Bass VSTi velocity

[Djabthrash]

Hi guize,

since i'm using Trilian as a bass VSTi alongside Superior 2.0 for drums, and having noticed how using higher velocities than standard (by standard i mean 100) resulted in a better drums sound (for punchy metal/rock at least), i was wondering what kind of velocity you were using for bass ?

Do you feel pushing the velocities above standard values was resulting in a better bass tone in the mix ?

EDIT : to make myself clear :

Actually, i was mentioning the velocity issue more in terms of "at what velocity do the regular notes sound the best" and not "how do you use velocities to achieve a more realistic-sounding bass track", following the idea that having your regular (means hard but not overly hard) kick and snare hits at 100 (velocity) will make them sound too soft in Superior 2.0, whereas you can get them to sound way punchier if you have those hits around 115-125 (velocity).

 

[006]

It's whatever sounds good

 

[Djabthrash]

It's whatever sounds good

sure but i'm just curious about what people around here do and why before i consider getting a serious shot at it

 

[Loki Laufeyiarson]

Probably depends on the vsti in the first place. And well, trying it out shouldn't be that much of a hassle. Thought never crossed my mind though.

 

[Djabthrash]

Probably depends on the vsti in the first place. And well, trying it out shouldn't be that much of a hassle. Thought never crossed my mind though.

I use Trilian (which i guess is gonna become the equivalent of Superior 2 for drums or something).
I'm gonna give it a shot and maybe post comparisons here.

 

[RUJoking]

A lot of VSTi's have very specific velocity-based articulations. For example, anything between 1-30 might be fingered, 31-60 might be picked, 61-100 is slapped and above 100 is pulled.

 

[Djabthrash]

A lot of VSTi's have very specific velocity-based articulations. For example, anything between 1-30 might be fingered, 31-60 might be picked, 61-100 is slapped and above 100 is pulled.

Alright. I didn't thought about that either.
I definitely need to look into this since i've just imported MIDI Guitar Pro bass tracks in my DAW and have them played by Trilian, without even looking to the velocities. When listening to the bass it sounds great, but maybe it could benefit from trying different velocities.

 

[Mjespo125]

I've actually had the same question for a while. Being a drummer, programming realistic drum velocities (when I'm not able to track it myself) has always been much easier for me than programming a realistic, dynamic bass performance. In trillian, I don't think the velocity will affect whether the note is "picked" or "fingered" as you can select from samples that were actually picked or fingered when they were recorded. I would however recommend turning off the compression in trillian first of all, as well as the amp simulation. As far as using the velocity to achieve more of a realistic performance, I'm still playing around and figuring out what sounds best, can't really help there

 

[Djabthrash]

I've actually had the same question for a while. Being a drummer, programming realistic drum velocities (when I'm not able to track it myself) has always been much easier for me than programming a realistic, dynamic bass performance. In trillian, I don't think the velocity will affect whether the note is "picked" or "fingered" as you can select from samples that were actually picked or fingered when they were recorded. I would however recommend turning off the compression in trillian first of all, as well as the amp simulation. As far as using the velocity to achieve more of a realistic performance, I'm still playing around and figuring out what sounds best, can't really help there

Actually, i was mentioning the velocity issue more in terms of "at what velocity do the regular notes sound the best" and not "how do you use velocities to achieve a more realistic-sounding bass track", following the idea that having your regular (means hard but not overly hard) kick and snare hits at 100 (velocity) will make them sound too soft in Superior 2.0, whereas you can get them to sound way punchier if you have those hits around 115-125 (velocity).

 

[Djabthrash]

So i gave it a try tonight.

I had a bass track in Guitar Pro which sounded fine, with most notes with a "normal" velocity. Once imported as a midi bass track in Reaper, those regular notes are at 100 (velocity). With my Trilian patch it sounds great as it is.

So i've tried to raise the velocities to 120 and it just sounded like a bass player picking like a mo'fo, but it didn't make it sound better IMO.
Also, if you use the Live mode (and maybe Stack mode for that matter), when you hit really high velocities (like 126), you get slapping sounds instead of regular note playing. If you use really low velocities, it sounds very soft, like fingers playing further from the bridge or something (you can see that on the Trilian videos), which can be useful on soft parts.

So for now i'm just gonna stick to 100 as a general velocity value for my bass parts with Trilian.