Production + Sequencer Tips
- Thread starter Ned Bouhalassa
- Start date
Waywyn
Senior Member
Well, you could either burn yourself ... or you use the Strg key instead
Thanks hbuus. Thats really nice to see all this collected stuff in one post!!
Rob Elliott
Senior Member
Hey Christian - yourn excellent pizz idea got me to think why not do the following for WW's
Legato speed as you describe (in the horizontal mode in VSL) and then for vertical - switched by velocity (like the pizz idea) - when struck hard VI auto selects the next vertical line down - with the same legato patch PLUS a staccaòœf Šzñœf Šzòœf Šzóœf Šzôœf Šzõœf Šzöœf Šz÷œf Šzøœf Šzùœf Šzúœf Šzûœf Šzüœf Šzýœf Šzþœf Šzÿœf Š{ œf Š{œf Š{œf Š{œf Š{œf Š{œf Š{œf Š{œf Š{œf Š{ œf Š{
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_taylor
Active Member
Great Thread! Thanks for sharing your tips and experiences.
I don't have much to offer in way of sequencer tips, but one thing that really helps me is to TURN OFF the computer monitor when I'm close to done on a new song. Just shut the thing off and have a good listen. I always seem to hear things differently with out the clutter of graphics and such.
I don't have much to offer in way of sequencer tips, but one thing that really helps me is to TURN OFF the computer monitor when I'm close to done on a new song. Just shut the thing off and have a good listen. I always seem to hear things differently with out the clutter of graphics and such.
Patrick de Caumette
Senior Member
This should obviously be a sticky as well.
Way to go Ned!
Way to go Ned!
Saxer
Senior Member
one of my favourite editing features in logic (and probably avaliable in other daws too) is the key command "force legato" and related to it "overlap correction". it makes notes longin direct until the start of a new note but without overlapping. after closing gaps and remove overlaps its easy to select notes that shall be slurred and add a little length to apply the instruments legato function.
Not sure how, exactly, this is done in other platforms, but I've FINALLY discovered the trick to mapping the tempo map to a performance in Sonar, and it makes a big difference in the feel for a track - not to mention I prefer not playing to a click<G>!
The key, probably true for all platforms, is to map the timeline to the performance, and not the other way around (OK, slicing, dicing, stretching, and shrinking to fit a performance to a fixed tempo can be a very effective approach for some styles, just not mine, at least this week.)
Put another way, you want to move the measure and beat in the sequencer to the measure and beat in the recording. This creates a fairly complex, sometimes messy tempo map, and I didn't really think it would work as well as it did, but dang, it worked nicely.
Some general, and Sonar Specific thoughts:
1) When playing without a click you may want to keep the part simple, you can always go back and re-record a more complex version later. In fact I find that playing against the rest of the tracks usually brings out a different performance.
2) Start the mapping process by mapping to measure boundaries - don't get all picky about individual beats. I've been surprised, and pleased, to see that if I can get all the measure boundaries right most of the individual beats are close enough.
3) Sometimes you really do want the beat to fall exactly on a specific musical event - when you do this keep an eye on the tempo map, if it strays more than a couple BPM you might want to check your math
If it sounds simple, well, it really is, but it isn't trivial. The first time I did this it took me two tries, and a couple of hours, to get the timeline where I wanted it, all for a piece that was less than 90 seconds long!
But, as I've repeated the exercise a couple of times now I've cut that down to about 30 minutes for a similar piece - which is still more time that I'd prefer to spend on editing tasks, but the benefit - a very musical feeling track - makes it worthwhile.
I really can't get over the difference between a track that has a constant tempo and a track that has a little slop. I know, everyone KNOWS this, but there's nothing like a self-inflicted demonstration!
Used to be my rule of thumb was that I would not make edits that I could not do with a razor blade... you might think I'm mellowing in my old age, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that this sort of thing was not necessary back then, since I'd usually be playing with the rhythm section, there was no need to lock the music to an arbitrary grid - that only came with the advent of MIDI.
For my next trick I need to figure out how to preserve this 'feel' when working from Finale or Sonar without the benefit of a live track...
The key, probably true for all platforms, is to map the timeline to the performance, and not the other way around (OK, slicing, dicing, stretching, and shrinking to fit a performance to a fixed tempo can be a very effective approach for some styles, just not mine, at least this week.)
