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AudioLayer question(s)
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Trying to figure out how to use AL with playing dynamics.
1. Does AL allow MIDI in for CCs, say CC1 controlling filter cutoff and CC7 control overall level?
2. Making instruments that can change change dynamics while sustaining (strings, woodwinds, brass, etc) - If I have 2 samples at different dynamic levels how do I build an instrument that would use the modwheel to crossfade layer to layer (basically a swell up or down)? Put the soft on one layer and the loud on one layer and use modwheel up as the trigger? Very confused what modwheel up and modwheel down does
Comments
The reason for the questions: I’ve notice when importing an EXS24 string instrument with four dynamic layers that are cross faded by modwheel, it does not setup this functionality but splits the layers triggered by velocity, not allowing for swell up and down dynamics.
Have you tried turning on the mod wheel control for the dynamic layers in order to crossfade between them? I haven't tested to see if it works
AudioLayer is really bare bones in this regard, there's no MIDI CC support except what you see in the Pitch/Filter/Level dialogs.
What @espiegel123 wrote is about what you have in AL.
I've used the Modwheel CC myself to crossfade between pedal down/pedal up versions of a grand piano for example.
If that's not efficient, think about splitting the instrument up into two separate programs, both supporting separate control.
Everyone above is correct. It gets about 80% in there from the exs file, which is good enough for me for most things. Instead of just importing the file, you might wanna autosample the sounds you need in. It’ll get you closer to what you are looking for.
After doing some messing around when Putting one sample in on one layer and changing the articulation to modwheel up, it seems to turn the volume up and down as modwheel goes up and down. However, I don’t really get the difference between what modwheel up and modwheel down is
The idea is to use the modwheel as some kind of crossfader between two sample sets: Modwheel up means volume up for one and volume down for the other sample set.
So more testing stuff…
1. Velocity seems to be the only way to set what sample is triggered.
2. When adding modwheel up or down as the articulation setting on a layer, it will set the volume of playback relative to the velocity used to trigger the sample. Up = volume up when modwheel up. Modwheel down is opposite.
So I was trying to use the modwheel as the velocity setting, ignoring key velocity, to determine what sample is triggered. But this is not possible as far as I can tell.
Good for pianos drums etc. and for less complex dynamics using modwheel (volume up/down and filter cutoff on one layer or cross fading between just two layers). But more complex dynamics, not possible (crossfade between 4 dynamic layers).
I should do some checking before bothering to write this, but I'm a little busy to work on it right now.
There are two different things to work with here: zone and layer. Zone handles velocity. I would think fading between layers would be able to be controlled by mod wheel. I could be totally wrong though.
I just thought I'd throw that out there real quick in case the difference between zone and layer isn't apparent.
(I hope I didn't say anything too boneheaded there. It's been a long time since I messed with Audiolayer.
@McM
Modwheel works on the Layer level so the samples have to be placed in different layers for crossfading or switching to work.
There are other creative ways to control sample choice without giving up velocity response, like "mis-using" velocity by interleaving three different sample sets on the velocity scale and using a MIDI processor like Mozaic or Streambyter to process incoming MIDI notes and CC control.
Or just use multiple AUv3 instances of AudioLayer.
@wim @rs2000 thanks for the replies!
I think I’ve understood AL means of sample playback.
There is no function for the modwheel setting to determine which sample is played. Only key velocity does that.
There are some sample instruments that use the modwheel to replace velocity to determine which sample is playing. EX24, Decent Sampler can be programmed this way. SFZ I think also does. I’m sure Kontakt does as well. But when importing these EXS24 and SFZ into AL, it doesn’t get setup this way. I think I get why now, since it doesn’t seem have this functionality.
[Example: 4 samples on C4, 1=pp level, 2=mp, 3=f, 4=ff.
Modwheel 0-20 triggers 1, MW 21-70 triggers 2, MW 71-110 triggers 3, and MW 111-127 triggers 4.
Key at any velocity triggers them all playing at the same time and modwheel dynamically fades between them.]
