How do you pros handle keyswitches?

[Mark_Knecht]

Hi,
I'm putzing along here with some MIDI files and working to make them sound more real with GSt3.0's VSO Orchestra. How do you guys who work with orchestra libraries all the time deal with stuff like violin lines where you need both sustained and stacatto at the same time? Is there any way other than separating every violin line out on different tracks and then sending them to different MIDI channels & ports within GSt?

I'm not seeing any other way to do it but I'm probably missing the obvious. This all seems quite resource and time consuming.

Thanks,
Mark

[Bill]

If by "line" you mean 1st violin, 2nd violin, etc., yes, each has to go to a separate channel. Same goes for divisi lines for the same section.

[gugliel]

You can also load several articulations in gigastudio, as separate programs. Then send a patch change (program change, instrument change) command within the midi data. Depends on how your instruments are set up, naturally.

Depending on your sequencer, the program change will be picked up by gigastudio even if you start somewhere in the middle -- a keyswitch key is lost unless the playback 'plays' the keyswitch note again.

But any method requires you to enter the change of articulation in some manner, or to do as you mention and use more than one track with a different articulation per track, and cut and paste the midi data to the right track.

[JonFairhurst]

Hi Mark,

I stack Staccato 1&2 with the Mod-Wheel Sustains. It works great. Velocity now controls the amount of the Staccato patch that plays. The mod-wheel controls the volume of the sustain. It's kind of like GPO-style programming.

To stack the instruments drag the first instrument to a channel. Hold CTRL and drag the second to the same track.

Enjoy!

-JF

[Alan Russell]

Hi,
I'm putzing along here with some MIDI files and working to make them sound more real with GSt3.0's VSO Orchestra. How do you guys who work with orchestra libraries all the time deal with stuff like violin lines where you need both sustained and stacatto at the same time? Is there any way other than separating every violin line out on different tracks and then sending them to different MIDI channels & ports within GSt?

I'm not seeing any other way to do it but I'm probably missing the obvious. This all seems quite resource and time consuming.

Thanks,
Mark


Mark,

If a violin has been sampled for a few keyswitched articulations than apply it to one midi track.

keyswitching in real time is a dream for me. I can also apply keyswitching while a midi track is being played back just in case I missed an articulation. All you have to do is arm the track with your sequencing software and press the applied key for keyswitching.. I use Sonar Producer.

Alan Russell

[JonFairhurst]

True, Alan. The problem with the Vienna samples that come with GS3 is that the staccato has attack, but no duration, and the sustains have duration, but no attack. So none of the keyswitched articulations allow you to play slower melodic lines. The included sustains only work well for pads and such.

That's why stacking is needed here. You can combine the attack of the staccatos with the duration of the sustains. It works, but I shure would like to upgrade to Opus 1!

-JF

[letterboy1]

JonFairhurst,
do you create two channels? I mean, one stacked (Stac 1/Sustain Mod) and then another with (Stac 2/Sustain Mod)? Or did you mean that you stack all three into one channel? I'm at work and can't try it out just now.

[JonFairhurst]

Just one channel. One of the patches is Staccato 1&2. I think it just alternates between two staccato sounds, using iMIDI rules.

-JF

[letterboy1]

DUH! <hits own forehead> :o Heh heh, I remember now. Thanks.

[Mark_Knecht]

Hi Mark,

I stack Staccato 1&2 with the Mod-Wheel Sustains. It works great. Velocity now controls the amount of the Staccato patch that plays. The mod-wheel controls the volume of the sustain. It's kind of like GPO-style programming.

To stack the instruments drag the first instrument to a channel. Hold CTRL and drag the second to the same track.

Enjoy!

-JF

Jon,
Thanks very much for the stacking idea. This certainly makes the violin lines that I'm working with much more playable without using keyswitching at all. It seems that I'm getting at least a reasonable mix with velocity in the low 90's and modwheel in the upper 60's. This has thrown off my overall mix a bit and it seems (so far) a little bit non-intuitive as to how. There's a shift in the overall brightness as well as volume.

Where are you finding the most reasonable velocity and mod_wheel settings for first pass listening?

One obvious downside to doing this seems to be the voice count going up pretty significantly. What was 140 voice usage is not more like 190-200. I seem to be running into more limits with some part of my GSt system now as the more intense parts are sounding delayed or like they're stuttering a bit. Definitely I'm missing notes as I get about 180 to 190 voices.

I'm also looking into using this with the other strings as it would seem to apply but the voice count issue may kill going too far with that. Shouldn't an Athlon XP 2600+ be able to do more voices? (Rhetorical since you don't know my drives, etc.)

Thanks a lot!

Mark

[Mark_Knecht]

You can also load several articulations in gigastudio, as separate programs. Then send a patch change (program change, instrument change) command within the midi data. Depends on how your instruments are set up, naturally.

Depending on your sequencer, the program change will be picked up by gigastudio even if you start somewhere in the middle -- a keyswitch key is lost unless the playback 'plays' the keyswitch note again.

But any method requires you to enter the change of articulation in some manner, or to do as you mention and use more than one track with a different articulation per track, and cut and paste the midi data to the right track.

Thanks for the ideas. I should explore how program changes really work in this case. I hadn't considered them.

For a quick playback Jon's stacked idea works very well. I'll have to experiment a bit with all of these ideas to see what generates the best overall sound I can get out of this library.

Cheers,
Mark