Wake Up! - Iconica Sketch

pbelgium

Spent a little time with Iconica Sketch and it sounds great! At last some good, easy to use orchestral sounds on my phone. Thanks Steinberg! (Thanks also for the excellent Cubasis 3 update - this piece has a gentle increase in tempo from beginning to end. )

Some thoughts:

• As much as I like the sound of the Funkhaus Berlin studio I wish I had more control over it or could replace it with another IR/reverb of my choosing - I know some other members have mentioned this.
• It would be nice to have a few solo instruments, e.g. solo violin, flute - I really wanted to use a solo flute at the beginning of this piece.

• I usually step write (input notes on the piano roll) and do a lot of midi editing and I noticed the velocity of a note can be controlled in two ways - note 'velocity' and 'modulation' controlled velocity. This has me a little confused. Which one should I work with? Do I need to balance the two? Or am I missing something? Some tips on this would be helpful @Lars or anyone.
  To answer this question I found this article by Jon Walden:

  For the shorter articulations, velocity controls dynamics, while for the sustained articulations you use the mod wheel to add crescendo/decrescendo to the performance.

• I couldn't work out how to 'stop' the timpani ringing out at the end - there's no keyswitch.

PapaBPoppin

The Modulation wheel is used in place of Expression found in Swam instruments. It controls the swell

It does NOT work well in the apps on screen keyboard since it apparently doesn't like multiple fingers (you can't just hold your finger on the mod bar of the in app keyboard), however with an external keyboard (or an app like loopy pro where you can create onscreen midi control), it works quite well

Edit: just realized I misread and you're asking which to focus on in piano roll setup ... That I cannot speak towards. My apologies

jo92346

@pbelgium said:

• I usually step write (input notes on the piano roll) and do a lot of midi editing and I noticed the velocity of a note can be controlled in two ways - note 'velocity' and 'modulation' controlled velocity. This has me a little confused. Which one should I work with? Do I need to balance the two? Or am I missing something? Some tips on this would be helpful @Lars or anyone.

Libraries are all different but also more or less the same.
In your case, maybe velocity controls the attack speed, and modulation controls expression or breath.
Or velocity controls expression and mod controls breath. Maybe there are more controls. I use 5 different CCs with the korg nanothingy when working orchestral pieces.
You have to try and really understand what does what with your libraries.

• I couldn't work out how to 'stop' the timpani ringing out at the end - there's no keyswitch.

Send a notes off, or CC expression to zero could do the job.

JanKun

Sounds nice.
Reverb is baked in the samples, at this price point you cannot hope to get all the different mics initially used in the extended library.
I will repeat myself but you should consider investing in an iPad and Staffpad. Between your hands it would be money well spent and you'd get greater realism for all your orchestral compositions.

Fruitbat1919

@pbelgium said:
Spent a little time with Iconica Sketch and it sounds great! At last some good, easy to use orchestral sounds on my phone. Thanks Steinberg! (Thanks also for the excellent Cubasis 3 update - this piece has a gentle increase in tempo from beginning to end. )

Some thoughts:

• As much as I like the sound of the Funkhaus Berlin studio I wish I had more control over it or could replace it with another IR/reverb of my choosing - I know some other members have mentioned this.
• It would be nice to have a few solo instruments, e.g. solo violin, flute - I really wanted to use a solo flute at the beginning of this piece.
• I usually step write (input notes on the piano roll) and do a lot of midi editing and I noticed the velocity of a note can be controlled in two ways - note 'velocity' and 'modulation' controlled velocity. This has me a little confused. Which one should I work with? Do I need to balance the two? Or am I missing something? Some tips on this would be helpful @Lars or anyone.
• I couldn't work out how to 'stop' the timpani ringing out at the end - there's no keyswitch.

An interesting little wake up call. Did you add any other fx or is it pretty much the Funkhaus Berlin?

Gravitas

@JanKun said:
Sounds nice.
Reverb is backed in the samples, at this price point you cannot hope to get all the different mics initially used in the extended library.

Agreed.

I will repeat myself but you should consider investing in an iPad and Staffpad. Between your hands it would be money well spent and you'd get greater realism for all your orchestral compositions.

