iBassist and Loopy Pro - Tips and Tricks

danm

I'm using Loopy Pro to write structured songs with guitar and vocals using play groups for intro, verse, chorus, and bridge.

Recently purchased iBassist and wondering your experiences using it to create some basic bass lines for your songs. I prefer to record my own simple bass lines (for now using my guitar and pitch shift), but for some compositions it would be nice to have some rhythm section stuff created on the fly as a placeholder.

Wondering how you use iBassist in cases like the above...
Do you typically set it up as an audio unit input in Loopy? Are there ever cases where you use it as an effect on a channel instead?

Do you use Song Mode in iBassist along with LP?

Perhaps I should post this to the general apps or tips and tricks forum, but I'm actually interested in building my expertise in using other tools with Loopy Pro as the center of my workflow, so figured I'd start here to see if people want to share some thoughts on how they use iBassist, specific things to do/avoid, and if they use it to create basic basslines for their songs or if they use it more to just jam.

Thanks

wim

I mostly use it just to jam. I don't think I'd go to the trouble to set it up in song mode, even if using it in songs. To me it doesn't make sense to think of two song sequencers separately. Loopy already has all the tools to manage everything from one place. If making songs, I'd print the patterns to loops and just trigger them I do like the rest of the composition.

The only case where I'd think to use song mode is if I wanted to have more live "jamming" happening from the app itself. It would be more likely that I'd use the chord detection mode and send it midi, but tbh I haven't tried that in Loopy Pro.

You can't add iBassist as an FX, can you?

danm

re: not using song mode, that makes sense.
re: recording iBassist into loopy pro clips, also makes sense but the results seem a bit underwhelming to me in terms of what I'm getting out of iBassist, but perhaps I'm just not familiar enough with it yet to get some decent results

I wonder if generally iBassist is better used along with one of the lumbeat drummer apps or if I just need to figure out how to use iBassist in a way that sounds better...any specifics on specific "LINE"s and "SOUNDS" you like and any other specifics about combos you've found you like would be interesting to hear about

I also wonder if since I'm not using other midi right now to trigger or be triggered from iBassist if I'm not necessarily getting some of the more immediate synthesis that one might get if they were (I'm just doing guitar and vocals).

Finally, you're right you cannot add iBassist as an FX..that was a trick question! ;-)

Thanks

wim

@danm said:
re: recording iBassist into loopy pro clips, also makes sense but the results seem a bit underwhelming to me in terms of what I'm getting out of iBassist, but perhaps I'm just not familiar enough with it yet to get some decent results

tbh, I'm not super blown away by iBassist in general, but it has it's uses. "Printing" to loops is only capturing what iBassist outputs and using those loops for arranging rather than going through the setup needed to trigger iBassist patterns live when you want them. What you lose is only the more spontaneous variations from the "jam" level.

So, I'm really thinking of iBassist not as an accompaniment tool, but as a loop generator. That's surely not how most people use it.

I wonder if generally iBassist is better used along with one of the lumbeat drummer apps or if I just need to figure out how to use iBassist in a way that sounds better...any specifics on specific "LINE"s and "SOUNDS" you like and any other specifics about combos you've found you like would be interesting to hear about

I think using it alongside the drummer apps is where it really shines. The drummer apps come with he downside of being standalone apps though. I wouldn't use them in a live situation myself. I'd capture the output to as many loops as needed.

I also wonder if since I'm not using other midi right now to trigger or be triggered from iBassist if I'm not necessarily getting some of the more immediate synthesis that one might get if they were (I'm just doing guitar and vocals).

I'm not a big fan of the built-in iBassist sounds. When I'm not feeling too lazy, I send the midi out to iBassist/Pure Synth Platinum, where I have some bass sounds that are big favorites of mine.

