Land of Missing Parts
Grumpy Monkey
From all appearances Cinematic Studio Strings was designed to be used on a single track, rather than the separate articulation per track method that was the common workflow in the past (and is still used by many people today).
Say you load up a violin, you have access to all articulations in that one instance and, importantly, they are internally balanced and can transition relatively seamlessly into one another. So you can easily go: stacc, stacc, sus, marc, marc, sus all on one track without need of fussing with the volumes, transitions, etc.
CSS gives two methods to switch articulations: keyswitches and UACC via cc58, the latter being preferable to me because you do no need to use the modwheel to toggle between the shorts.
Using articulation mapping in Logic (and I believe Cubase has a similar option), I can embed the cc58 data in the midi note itself, meaning that if I have several midi notes on the piano roll, I can just highlight each and select the articulation I want. No need for extra notes at the bottom of the screen, i.e. keyswitches). To me, it's an elegant solution.
Here's where the problem comes in. What if I want to go: stacc, stacc ---> legato sus --> marc, marc --> non-legato sus?
I can use Logic's articulation mapping to send cc58 messages: (21) stacc, stacc ---> (6) legato sus --> (66) marc, marc but there is no cc58 for non-legato sus.
I see two options to get the non-legato sustain, but both involve an additional step.
Option one: Create a midi note on keyswitch A#0, velocity value must be 0-64. This is currently how I do it, but it's a break from the otherwise clean method I described above.
Option two: Send cc58 message (81), which switches off legato. The problem is, how do you send that? I already have cc58 sending (6) in order to switch from marcato to sustain. I could create an additional midi note beforehand to send cc58 (81), but it will play a marcato note because it hasn't switched to the sustain articulation yet. Of course, I could have that note below the playable range, but that essentially is the same thing as a keyswitch.
My question is, has anyone found a more elegant way to switch from legato to non-legato all in one step?
Say you load up a violin, you have access to all articulations in that one instance and, importantly, they are internally balanced and can transition relatively seamlessly into one another. So you can easily go: stacc, stacc, sus, marc, marc, sus all on one track without need of fussing with the volumes, transitions, etc.
CSS gives two methods to switch articulations: keyswitches and UACC via cc58, the latter being preferable to me because you do no need to use the modwheel to toggle between the shorts.
Using articulation mapping in Logic (and I believe Cubase has a similar option), I can embed the cc58 data in the midi note itself, meaning that if I have several midi notes on the piano roll, I can just highlight each and select the articulation I want. No need for extra notes at the bottom of the screen, i.e. keyswitches). To me, it's an elegant solution.
Here's where the problem comes in. What if I want to go: stacc, stacc ---> legato sus --> marc, marc --> non-legato sus?
I can use Logic's articulation mapping to send cc58 messages: (21) stacc, stacc ---> (6) legato sus --> (66) marc, marc but there is no cc58 for non-legato sus.
I see two options to get the non-legato sustain, but both involve an additional step.
Option one: Create a midi note on keyswitch A#0, velocity value must be 0-64. This is currently how I do it, but it's a break from the otherwise clean method I described above.
Option two: Send cc58 message (81), which switches off legato. The problem is, how do you send that? I already have cc58 sending (6) in order to switch from marcato to sustain. I could create an additional midi note beforehand to send cc58 (81), but it will play a marcato note because it hasn't switched to the sustain articulation yet. Of course, I could have that note below the playable range, but that essentially is the same thing as a keyswitch.
My question is, has anyone found a more elegant way to switch from legato to non-legato all in one step?
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