmed in between can be tweaked individually within the slide.

The Alternative Way

In the examples above we are programming from one note to another, or creating multi-passage slides. An alternative way to program slides is to set each note you travel through in the slide. For Example:

Sliding from C1 to C2, you can set every individual note in this octave slide, leave the velocity at max speed and then create custom speed maps in the slide by holding on to notes as much as you would like by extending them in the piano roll.

Mixing Legato Articulations

Remember that our truBass instruments have modelled the real way bass players play! This means you can get as creative as you'd like. You can tap into slides, Slide then hammer-on then pull-off then tap and slide down again. Combine realistic or completely ridiculous ways to play bass, all powered by our truBass logic.

If you'd like to see some ridculously advanced programming in action, we recommend checking out Drewsifs video he made for EuroBass 3.