Glissandi & Timpani Rolls

[Raymond62]

Hello,

how do I make convincing Glissandi with Strings (violins in particular)? [As if the player shifts his finger from top to bottom on the same string, where top is the highest note]. I just entered in Sonar Pianoroll window a bunch of notes, each 1/2 step apart from each other, each with a slightly different length, and applied a bit of pitchbend to them. The total span is at most 2 octaves on the same string.

how do I make "real life" timpani rolls (like drum rolls)? As far as I understood the note duration doesn't play a roll in this, it is just, within some measures (bars) a multitude of notes played as fast a one can do? I looked at the keyswitches but couldn't make any sense from it. Please help.

Forgive my ignorence,

Raymond

[diligamus]

Raymond, see if the glissando tutorial http://www.garritan.com/TwoOctaveGli..._Tutorial.html helps. It even comes with a MIDI file for you to download.

[qccowboy]

on more or less the same subject: does anyone know how to have HP and Finale (2006) recognize timpani rolls + glissando?

[rbowser-]

Raymond, you know I work in a version of Sonar also--I can help you a bit. I don't work with Notation, so it's a mystery to me what incantation and inserted command triggers tympani rolls--I just know that the vast majority of them I hear done in notation programs are--robotic.

So Ray, you said for the string gliss you inserted notes. The different lengths aren't really what you need, but different UN-quantized starting points so the timing isn't perfect. The pitch bend isn't very useful with something going so fast, so I'm not sure that will yield you something you can use.

But I've found that different situations need different treatments, so I've worked with them in various ways, depending on the tempo and what the rest of the orchestration is like.

Experiment with different string patches--the aggressive ones with sharp attacks, experiment with bracketing the gliss with Legato (cc54) and without--AND be sure to draw in velocities so they aren't the same. A waving, climbing pattern going up will help, just drawing through quickly to get an almost random but climbing hilly curve to the velocities.

The tympani rolls, again in Sonar--Don't forget that the same notes are two octaves apart--left and right hand hits. You must alternate between those two octaves. I play them in real time first, then edit. The thing to look for is again not perfect entrances, and also to get in there and really get jagged with the velocities, but still creating an upward slope. I often use a velocity curve that starts at full 127 but quickly jumps down to 40 or so--for the initial attack, then dramatic build. The combination of using the two different notes, imperfect entrances, and plenty of velocity editing can get you realistic rolls.

Randy B.
(rbowser)

[Raymond62]

Raymond, see if the glissando tutorial http://www.garritan.com/TwoOctaveGli..._Tutorial.html helps. It even comes with a MIDI file for you to download.

Not fully but it set me off thinking about how to do it. Thanks.

Raymond