MIDI Gurus: Question(s) about writing in Portamento controllers on specific notes.

Hi, guys. Moving on with my little X3 experiment and wanting to try something out some controller stuff but would like some input from those who work with MIDI regularly to avoid and bungling/wasted time.
 
Situation: Yesterday I converted a live bass track to MIDI to try out some synth stuff. In this song there are a few parts where I slide up/down between notes and I would like to try using portamento to mimic this on the MIDI track. I technically could do this with pitch wheel but a) I think portamento is more appropriate for the material and b) I'm trying to learn new stuff and I already pretty much understand the pitch wheel stuff. I already know how to create a new controller lane and set the parameter.
 
So what I would like to have happen (using hypothetical notes and slashies to represent the direction of the slide): With each note being articulated after the slide(s) it would be something like this...
 
A# \ F / A# A# / D#
 
So the A# is sounded, slides down to the F and the F is sounded, slides back up to the A# which is sounded TWICE with no slide in between (obviously) then the second A# slides up to the D# which is sounded. Hope that makes sense.
 
What I'd like to know is do I just need to put in one Porta controller on individual notes? If so where and on which notes?
 
Also I'm doing this with Zeta which I'm pretty sure has a Portamento function. I just read that some synths have it and some synths don't, which is fine, but if I tried another synth with the track will it just not play or will it cause problems (if it does play that's fine but if it's gonna do something dumb I'll just remove them). Also I think Portamento has a standardized CC# that should work across synths BUT I'm not sure so would like to know if any of the synths that came with X3 Producer would vary as far as the Porta CC#. If so what is the best way to change things so it works? I'm guessing either in the Controllers pane, on the synth itself or maybe in the Track Inspector.
 
Any good vids on youtube or articles I should watch/read? I did check the manual and poked around the intertubes a bit but I'm not seeing much that actually describes where you would put Porta controllers.
 
Anyway... hopefully that makes sense. No big rush. Just an old dog trying to learn some new tricks.
 
Arf!
 

i've always thought porta was down to the synth, in which case maybe set or automate the porta "amount" owic on the synth?

Unfortunately all my stuff is in storage now, but here's a few tidbits from my head:
You would need to send portamento on/off MIDI controls. They may not respond fast enough for a quick passage.
You also need to set the portamento time (how long to slide from one note to another).
There is usually a re-trigger switch to determine whether the note is retriggered or not.
I'm not sure Z3TA+2 has portamento. Pentagon does though.
 
Probably not much help.
 

So, this is a really good topic for me to follow and contribute.  First off, I have been thinking about using Melodyne to convert audio tracks to midi and then using "samples" to play back the audio.  I know this sounds like going in circles but my motive is to create MIDI tracks for other folks to use as a tool to see how the parts were played and to be able to play around with performances by modifying the midi tracks.
 
So, I have done this with synths and the only sample playback software that I could find that would recreate that PORTAMENTO effect accurately was KONTAKT.  So now, I can sample my old synths, create a KONTAKT program and then turn on/off, manipulate the portamento time, etc just as on the synth itself.
 
But, now on to guitars (bass and regular)... I find that using Portamento on BASS samples doesn't sound the same as sliding on the fret board... some available sample packs have keyswitches that play back actual samples with the slides but these too have limitations, that is, the slide time is out of your control... most of the time, the slide is too slow or too fast to recreate the correct feel of the slide... however, this timing piece can be recreated in midi with a series/combination of pitch bends and retriggered notes at low velocities and if solo'ed doesn't sound right but in context within the MIX, is very passable.   It is virtually a waste of time to try and draw in these midi events and sound realistic however, using a guitar, equiped with a MIDI pickup, the audio to midi convert within the MIDI GUITAR hardware creates these MIDI events to pretty accurate timings.
 
Once you get the MIDI tracks created then you have the option to load different bass samples that will be triggered by the track.  Try a PRECISION bass or perhaps a RICK bass would sound different, etc.  You get the idea.
 
Same thing with guitars... oh and by the way, strumming rhythm MIDI tracks are quite easy to create using the guitar controller as well and remember, you have the option of slowing down the track to create exacting strum patterns if the MIDI controller can't keep up with the conversions.
 
So, for single note or slides on a fretboard, this technique works pretty well.  It is the other articulations on a fretboard that still allude me, that is, hammer ons and pulls offs, etc.  which I think are going to have to take the route of actually sampling these articulations and using key switches to trigger but this is really a lot of work and unfortunately, the commercial sample fret board instruments out there all use the own scheme of keyswitches to change the sample articulations and as such, loading different bass guitars isn't as simple as just changing the sample program in that each uses it own key switch scheme.... I don't own but only imagine that the TRILOGY bass project would use the same scheme across the many bass guitars sampled in the package.
 
Anyway, these are my current thoughts on using MIDI to trigger fret based instruments. I look forward to reading about other's thoughts and understanding on this subject for that I know there are folks out there that know a lot more about this than me.
 
Thanks for starting this thread,
Jim

@jkleban... Cool stuff. I'll keep all that in mind as I start getting into more MIDI based tunes (I'm going to start creating full MIDI orchestrations to really force myself to learn MIDI and synth concepts properly). For this song though I'm not actually trying to get the synth to sound like a real bass because I already have a solid bass track. This Zeta track is a) to round out the bottom end because my bass input wasn't ideal (it went through a guitar amp without any padding/EQ on my mixer which I think would have helped) and b) to maybe yank out certain parts to applying really freaky patches for some extra effect (on those I will probably alter the pitch of some of the notes too so it creates bizarro harmonies and accents with the live bass). The slides can sound like a synth slide and in fact that's pretty much what I want. Kind of like a Moog style brain buzzing low end feel to compliment the live bass.
 
However you did remind me that I was going to try the Picked Alembic Zeta patch to see how well that rounds out the live bass tone but even then it would be necessary for the slides to sound exactly like the real thing because it would be lowere in the mix just adding some low end weight.
 
Thanks for all the insights though. Certainly giving me some ideas to try out.
 
Cheers.