Help! Key Switches

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RThornton
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Help! Key Switches

Post by RThornton » Tue May 21, 2019 10:50 am

Hi everyone,

Any help would be much appreciated. I trained with Scoring and then handing it to Musicians. I am struggling with the technology side of things. I can Score, export the midi to my DAW and apply a Plugin - currently using "Sketch" by Bigcat, because it's free. When I press play, the Plug in cycles through all the possible articulations. I cannot find simple information which will walk me through the process of locking into one articulation. Can you help please?

Robin
Robin Thornton - Educational Composer
Music Lessons: www.robinthornton.co.uk
Compositions: https://soundcloud.com/robin-thornton-2 ... soundcloud][/soundcloud]

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Re: Help! Key Switches

Post by waveheavy » Thu May 23, 2019 10:06 pm

I struggle with this too, since I'm a guitar player. Easiest is to switch the articulations during playback. Even if you have to slow the tempo way down, it's still going to sound better.

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Re: Help! Key Switches

Post by Len911 » Fri May 24, 2019 9:52 pm

How about Sibelius and NotePerformer3? https://www.noteperformer.com/?page=
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Re: Help! Key Switches

Post by Len911 » Sat May 25, 2019 3:09 pm

There is another program, Arpege Pizzicato http://www.arpegemusic.com/index.htm, that takes a different approach. You'd want the professional version for composition as well as notation. That might work better if you had a particular
orchestra vst soundset you wanted to control with midi. You can modify or design your own symbols and set the parameters. "...Most of the users will find in the current symbols all they need to create their scores with sound effects. They can largely exploit and in multiple manners the provided original symbols.The most creative and adventurous users will however find limits to these symbols. They will want to be able to create new symbols or to modify the existing ones so that they are better suited to their creativity. The system explained in this lesson and the following will help them to create the most various symbols, as well on the graphic level of the score as in the Midi universe..."

So you can say use a symbol, make modifications, set the parameters, tweek it however much, create a new graphic symbol for it, make it visible or invisable in notated printout, but it works for midi playback only.
In a normal notation program, you might send the midi to your daw and tweak it there, this way, it's already done in the notation program tweaked for your midi soundset, and can then process the audio in your daw.
https://soundcloud.com/huck-sawyer-finn
Not an expert on contemporary music

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Re: Help! Key Switches

Post by waveheavy » Sun May 26, 2019 3:35 am

Switching articulations in a DAW depends on the type of virtual library you have.

Vienna Symphonic Library used to be the easiest because you could setup your keyboard Pitch control to switch between 3 different articulations by the up/center/down of the wheel. With a violin the most common articulation switching would be between legato and staccato. Your right hand would play the notes. The only real advantage is that your left hand stays on the Pitch wheel. With individual keys assigned keyswitches, you have hit lower notes on the keyboard, taking your attention off the performance. So VSL's method is a little better.

Later libraries, like Spitfire, have started programing Performance Legato patches. A violin will automatically switch between legato, staccato based only on your keyboard playing style. Cinematic solo strings does this too.

Finale Playback is limited, and it's still not very user friendly when using 3rd party VSTs. It's spent a lot supporting the Garritan orchestra library, which is fine for writing, but not up to par for a realistic sounding performance. Pretty much the same with Sibelius. They're fine as writing tools, but not for performance. Still nothing beats performance using a keyboard, except live musicians of course.

There is no notation software on the market with playback that can present a realistic sounding orchestral performance. Hollywood composers either play the parts in their DAW or hire musicians that can do it. With a fast action piece they may cheat a little with some tracks, but the majority of the time they play in the individual parts by hand on separate tracks for the articulations.

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Re: Help! Key Switches

Post by Len911 » Sun May 26, 2019 9:22 am

Still nothing beats performance using a keyboard, except live musicians of course.

I'm not familiar with notation software beyond the Pizzicato by arpege. So I don't know the depth they control midi, but a keyboard is midi, so any midi editable parameter can be done inside Pizzicato, so you don't need a keyboard.
You could theoretically use a sampler with live musician loops and control that with midi inside a notation program. I say theoretically, because of course you would need to find the proper samples and pre-edit and organize them.

There really isn't one, be all do all, and it depends on whether you are sketching or making a final production piece. For sketches imo, something like Sibelius and notePerformer3 might be one of the quickest most realistic methods. For something
where you are exacting and need total control, you might have several programs, soundsets, and effects, daws etc.
https://soundcloud.com/huck-sawyer-finn
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Re: Help! Key Switches

Post by waveheavy » Sun May 26, 2019 4:24 pm

Regardless of the notation software or ease of changing articulations, that's not going to compare with a realistic performance that Robin is probably used to hearing, once handing off scores to a real orchestra. I don't want Robin to think there's any software out there that can replace a real orchestra, because that's just not realistic. Even though a lot of today's orchestra libraries sound really good, there's still nuances in the performance that have to happen to be closer to a realistic orchestra, and no software has been able to mimic that yet. Finale with their Playback programming comes closer, but that's all, just a little closer.

Today's virtual orchestral libraries are setup to be triggered by MIDI, and a keyboard is the main note entry method the libraries program for. This is why they program the dynamics to be controlled by the Mod wheel during playing the keyboard. I suppose one could use a MIDI guitar, like the ones made years ago that are strictly a MIDI instrument, and then use a pedal to control the dynamics; I haven't tried that yet. I do have the MIDI Guitar software, but the latency is still not to be desired, which high latency affects my playback too much.

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Re: Help! Key Switches

Post by Len911 » Sun May 26, 2019 7:55 pm

I agree with you Dave, I think we got a little outside of the original question, and instead of answering it, suggested a different software, which is maybe not what Robin was looking for as an answer, and maybe why he hasn't responded.
I take the blame for that :oops:
https://soundcloud.com/huck-sawyer-finn
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