Midi legato

zah7

Hi folks, do you know any mozaic scripts that can create midi legato notes? Auria pro has it, but I am kissing it goodby, and transitioning to Audio Evolution (wahey!) which doesn’t have it.

rs2000

What do you mean by "create legato notes"?
There's a simple MIDI message turning legato on or off (CC68).

Playing consecutive notes with legato behaviour is up to the sound engine to implement.

Samu

@rs2000 said:
What do you mean by "create legato notes"?
There's a simple MIDI message turning legato on or off (CC68).

Playing consecutive notes with legato behaviour is up to the sound engine to implement.

I think it's like 'tie to the next note', some DAWs have options to modify the selection of notes and 'legato' is usually one of the options.

McD

MIDI has 2 events that influence the synths treatment of notes:

1. Note On
2. Note Off

"Legato" style playing means that notes are connected with out an "air gap".

So, a Mozaic script that "holds back" Note Off sends until a new Note On comes in might do what Auria Pro was doing.
This assumes monophonic input I think but writing and testing might disclose when stuck notes are a problem.

Creating such a script should be pretty easy to create. And it should be short enough to just post as text for comment and user testing before hanging it up on patchstorage.

I need to check on Auria Pro's behavior to see how it works as a first step.

mojozart

I searched the Auria manual for Legato and found four instances.

MIDI Processing Function / MIDI Control Parameter

Legato - When switched on this lengthens the note durations so each note sustains until the start of the very next note.

There is also mention in Lyra as a voice allocation mode and in FabFilter Twin 2 related to fingered portamento glides.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/auria.store/docs/Auria+Pro+User+Guide+218.pdf

michael_m

Do you have a keyboard MIDI controller? Maybe the easiest way to do it would be to play live, as legato then just becomes a function of timing with your fingers.

zah7

@mojozart said:

Legato - When switched on this lengthens the note durations so each note sustains until the start of the very next note.

This is exactly what I am after. I need it to work like in auria or multitrackstudio. If any of you can write a script, I will be more then happy.

boomer

I do it with a streambyter script that I use to process data from a wind controller. The principle should be the same for keyboard.

What I do is add a cc message immediately after note ons and offs with an adjustable value. I assign this cc to the attack time of the synth. The synth of course must allow midi control of the attack time.

Here is a simplified algorithm for anyone who wants to give it go….

If all notes are off
Send ccN with a value of zero. This sets up a zero attack time for next note

If a note is sounding
Send ccN with a value that sets the legato attack time to your liking. The next note you play while still holding the first will have a longer smoother attack time.

This approach sounds different than a synth in legato mode. It can be very useful for varying articulations using a single patch. Eg you can play an accented string sample both accented and legato. Lengthen the attack time to just after the accented beginning of the sample.

McD

@boomer said:
I do it with a streambyter script that I use to process data from a wind controller.

I would love to see that script and try it out. Is it publically posted somewhere?

wim

I assume by legato you mean that if a particular note is playing, it should sustain until that same note is played again. But, what if that same note doesn't occur again? Stuck note? With already recorded notes you can look ahead and just adjust the note off until just before the next note-on. You don't have that luxury in live input.

How would a live script handle that?

rs2000

@wim said:
I assume by legato you mean that if a particular note is playing, it should sustain until that same note is played again. But, what if that same note doesn't occur again? Stuck note? With already recorded notes you can look ahead and just adjust the note off until just before the next note-on. You don't have that luxury in live input.

How would a live script handle that?

My understanding for a live processor so far is this, given that we're talking about a monophonic sound generator:

• If a Note Off occurs and no other note is still on then delay it and only forward it right after the next Note On.
• If a Note On for the same note follows, send Note Off and Note On in quick succession
• If a Note Off occurs and another note is still on then process it after the legato modes "highest/lowest/last note played" principle

I wonder which event would turn all notes off.
From the description above, the last note played would sound forever, wouldn't it?

wim

@rs2000 said:

@wim said:
I assume by legato you mean that if a particular note is playing, it should sustain until that same note is played again. But, what if that same note doesn't occur again? Stuck note? With already recorded notes you can look ahead and just adjust the note off until just before the next note-on. You don't have that luxury in live input.

How would a live script handle that?

My understanding for a live processor so far is this, given that we're talking about a monophonic sound generator:

Synths don't always handle out of order events in predictable ways. Two note-on's without a note off arriving before the second note-on should not occur and can confuse some synths.

• If a Note Off occurs and no other note is still on then delay it and only forward it right after the next Note On.

That would be unpredictable. Some synths would ignore the second note-on because no note-off had preceded it. Others would process the delayed note-off immediately after the second note-off, resulting in an extremely short note or no note at all. And that still leaves the second note-off out there floating. Generally extra note-off's aren't a big deal, but not all synths will deal with them gracefully.

• If a Note On for the same note follows, send Note Off and Note On in quick succession

This is fine.

• If a Note Off occurs and another note is still on then process it after the legato modes "highest/lowest/last note played" principle

I don't understand what you said there. Are you saying that if one note was played, then a different note is played, that the first note should be ended just before the second note plays? That would be fine for a mono synth, but are you thinking it would behave this way for a poly synth? In that case, would there never be the option to sustain one note beyond the beginning of another?

Maybe I don't really understand what's meant by legato here.

I wonder which event would turn all notes off.
From the description above, the last note played would sound forever, wouldn't it?

Yes, those are the kinds of questions that need to be thought through for anything that tries to do this on live input. Wouldn't be the first time that drilling into such questions resulted in some great insights and some really useful scripts.

rs2000

@wim Yes, monosynths (or monophonic sound generators in general) only. Offering anything comparable for polyphony will likely end up in Mozaic script feature request hell

And yes, detailing on what the script should really do is essential imo. And potentially spark new ideas about what else could be done.