The sounds from Staffpad are excellent.
If I remember correctly though Staffpad doesn't have live midi input?

JanKun

@Gravitas said:

@JanKun said:
Sounds nice.
Reverb is backed in the samples, at this price point you cannot hope to get all the different mics initially used in the extended library.

Agreed.

I will repeat myself but you should consider investing in an iPad and Staffpad. Between your hands it would be money well spent and you'd get greater realism for all your orchestral compositions.

The sounds from Staffpad are excellent.
If I remember correctly though Staffpad doesn't have live midi input?

I am using the old fashioned input way: pencil ! You can import MIDI and MusicXML audio and video files.
They also added MIDI capture in the latest update. I remember hearing somewhere that Staffpad didn't recognize all MIDI controllers but that might have been ironed, not sure.
Here's the introduction video to the MIDI capture

Gravitas

@JanKun said:

@Gravitas said:

@JanKun said:
Sounds nice.
Reverb is backed in the samples, at this price point you cannot hope to get all the different mics initially used in the extended library.

Agreed.

I will repeat myself but you should consider investing in an iPad and Staffpad. Between your hands it would be money well spent and you'd get greater realism for all your orchestral compositions.

The sounds from Staffpad are excellent.
If I remember correctly though Staffpad doesn't have live midi input?

I am using the old fashioned input way: pencil ! You can import MIDI and MusicXML audio and video files.
They also added MIDI capture in the latest update. I remember hearing somewhere that Staffpad didn't recognize all MIDI controllers but that might have been ironed, not sure.
Here's the introduction video to the MIDI capture

Thank you.

pbelgium

That's good to know @PapaBPoppin.

Thanks for the tips @jo92346 - notes off works but it's a bit abrupt, will explore more as you suggested. Incidentally, I think Iconica Sketch is as good as the free Spitfire sounds, although you can turn off the reverb on those.

Thanks for listening @Fruitbat1919 - no fx added, just Iconica Sketch.

Thanks for the listen and commenting @Gravitas @JanKun - would really love to have StaffPad, but lack of funds . I'm happy with Notion, Cubasis 3 and Iconica Sketch on my phone for now.

Gravitas

@pbelgium said:
That's good to know @PapaBPoppin.

Thanks for the tips @jo92346 - notes off works but it's a bit abrupt, will explore more as you suggested. Incidentally, I think Iconica Sketch is as good as the free Spitfire sounds, although you can turn off the reverb on those.

Thanks for listening @Fruitbat1919 - no fx added, just Iconica Sketch.

Thanks for the listen and commenting @Gravitas @JanKun - would really love to have StaffPad, but lack of funds . I'm happy with Notion, Cubasis 3 and Iconica Sketch on my phone for now.

I was playing around with Iconica Sketch last night after
I had live streamed last night and it's starting to grow on me even more.

MadeofWax

And here I had you pigeon-holed as just a great guitar player. Nicely done.

pbelgium

@MadeofWax said:
And here I had you pigeon-holed as just a great guitar player. Nicely done.

Thanks, much appreciated. I’ll get back on guitar soon. Loving your latest videos. I hope things get better for you and you can post more.

GeoTony

I feel short changed, can I have the rest of this masterpiece please ☹️

pbelgium

@pbelgium said:
I usually step write (input notes on the piano roll) and do a lot of midi editing and I noticed the velocity of a note can be controlled in two ways - note 'velocity' and 'modulation' controlled velocity. This has me a little confused. Which one should I work with? Do I need to balance the two? Or am I missing something? Some tips on this would be helpful @Lars or anyone.
To answer this question I found this article by Jon Walden:

For the shorter articulations, velocity controls dynamics, while for the sustained articulations you use the mod wheel to add crescendo/decrescendo to the performance.

pbelgium

@GeoTony said:
I feel short changed, can I have the rest of this masterpiece please ☹️

I wrote this piece to use as an alarm (it's downloadable if you fancy a new wake up call), hence the short duration. I think I'll be doing more compositions in the future now I have IS on my phone. As always, thanks for listening.