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Topic: How does one Achieve Ghost Note Playback? (Read 2776 times) previous topic - next topic

How does one Achieve Ghost Note Playback?

I know how to notate a ghost note: with an x notehead. However, I want to have it playback as a sort of thud and don't know how to achieve this. (I use these a lot in electric bass lines where the string is plucked whilst the fretting hand stops the string from vibrating, so you get a percussive style thud or dull click.) Any ideas? Thanks.

Re: How does one Achieve Ghost Note Playback?

Reply #1 –
Hi Steve
the MIDI playback depends on the playback system you use. You can use SoundFonts (with SyFont of VirtualMIDISynth), or you can use VST's, or you can use an external MIDI keyboard or sound module... There's lots of options and many of them have their own articulations or sound banks to get different playing styles.
If I'd were working only with SoundFonts, I would try changing the bass sound to "slap bass" just before the ghost note, then maybe I would try to make this note shorter (using staccato marks, or even reducing the time figure) and then I would insert a new instrument change to get my usual bass sound again.
If you're using some VST maybe you would like to see if there's some kind of "slap" of "ghost note" articulation within the plugin itself.

In my experience, notation and playback always have been different things. If you want to "hear something" try to get the sound you want, in any way. After that you can write muted "correct" notation lines ;)
[...] y el mayor bien es pequeño: que toda la vida es sueño, y los sueños, sueños son.

Re: How does one Achieve Ghost Note Playback?

Reply #2 –
Quote from: SteveHuggins –
I know how to notate a ghost note: with an x notehead. However, <snip> Any ideas? Thanks.
It would help to have a clip of a bass line to work with ...
Registered user since 1996

Re: How does one Achieve Ghost Note Playback?

Reply #3 –
You might want to add an extra, hidden staff set to MIDI channel 10 - that's percussion sounds. Plenty of thuds there (the "drumref" file in the samples directory is a key to which sounds are made by which written pitches). Mute the notes in question in the bass staff and let the hidden staff carry the sound at that point - or use soft notes coupled with the thud of your choice to get a pitched thud. Use rests elsewhere in the hidden staff so there aren't any other sounds from it to worry about.

Re: How does one Achieve Ghost Note Playback?

Reply #4 –
Many thanks for the responses, they are much appreciated.

I agree that putting notation and playback together is a little hopeful. However, as a home amateur, NWC has got me by adequately so far. I use playback to check that I have notated correctly, and, for transcriptions of other peoples' bass lines, to help me get the rhythm. At a later date I use it as an aide memoire. So it doesn't have to sound wonderful, but it should at least sound pretty good.

I've been using NWC since V1.75, IIRC, and didn't realise that one could mute individual notes... so that is a step forward. I tried this in combination with a percussion clef but the nearest I could find to a thud sounded more like, well, what they should sound like. I also tried different forms of bass, like slap bass, shortening the note and making it stoccato, as suggested, and I think that 'Electric Bass (pick)' comes closest to the right sound.

I have attached an example measure of music, twice through with each of, in turn, Mute High Conga, Acoustic Bass Drum, Slap Bass 1, and Electric Bass (pick). (If you want to hear what the real thing sounds like, MarloweDK plays it in the first of the two measure riff in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2ARGLf2biQ.) See what you think. The file was written with NWC 2.75.

I am using 'Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth' for playback because that is the only choice available on my PC. I realise that I could probably do better if I got into this deeper, but I'm more at the level of whatever the computer+NWC only gives me.

I reckon that the short, stoccato, Electric Bass (pick) will do, but if anyone can improve on it I'm still open to suggestions.

Thanks again for your input.