MIDI Velocity Compression

[bitflipper]

Somehow this simple trick never occurred to me before seeing it demonstrated by this guy, Marc Jovani. His other tutorials are worth a look if you're a fan of educators such as Christian Henson who inspire by making orchestration look easy.

Yes, the method described below works in Cakewalk. Use the Transform tool in the PRV.

I'll probably continue to do it the old-fashioned way most of the time, tweaking individual notes that are too strident or too quiet, but this technique will be useful for those quick 'n dirty parts that aren't featured melodies.

 

[Hidden Symmetry]

I used to use Interpolate to do this in CW. You can also use Velocity MFX using the Limit slider to lower upper, bring up lower midi velocities, or both very quickly. (I also do this dragging method in Cubase using this piano editor & Controller lane or by using the Midi modifiers feature.)

Be aware that using any method this can tricky & doesn't always work. In orchestral libraries in particular there can be inconsistent levels in the audio samples themselves that require higher or lower velocities to sound consistent with their neighboring notes.

Also, as with audio, over compressing midi can result in dull & lifeless performances (similar to over quantizing midi). Again it depends on the VI & library you're using.