Using Orchestral Tools Layers once loaded

[Joshua Gardner]

I have searched this and other forums but can't seem to find an answer. This is my first attempt at really using a DAW (save messing with gb when I was 12), so I'm lucky to have made it this far. I have gotten Cakewalk to scan and recognize the Layers instrument and created a new instrument track with it. So... now what? When I try to write anything out with piano roll, nothing plays back. Since Layers has several instrument groups with many articulations each, how to I specify which I'm attempting to use? Note: I did figure out how to open the Layers interface from inside Cakewalk, not that it has clarified anything for me thus far.

 

Edit: Breakthrough, but someone may one day need to read this: The bottom octave (no sounds to hear) seems to trigger which type of note I want to play, after loading the articulations through the user interface I opened from within Cakewalk.

Edited June 8, 2021 by Joshua Gardner
Breakthough

[Nigel Mackay]

Presume you are using Sine Player, even though you say nothing about it.

Click the Browse button. In the Orchestra row click on the tiny arrow on the right. Double-click on Chords Major Sustain. On the far right you will see a blue progress bar.

Full Orchestra Chords Major  Sustain  will appear in the Articulations list. You will see a keyboard. Click and hold any white key. You will hear sound.

Click on any of the brown keys to select different articulations.

In the Piano Roll the lowest note that plays is C3, the highest is B8.

Make sure the MIDI is routed to the Sine Player.

 

Edited June 13, 2021 by Nigel Mackay

[Steve Harder]

Layers is somewhat of a "niche" virtual instrument in that it is restricted to playing chords with various structures.

 

This recent vid will point you to other free virtual instruments that broaden your tool kit for creating music.

 

 

[bitflipper]

Those special keys are called "keyswitches", and they're the standard way to switch between articulations within nearly all sampled instruments. 

Unfortunately, they can be a PIA to work with because a) you have to commit to memory which keyswitches do what, and b) every instrument implements its own keyswitches; there is no standard. Do yourself a big favor and take some time to learn about Articulation Maps. They alleviate the need to keep looking up keyswitches as you compose, since you're letting Cakewalk remember them for you.