Put another way, you want to move the measure and beat in the sequencer to the measure and beat in the recording. This creates a fairly complex, sometimes messy tempo map, and I didn't really think it would work as well as it did, but dang, it worked nicely.
Some general, and Sonar Specific thoughts:
1) When playing without a click you may want to keep the part simple, you can always go back and re-record a more complex version later. In fact I find that playing against the rest of the tracks usually brings out a different performance.
2) Start the mapping process by mapping to measure boundaries - don't get all picky about individual beats. I've been surprised, and pleased, to see that if I can get all the measure boundaries right most of the individual beats are close enough.
3) Sometimes you really do want the beat to fall exactly on a specific musical event - when you do this keep an eye on the tempo map, if it strays more than a couple BPM you might want to check your math
If it sounds simple, well, it really is, but it isn't trivial. The first time I did this it took me two tries, and a couple of hours, to get the timeline where I wanted it, all for a piece that was less than 90 seconds long!
But, as I've repeated the exercise a couple of times now I've cut that down to about 30 minutes for a similar piece - which is still more time that I'd prefer to spend on editing tasks, but the benefit - a very musical feeling track - makes it worthwhile.
I really can't get over the difference between a track that has a constant tempo and a track that has a little slop. I know, everyone KNOWS this, but there's nothing like a self-inflicted demonstration!
Used to be my rule of thumb was that I would not make edits that I could not do with a razor blade... you might think I'm mellowing in my old age, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that this sort of thing was not necessary back then, since I'd usually be playing with the rhythm section, there was no need to lock the music to an arbitrary grid - that only came with the advent of MIDI.
For my next trick I need to figure out how to preserve this 'feel' when working from Finale or Sonar without the benefit of a live track...
esencia
Active Member
I'm using logic Pro X + VSL and Spitfire libraries mainly, and I've been trying to learn how to improve
I'd like to know what are the best practices for editing notes in Logic Pro X to achieve realistic mockups.
Imagine a midi passage with 16h notes repetition. Same note repetition for Strings fast passage.
The most realistic output should be as an example, that every two notes, the first one would have higher velocity than second ones , or in case of triplets, every three notes, first one has an accent and the other two of the triplet different velocities.
My problem is that I don´t know a method to do it semi-automatic (in event view or piano roll), the only way I know is do it manually selecting every single note (and that is really slow). There is no macro..
I know that there are some addons like Art conductor, AG toolkit, that help you to change the articulations without impacting the score, but again, if you want to mix velocities changes and articulation changes for long fast passages, is really slow if you cannot select the affected notes with some "rules" that make those selections faster.
How do you deal with that?
As an example, I'm trying to achieve the same results as the examples 33 and 34 of the Beat-kaufmann tutorial
http://www.beat-kaufmann.com/vitutorials/vi-tips--tricks-4/index.php
Thanks in advanced for your help.
I'd like to know what are the best practices for editing notes in Logic Pro X to achieve realistic mockups.
Imagine a midi passage with 16h notes repetition. Same note repetition for Strings fast passage.
The most realistic output should be as an example, that every two notes, the first one would have higher velocity than second ones , or in case of triplets, every three notes, first one has an accent and the other two of the triplet different velocities.
My problem is that I don´t know a method to do it semi-automatic (in event view or piano roll), the only way I know is do it manually selecting every single note (and that is really slow). There is no macro..
I know that there are some addons like Art conductor, AG toolkit, that help you to change the articulations without impacting the score, but again, if you want to mix velocities changes and articulation changes for long fast passages, is really slow if you cannot select the affected notes with some "rules" that make those selections faster.
How do you deal with that?
As an example, I'm trying to achieve the same results as the examples 33 and 34 of the Beat-kaufmann tutorial
http://www.beat-kaufmann.com/vitutorials/vi-tips--tricks-4/index.php
Thanks in advanced for your help.
esencia, I will try to explain how I go about when doing faster (repetition/ostinato/runs/etc). I see you asked this question 6 months ago but I guess it´s ok to reply since this thread is a sticky.
Not sure this will really answer your question, but rather inspire you to try out other techniques. However, this is by no mean a foolproof technique, but I have found this to yield the best result for me.
