Volume of "Long" vs "Spiccato" notes in BBC strings

[Vassilis]

This remark is based on "BBC SO discover/ Strings".

1. The volume of Long notes is substantialy lower than those of Spiccato notes, making it difficult to control in a midi setup. I believe it should be corrected.

2. How can you play a fairly fast passage (i.e. a scale run) legato? Using the "Long" samples the phrase is not articulated, and using the spiccato samples the phrase comes out staccato, not legato. Is there a way to do this correctly? Short note samples needed?

Thanks- Vassilis
 

[Mark Morgon-Shaw]

48 minutes ago, Vassilis said:

1. The volume of Long notes is substantialy lower than those of Spiccato notes, making it difficult to control in a midi setup. I believe it should be corrected.

Spicatto is more aggressive bowing technique ( bouncing the bow off the strings ) so it is more dynamic , has a much shorter attack and yes it's expected to be louder compared to a legato articulaton. It doesn't need correcting.  Are you also using the CC controllers as these need to be 'played' as well to get a more life like performance out of orchestral libraries.  CC11 is commoly used to control volume dynamically 

https://spitfireaudio.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360013834018-MIDI-CC-Chart-for-Spitfire-Audio-Libraries  

48 minutes ago, Vassilis said:

2. How can you play a fairly fast passage (i.e. a scale run) legato? Using the "Long" samples the phrase is not articulated, and using the spiccato samples the phrase comes out staccato, not legato. Is there a way to do this correctly? Short note samples needed?

It depends. The articulation you need is likely not in the free version if you can't get it to sound the way you want. There are more articulations in teh paid versions

https://www.spitfireaudio.com/bbc-symphony-orchestra-core#whats-included

Some string libraries actually include scale runs as a separate patch which can be triggered and it will do it to the track tempo.

Edited September 12, 2023 by Mark Morgon-Shaw

[Vassilis]

24 minutes ago, Mark Morgon-Shaw said:

Spicatto is more aggressive bowing technique ( bouncing the bow off the strings ) so it is more dynamic , has a much shorter attack and yes it's expected to be louder compared to a legato articulaton. It doesn't need correcting.  Are you also using the CC controllers as these need to be 'played' as well to get a more life like performance out of orchestral libraries.  CC11 is commoly used to control volume dynamically 

https://spitfireaudio.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360013834018-MIDI-CC-Chart-for-Spitfire-Audio-Libraries  

It depends. The articulation you need is likely not in the free version if you can't get it to sound the way you want. There are more articulations in teh paid versions

https://www.spitfireaudio.com/bbc-symphony-orchestra-core#whats-included

Some string libraries actually include scale runs as a separate patch which can be triggered and it will do it to the track tempo.

I do not agree with you dear Mark. Staccato or spiccato notes need not be played at a higher volume than legato notes. I have been using CC#11 for some 25 years now, mainly for fade-outs on long notes. For individual notes, long or short, velocity is traditionally been used (e.g. Vienna samples)  to control volume, which UNFORTUNATELY is not used by SA, except for some short notes. Instead, SA controls the note volumes by CC#1,  CC# 7, as well as CC#11 and velocity for some samples, i.e. four kinds of control, all doing the same job, possibly conflicting at times with each other. To my mind, you only need velocity and expression to do the volume control job. Please visit my page in Youtube to verify what  I am saying:   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy-AP1lqlQ-hKDY8ylRMk-Q/videos
BTW I have bought the BBC SO Discover for a certain price. It was not a free D/L.

In any event, thanks for your attention dear Mark