Why isn't this subforum more active?

[Colin Nicholls]

On 7/27/2021 at 10:29 AM, bitflipper said:

Speaking of cool controllers, check out the gesture controller shown here starting at around 3:00 (skip the rest of the video, it's sleep-inducingly boring). 

 

I'm getting MiMu Gloves vibes from that controller. Much more expressive than the D-Beam on my Roland keyboard ?

EDIT: Surprise surprise. The latest Sound On Sound includes an article about MiMu gloves, and talks about how Leap Motion is using related tech.

Edited July 29, 2021 by Colin Nicholls

[Mark Mitchell]

I stumbled accross the idea that articulation maps even existed yesterday.  

I had to experiment a bit - and got it to work.

Getting to them is in the Alt+3 view - I found Steinberg had a set of maps for download for a number of older VSTs - which I have a few of.

I did find that for the ProjectSAM Symphobia - where the screen says it has Keyswitches in    C0 and several half steps above -

that in the Keyboard view - of Kontakt - the actual keys that hit the Keyswitch were  C2 and several half steps above.

The Symphobia libraries have a good number of keyswitches - which does correlate to the statement that these are mostly used in Orchestration (and film scoring).

I will have to Edit the Artic(ulation) maps to be sure I have a good working set - that work over all of my VST instruments.

This is a feature that I did not know existed - but am very happy to have found it!!

 

[Kurre]

@Mark Mitchell

There's an option to change "Base Octave for Pitches" that's good to be aware of.

Edit -> Preferences -> Customization -> Display.
Right at the bottom is "Base Octave for Pitches".

//Base Octave for Pitches. There is no industry standard for numbering octaves. By default, Cakewalk calls MIDI note 0 (the lowest possible note) C0. The Yamaha FB-01, for example, shows MIDI note 0 as C-2 (C negative 2). To match Cakewalk to that standard, set Base Octave to –2.//

[bitflipper]

I've resisted doing that, because although redefining note 0 fixes some VIs, it messes up others. It's easier for me to remember which instruments need to have an octave added and which ones to leave alone.

Now, I have a dumb question. I haven't figured out how to have overlapping keyswitches via articulation maps. You can only have one map lane per instrument, and it doesn't allow articulations to overlap. For example, I'd like to enable an up-slide and auto-harmony at the same time in Indiginus' The Fiddle. ATM I can only do that by hand-planting one of the keyswitches in the PRV.

[msmcleod]

1 hour ago, bitflipper said:

I've resisted doing that, because although redefining note 0 fixes some VIs, it messes up others. It's easier for me to remember which instruments need to have an octave added and which ones to leave alone.

Now, I have a dumb question. I haven't figured out how to have overlapping keyswitches via articulation maps. You can only have one map lane per instrument, and it doesn't allow articulations to overlap. For example, I'd like to enable an up-slide and auto-harmony at the same time in Indiginus' The Fiddle. ATM I can only do that by hand-planting one of the keyswitches in the PRV.

You can only have one map lane per articulation group, not per instrument.

The solution is to put all keyswitches that are mutually exclusive to each other in their own articulation group.  Keyswitches that can be activated at the same time as others, should go into a different articulation group.

[bitflipper]

Ah, thanks, Mark. I've been putting everything into a single group, not realizing that there might be a reason for having  multiple groups, even in a simple instrument such as The Fiddle.

I don't see any reason why a given keyswitch can't be included in more than one group, so I'm thinking I can just duplicate them all. Sure, I'll then run the risk of accidentally putting two mutually-exclusive articulations atop one another, but I've always been able to do stupid crap like that. 

[msmcleod]

25 minutes ago, bitflipper said:

Ah, thanks, Mark. I've been putting everything into a single group, not realizing that there might be a reason for having  multiple groups, even in a simple instrument such as The Fiddle.

I don't see any reason why a given keyswitch can't be included in more than one group, so I'm thinking I can just duplicate them all. Sure, I'll then run the risk of accidentally putting two mutually-exclusive articulations atop one another, but I've always been able to do stupid crap like that. 

For the most part this will work, however the "Extract Keyswitch Articulations" command may have unexpected results in some circumstances as it'll pick up the first articulation that matches that key.  If you just happened to have another articulation overlapping that one in the same group, only one of them would win out either partially or wholly replacing the other.

Also remember that you're limited to 255 articulations per articulation map, regardless of how many groups you use.

There is however, nothing stopping you from creating more than one articulation map for the same instrument (e.g. one articulation map for "left hand" articulations, and the other for "right hand" articulations).

[bitflipper]

2 hours ago, msmcleod said:

Also remember that you're limited to 255 articulations per articulation map, regardless of how many groups you use.

Before somebody complains about that limitation, I pulled up the most complex instrument I have (Kirk Hunter Concert Strings) and it has 30 keyswitches per instrument. Plus it's unlikely that I'll ever own a 255-key keyboard. Because I'd have to buy a longer van.

[Timothy Connelly]

I have to vote for the last one. I've been using Cakewalk for decades and still haven't plumbed all the depths. Some parts are so arcane and esoteric that my fusion/jazz combo oriented mind just can't wrap itself around them.

[bitflipper]

One could make a case that once you've figured how to do everything you need to do, you're done. Time to get back to making music.

Then one day you see a button and think "hmm, I wonder what this does?" and just like that, you've disappeared down another rabbit hole.

After you've found your way out of the hole, you can go back to happily making music again - but now with a new trick up your sleeve.

At least, until the next rabbit hole. Rinse and repeat.

[Mark Mitchell]

On 11/23/2021 at 2:45 PM, bitflipper said:

One could make a case that once you've figured how to do everything you need to do, you're done. Time to get back to making music.

Then one day you see a button and think "hmm, I wonder what this does?" and just like that, you've disappeared down another rabbit hole.

After you've found your way out of the hole, you can go back to happily making music again - but now with a new trick up your sleeve.

At least, until the next rabbit hole. Rinse and repeat.

Well,  my significant other gave me  birthday card that had a dog on the front - with lines to show it was pivoting its head between positions looking at you or looking at something off to its side - the words said  " Happy - SQUIRREL - Birthday".  She points out that I often get distracted by other things - and I have come to think of those "mindshifts" as yet another "Squirrel" moment - one to be careful of - so that we spend our time on what we need to and not a distraction. 

I have used the term "rabbit-hole" for this same type of mind drifting over the years.

I am trying to make sure that I learn more of the software's capabilities - like a toolbox - we learn what we need to use .. and then when faced with something that is not being solved that way - we explore a bit and pick up something new - constant learning is part of life for musicians and software developers. 

Here's to learning something every day - that aligns with you.