I´m using Cubase myself, but this is a universal tip so it should translate to any platform. If you (like me) is an average piano/keyboard player, struggling to play faster passages without either missing notes or getting a terribly bad timing on 70% of the performance, I´ll share a silly tip that I use to compensate for my lack of precision.
Here goes:
Imagine you are about to record a 4 bar 16th note spiccato pattern, for instance on violins. This is where my piano or keyboard skills usually come short. I could just program these notes and adjust the timing and the velocity, but I´ll rather have the authentic rhythm and groove of a real performance as a foundation for my 4 bar spiccato part. So, what I do then is I play the 4 bars, with the intended rhythm and groove using my left and and my right hand, and only one finger on each hand. (I prefer index finger)
. I might just play C3-C4-C3-C4-C3-C4-etc. or whatever key that fits the part I´m recording over. The important part is; I only have to concentrate on keeping a steady rhythm, groove and velocity, without having to move my fingers around the keyboard. Now, I make sure when I play and record, that I accent the notes that I want to have accented.Then, (yes) I have to go into the editor/piano-roll and fix the placement of these notes, but the rhythm, groove and velocity is already taken care of, so in Cubase I just hold down the cmd-button and change the notes to whatever place they originally were supposed to be. This is a much faster way, (I think) than programming manually and trying to find the right rhythm, groove and velocity.
For really fast ostinatos or repeated notes (like measured tremolo-style) I also make sure that the notes are not overlapping in length, using the “fixed length” option in Cubase. Then I usually just set them all to 32nd notes which in most fast spiccato-string cases is an adequate note value.
esencia
Active Member
esencia, I will try to explain how I go about when doing faster (repetition/ostinato/runs/etc). I see you asked this question 6 months ago but I guess it´s ok to reply since this thread is a sticky.
Not sure this will really answer your question, but rather inspire you to try out other techniques. However, this is by no mean a foolproof technique, but I have found this to yield the best result for me.
I´m using Cubase myself, but this is a universal tip so it should translate to any platform. If you (like me) is an average piano/keyboard player, struggling to play faster passages without either missing notes or getting a terribly bad timing on 70% of the performance, I´ll share a silly tip that I use to compensate for my lack of precision.
Here goes:
Imagine you are about to record a 4 bar 16th note spiccato pattern, for instance on violins. This is where my piano or keyboard skills usually come short. I could just program these notes and adjust the timing and the velocity, but I´ll rather have the authentic rhythm and groove of a real performance as a foundation for my 4 bar spiccato part. So, what I do then is I play the 4 bars, with the intended rhythm and groove using my left and and my right hand, and only one finger on each hand. (I prefer index finger)
Then, (yes) I have to go into the editor/piano-roll and fix the placement of these notes, but the rhythm, groove and velocity is already taken care of, so in Cubase I just hold down the cmd-button and change the notes to whatever place they originally were supposed to be. This is a much faster way, (I think) than programming manually and trying to find the right rhythm, groove and velocity.
For really fast ostinatos or repeated notes (like measured tremolo-style) I also make sure that the notes are not overlapping in length, using the “fixed length” option in Cubase. Then I usually just set them all to 32nd notes which in most fast spiccato-string cases is an adequate note value.
Thank you so much for the reply!... it´s a really nice and smart trick! put focus on rhythm and accents only, and then just to set the note values
I've also discovered another cool trick to make it even more "human".
Under the Inspector panel for that track,
Midi Modifiers:
Set Random in Position, and apply +-5 or 10
and use it combined with set Random Velocity and apply +-10 as you wish
Thank you so much for the reply!... it´s a really nice and smart trick! put focus on rhythm and accents only, and then just to set the note values
I've also discovered another cool trick to make it even more "human".
Under the Inspector panel for that track,
Midi Modifiers:
Set Random in Position, and apply +-5 or 10
and use it combined with set Random Velocity and apply +-10 as you wish
You´re very welcome. Let me know it it works for you! I really think this tip helpful to make things a bit easier for you without going the full robot-approach and plotting every note in manually. I never program anything, I always play either the full part or use this trick I just told you. Groove is everything, and it is really hard to program groove convincingly! Also, when doing more complicated patterns or even just triplets it is so much easier to get the rhythmic performance right in the first place without spending the whole afternoon fiddling around with the piano roll. Of course, this tip is mostly useful for faster type playing, and if you can manage to play any part without using this cheat trick, it will always sound better and more like an authentic performance I think.
