Midi/Instrument Track to play Root *or* Lowest Note from Chord Track

Cubase
1

I’m really not sure why this is soooo difficult - Various threads on the internet and here tell of trying to get at the lowest note or the root note of the Chord Track on an instrument track.

E.G. I have chord track with C, G/B, Am - lowest notes with a basic inversion would be C, B, A. Root Notes would be C, G, A

I’m happy to drag chords from chord track to the instrument track, and this is what I do on pianos type tracks. I can then follow the track to the chord-track.

My problem comes with a bass type track…

If I have a bass instrument (either a bass guitar VST or TRK-01) I just want to pump out the bass note. Surely I can’t be alone here in wanting to knock up a quick arrangement? I can drag the chords to the bass track, then open Logical Edit and delete all the notes except Root/Lowest. But then this won’t follow the chord track nicely if I drop in a new chord or amend an existing one.

In the example attached I start with two Follow Root Note tracks - on the first I have an empty part and the second has the chords dragged from the chord track. In each case the whole chord is played even though the Follow Chord Track drop down is set to Root Notes…

Then I wanted to use the Midi Insert “Transform” to pick the Lowest Note from chord but setting every NOTE <> LOWEST NOTE IN CHORD equal to another channel (not my VST channel) but using Midi Monitor I see the notes are not changed.

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I’m flummoxed. Can anyone help… all I want is the bass notes of a chord track to be sent to a VST instrument and kept in sync with the chord track.

Thanks
RobChord Track Root Note Problem.cpr (356.8 KB)

2

Not totally totally sure but I suspect the issue on the bass Track is that Cubase is pretty picky about a Chord being 3 or more Notes. Good chance it doesn’t adjust the line when you change a Chord because it doesn’t recgonize the bassline as a Chord and won’t change a non-chord Note.

What happens if you use the LE to select all the Notes except the lowest, and then Mute those? It might still recognize it as a Chord even with some super-quiet voices.

3

Thanks I’ll give it a try. But the Logical Editor has to be re-run every time I change chords - I’d have to drag them down and repeat the LE step each time afresh. Kind of you to offer a suggestion.

Are Basslines / Lowest note from chord track that hard to determine Steinberg?

4

You can assign it to a Key Command.