Orange Tree Samples

J-Rokujuushi · Post by **J-Rokujuushi** » Sun Sep 06, 2015 10:55 am

I know this is a really specific situation that probably doesn't come up very much, but I figured I'd mention it here and see what comes of it.

Basically what I'm trying to do is a unison bend that goes into a whammy dive while keeping the unison bend held. It doesn't seem possible to do this with the current engine since both effects are done with the pitch wheel in different ways. Setting the bend mode to All prevents me from doing the unison bend since it affects both strings, while changing the bend mode to something other than All makes it so the dive doesn't affect the highest string.

I remember the original version of Strawberry had a dedicated CC that could be used for the whammy bar, and that would be a perfect solution to this issue. I've also seen some libraries that have a CC dedicated to unison bends, leaving the pitch wheel free for whatever, and that would also get the job done. Is there any chance we could see one of these in a future update to the Evolution engine?

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Sun Sep 06, 2015 12:52 pm

Automate the instrument Tune knob, perhaps?

J-Rokujuushi · Post by **J-Rokujuushi** » Sun Sep 06, 2015 7:52 pm

Interesting idea, but it seems the tune knob jumps to increments of whole semitones, so there's no smooth bend like you get with the pitch wheel.

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Sun Sep 06, 2015 8:29 pm

Not when you automate it!

J-Rokujuushi · Post by **J-Rokujuushi** » Mon Sep 07, 2015 8:22 am

Well, I've learned a few things about Kontakt and have now done things I'd never done before in getting that figured out. Simply assigning a MIDI CC to the tune knob didn't work very well, since 128 possible CC values doesn't give smooth results with a total range of 72 semitones (not to mention the difficulty of manually put the mod wheel dead center to stop bending, and it wouldn't end up on a zero value anyway). I ended up having to go to Kontakt's Auto tab, assign one of the host parameters to the tuning knob, set the range so zero on the controller sets the tuning knob to center, then assign my controller to that parameter.

Not as easy as "Hey, CC4 controls the whammy bar, use that," but it gets the job done. Thanks for the tip!

Also interesting to note, the pitch wheel doesn't affect the resonance samples, but the tuning knob does, which might actually be more accurate to how a real guitar works since the whammy bar loosens all of the strings.

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Mon Sep 07, 2015 9:22 am

CCs are not good enough for tune-related assignments. That's why I said automate, not MIDI learn. You should use host automation!

Gregjazz · Post by **Gregjazz** » Mon Sep 07, 2015 8:46 pm

J-Rokujuushi wrote:Also interesting to note, the pitch wheel doesn't affect the resonance samples, but the tuning knob does, which might actually be more accurate to how a real guitar works since the whammy bar loosens all of the strings.

Those are both good points (being able to use the whammy bar in conjunction with a unison bend, and also the resonance detuning), and a good reason to have a dedicated whammy bar control rather than just using the pitch bend. I'm adding this to the update list.

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Mon Sep 07, 2015 8:48 pm

Bear in mind that a whammy bar can be bipolar or unipolar (floating vs fixed bridge vibrato systems)

Gregjazz · Post by **Gregjazz** » Mon Sep 07, 2015 9:17 pm

Yeah, the bipolar aspect of whammy bars is the tricky thing when it comes to using a MIDI CC to control it in an intuitive way.

Orange Tree Samples

KVR Audio

Pitch bend limitations