J74 has announced the release of J74 BassLine, an editor and sequencer for bassLine progressions.

J74 BassLine is a Max for Live / Ableton Live MIDI plug-in specialized in bass line progressions. They key idea behind this device is to have a single flexible tool for bass line programming which combines both rhythm and harmony together.

In terms of rhythm J74 BassLine makes use of performance tricks such as groove, swing, legato, glide, accent and humanize dynamics. From the harmony point of view the tool works having knowledge of scales, chords and progressions, and combines these with the rhythmic pattern creation.

The generated bass-lines get automatically adapted to the progression, on a chord by chord, tonic by tonic basis, remaining in-key to the selected scale (if you wish it to). This works at its best when J74 BassLine is combined with J74 Progressive (another J74 tool set), in Linked Mode. By combining the two tools you have a single environment for quickly sketching harmonic and rhythmic material in Ableton Live.

J74 BassLine features

  • Automatic pitch adaptation to chords/degrees in the progression (InKey and Chromatic modes).
  • Possibility of inserting leading notes (pitch based on next chord).
  • Groove and Swing manipulation to timing (with useful settings for triplets).
  • Possibility of skipping notes or moving pitch based on probability.
  • Legato and Glide effect to note duration.
  • Dynamics by adding probability based fluctuation to velocity and timing.
  • Manipulation of notes with functions like pitch rotation, reverse, invert, mix-up, randomize.
  • Selectable scale (40+ available), in any key and any octave.
  • Progressions editing page for sequencing bass lines.
  • Automatic synchronization to J74 Progressive (J74 BassLine bass-lines following the progression of J74 Progressive).
  • In editor mode results are delivered as standard MIDI clips in your Ableton Live tracks.
  • In real-time sequencing mode(s) can follow live chords from another track in Ableton Live.

J74 BassLine is available for purchase for $12 USD.

More information: J74 / J74 BassLine