AL can do this with only 2 samples (set one articulation to MW up and the other to MW down) but there’s no way to set where the crossfade happens via modwheel CC. At MW=0 sample 1 plays and sample 2 doesn’t. At MW 127 the opposite. At MW 63 both play at mid volume.
Not quite what the EXS24 instruments are doing with using the MW CC to determine the Xfade point(s), so it doesn’t sound the same when it imports since that functionality isn’t it AL.
However, nice piano instruments import properly since the modwheel isn’t used for velocity dynamics.
Another option, Decent sampler imports Decent sampler files correctly, but the app is pretty laggy/buggy
Decent sampler update is more stable. Will try using this when AL doesn’t get me there
Articulation switching on iOS is a PITA in anything other than StaffPad. On the desktop, sample libraries tend to work in the following way (in most samplers, not just Kontakt):
Key Switching - lower octave keys switch to different articulation sample sets.
Expression - generally the mod wheel (CC1) but also (CC11). This may be volume only or it may switch samples, with or without crossfading.
General host automation/cc’s - in the context of orchestral libraries, this can be many things but is most commonly synth-style control of envelopes.
You can hack your way to better articulations in AudioLayer through some of the suggestions mentioned in this thread but for the effort, it's easier and more predictable when using an iOS DAW to simply load new instruments for each articulation and make use of volume modulation for things like string and horn sections.
With regards to an orchestral library that both sounds great and that has a great range of articulations, if you have SampleTank, the Miroslav Philharmonik 2 library is probably the best value for money (all things considered). Yet again SampleTank on iOS doesn't allow for key switching, so you'll need to create separate tracks for each articulation. This isn't much of an issue in an iOS DAW.
@McD BTW I did work out how to use Dorico with SampleTank. Victor Porof's MIDI Tools includes an AUv3 that can load as an instrument called MIDI Route and it does exactly as it says on the tin. You can choose to send MIDI to e.g. SampleTank directly or my preferred workflow is to host SampleTank in AUM as this opens up far better processing options than those in SampleTank directly. Using Miroslav Philharmonik 2 in Sampletank is a huge improvement on the awful sounds in Microsonic (the default instrument in Dorico for iOS), which are as unusable in Dorico as they are in Cubasis 3.
Miroslav Philharmonik 2 on iOS is pretty much the SE version of Miroslav Philharmonik on the desktop but with a reduced sample set and no articulation key switching. SE is approx £150 on the desktop so approx £50 for the iOS version is reasonable value IMO.
Using Decent Sampler to import Pianobook instruments set me right...I was trying to import Soft String Spurs EXS24 into AL, but couldn't get the MW dynamics working. But I can load 3 instances of DS into AUM (each with one of the 3 libraries in Soft String Spurs, Core-Harmonics-Swells) and can play those via MW and other modulation CCs.
I'm trying to locate this setting as in all my samples the volume turns down as I turn up modulation. I went into the Layer settings and saw that my Morph Controller is set to n/a. I saw that you were discussing in this thread how to turn on mod wheel control for the dynamic layers in order to crossfade between them but I can't seem to figure out exactly how to turn this off so that volume is not adjusted by the mod wheel. Can any of you tell me how to adjust it and turn it off?
You probably have Articulation = « modwheel up » set in your layer properties. Just switch this to « All ».
Thanks @Paulo164, however I can’t find the screen the has an option called “Articulation”. Where does it display that option?
Thanks so much, @Paulo164! I have the Beta version installed as I am troubleshooting for another issue and the menu looks a little different there. In the Beta it is just called Selections and the options are always, modwheel up or modwheel and I have it set to Always. Perhaps it is just broken in the Beta. Thanks!
You are welcome.
Are you testing the beta of a new version ?
Please report this to @VirSyn ... it also looks like if you set a morph controller, you can't set it back to none.
Yes, I am testing a Beta of a newer version as they wondered if the newer version fixed a previous bug that I reported to them on this thread related to one-shot samples but unfortunately it's not yet fixed.
Thanks, I have reported it to them but never got a response to my note so I thought I would ask how others were able to morph the layers in case I was doing something wrong.
I think Harry reads all the reports but often doesn’t reply.
I think you're right, @espiegel123. Hopefully he will be able to fix these things at some point.