Finally, you're right you cannot add iBassist as an FX..that was a trick question! ;-)

That's actually funny because I started to fire off a completely wrong reply based on why I wouldn't do it. But then I checked. You almost got me. 😂

danm

@wim said:

@danm said:
re: recording iBassist into loopy pro clips, also makes sense but the results seem a bit underwhelming to me in terms of what I'm getting out of iBassist, but perhaps I'm just not familiar enough with it yet to get some decent results

tbh, I'm not super blown away by iBassist in general, but it has it's uses. "Printing" to loops is only capturing what iBassist outputs and using those loops for arranging rather than going through the setup needed to trigger iBassist patterns live when you want them. What you lose is only the more spontaneous variations from the "jam" level.

So, I'm really thinking of iBassist not as an accompaniment tool, but as a loop generator. That's surely not how most people use it.

Understood. But that's what I mean has been underwhelming for me.
I add the chord progression of the part of the song I'm working on and haven't found much in the way of basslines it's generating that fit too well, perhaps bc I'm not familiar enough yet with how to tell iBassist to emphasize certain beats, etc...Do you typically do something to have it emphasize specific beats / that kind of thing?

Also, can you elaborate a bit on what iBassist/Pure Synth Platinum is and how you use it?

Thanks @wim!

wim

@danm said:

@wim said:

@danm said:
re: recording iBassist into loopy pro clips, also makes sense but the results seem a bit underwhelming to me in terms of what I'm getting out of iBassist, but perhaps I'm just not familiar enough with it yet to get some decent results

tbh, I'm not super blown away by iBassist in general, but it has it's uses. "Printing" to loops is only capturing what iBassist outputs and using those loops for arranging rather than going through the setup needed to trigger iBassist patterns live when you want them. What you lose is only the more spontaneous variations from the "jam" level.

So, I'm really thinking of iBassist not as an accompaniment tool, but as a loop generator. That's surely not how most people use it.

Understood. But that's what I mean has been underwhelming for me.
I add the chord progression of the part of the song I'm working on and haven't found much in the way of basslines it's generating that fit too well, perhaps bc I'm not familiar enough yet with how to tell iBassist to emphasize certain beats, etc...Do you typically do something to have it emphasize specific beats / that kind of thing?

The only way I know of is to edit the bass line. All you have to works with is notes though. It doesn't let you edit velocity. One would need get the midi out into a different sequencer to mess with it much.

Also, can you elaborate a bit on what iBassist/Pure Synth Platinum is and how you use it?

Thanks @wim!

Sorry, I meant Bassalicious 2 / Pure Synth Platinum. Bassalicious 2 is a bass synth plugin with a huge range of really good bass sounds. Pure Synth Platinum is a more generalized synth plugin with lots tons of bread and butter sounds. The Bassalicious sounds are available as an IAP in Pure Synth Platinum, so you don't really need both apps if you already have Pure Synth Platinum. (thus the typo botched reference to both).

So, what I meant is I mute iBassist's audio output and send midi out from it to Bassalicious 2 or Pure Synth Platinum if I'm not happy with iBassist's sound.

danm

Thanks @wim, this all makes sense. Do you feel your assessment / use is pretty typical? As things stand I may not get much out of the app and that would be a shame. Any thoughts on which forum/community you would try next in order to get more specific feedback on using the app to accompany guitar-based songs (or if that's simply not a typical/expected usage, which would be good to understand too). Thanks again

wim

@danm said:
Thanks @wim, this all makes sense. Do you feel your assessment / use is pretty typical? As things stand I may not get much out of the app and that would be a shame. Any thoughts on which forum/community you would try next in order to get more specific feedback on using the app to accompany guitar-based songs (or if that's simply not a typical/expected usage, which would be good to understand too). Thanks again

No, I'm not a typical user by any stretch. Nor am I much of a composer or performer.

I think my views on printing to loops wherever possible vs. using apps is solid especially for live work, but also from a compositional standpoint. As for the bass lines coming from iBassist, I can't really say if my ambivalence is typical. Part of it comes from preferring to create things on my own when I can. I usually have a vague idea in my head of what I'm after, and it seems like scrolling through presets to find anything that fits that is more work and more distracting and ultimately less satisfying than noodling around until I play something I like.

Sorry, I have no recommendations other than here to find other iBassist users. Maybe the iPad musicians Facebook group? I don't know. I only touch Facebook when I absolutely have to.