Electri6ity

[byland]

Hi Have this Electr6ity forum stopped after jan 02 2015

[martinjuenke]

Hi Have this Electr6ity forum stopped after jan 02 2015

Good to know! I was sleepless about that the whole last 18 months...

[benjamind]

I'm waiting on MODO Guitar...to complement the MODO Bass

[martinjuenke]

I'm waiting for the sun to complement my sunny mood

[Valimesh]

They really should do an Electri6ity 2, or something. With more metal/rock focused guitars.

[bill45]

Valimesh,Check out A tune called darkness, on the electri6ity demo page
http://www.vir2.com/instruments/electri6ity/

[Valimesh]

Yeah, I know about Javi's contributions and I have Electri6ity and use it extensively...just wondering if we're ever going to get any more?

[anton_s]

I am trying to figure out Electri6ity's vibrato settings:

In the Performance tab, there is a slider named "Vibrato Type", and in the Settings | Vibrato tab, there are several "Vibrato | Default Type" knobs, one for each articulation.

The Performance | Vibrato Type slider has 12 levels, with labels such as "1-Default (Fade)", 2-Slow Strong (Fade), etc... The Settings | Vibrato | Default Type knobs, on the other hand, each has 30 levels, simply labelled 1 to 30 without any legend.

* How do 12 vibrato types in Performance correspond to the 30 vibrato types in Settings?
* How do these settings interact with each other? (At first, I suspected that when the Performance slider is set to 1-Default (Fade), it would play the type that is selected in Settings, but this does not seem to be the case.)

[anton_s]

And a question about something very simple: When playing a series of legato notes on the same string, using just standard picking in the Sustain or Mute articulations (i.e. no hammer-ons, pull-offs or slides), how should the MIDI notes be connected? Should the notes overlap, or should each note end at the exact tick at which the next note starts, or should the notes be slightly separated?

If the notes overlap, will Electri6ity automatically insert the appropriate release/transition samples between the notes (probably some combination of finger release and pick noise)? If not, would it be better if the notes are slightly separated, so that each note triggers a release sample before the next note begins?

[wagtunes]

And a question about something very simple: When playing a series of legato notes on the same string, using just standard picking in the Sustain or Mute articulations (i.e. no hammer-ons, pull-offs or slides), how should the MIDI notes be connected? Should the notes overlap, or should each note end at the exact tick at which the next note starts, or should the notes be slightly separated?

If the notes overlap, will Electri6ity automatically insert the appropriate release/transition samples between the notes (probably some combination of finger release and pick noise)? If not, would it be better if the notes are slightly separated, so that each note triggers a release sample before the next note begins?

If you're playing legato notes on the same string, then you're sliding your finger up or down the string. Therefor the notes are actually doing a glissando. In this case, what you want to do is overlap the notes. If you separate them, you're going to hear a separate hard attack on each note.

In addition to this, you probably want to check the articulations to see if there is one that makes the process smoother. Off the top of my head I don't know as there are so many articulations in this library. But you definitely don't want the notes separate.

I'm pretty sure, however, that there is a legato setting, articulation or something that will handle this for you.

[anton_s]

I am not a guitarist myself, so I don't completely trust my ears when trying to find "realistic" settings. I therefore have several more questions, mostly related to realism:

Tone | Sustain
Different body sustain values can be selected for Legato, Poly, Solo and Muted. Do these values depend on anything else than the guitar body material, and is it therefore realistic for the four values to differ?

Pitch | Sharpen Muted Notes
What are realistic ranges? Does it depend on the level of muting, with dead-muted being most sharp?

Pre-Pick Noise | Wait
"this value is strongly dependant on the song tempo and the picking speed"
What are realistic ranges? I assume that the default value of 0ms is not realistic, even for the fastest Speed Metal.

[anton_s]

Electri6ity update 1.1 offered several new controls that are not (as far as I could find) explained in a manual:

Strings | Dynamic Attack -> Pitch Drift
* What does this new control do?
* By default, the value is set to 25%. Is this a more realistic value than 100%?

Tone | Muted
Is terms of real-life techniques, how are the "Mellow" and "Bright" options played differently?

Releases | Finger Noise
What do the options "Muted" vs "Muted & Sustain" mean?

Reset Humanize
Humanization of double-tracking multis can be reset via a button in the multis' script tabs. Is is possible to reset humanization of the single instrument via CC or other MIDI?

[vir2]

In the Performance tab, there is a slider named "Vibrato Type", and in the Settings | Vibrato tab, there are several "Vibrato | Default Type" knobs, one for each articulation.

The Performance | Vibrato Type slider has 12 levels, with labels such as "1-Default (Fade)", 2-Slow Strong (Fade), etc... The Settings | Vibrato | Default Type knobs, on the other hand, each has 30 levels, simply labelled 1 to 30 without any legend.

How do 12 vibrato types in Performance correspond to the 30 vibrato types in Settings?

All guitars patches: Vibrato | Type Default | Articulation Sustain should only have values 1-12. This is likely a scripting oversight for values 13-30.

How do these settings interact with each other? (At first, I suspected that when the Performance slider is set to 1-Default (Fade), it would play the type that is selected in Settings, but this does not seem to be the case.)

You can set up a default vibrato type for each articulation. So, for example, if you switch to octave pinch harmonics you can define a vibrato that will be used for pinch harmonics, while sustain notes can have a different vibrato type.

Tone | Sustain
Different body sustain values can be selected for Legato, Poly, Solo and Muted. Do these values depend on anything else than the guitar body material, and is it therefore realistic for the four values to differ?

These values differ for the keyswitch selected. For example, you can increase the body sustain to 80ms for muted chords only, while leaving poly sustain at 40ms.

Pitch | Sharpen Muted Notes
What are realistic ranges? Does it depend on the level of muting, with dead-muted being most sharp?

Depending on the style you’re going for, anywhere in the 30-60 range is most natural sounding.

Pre-Pick Noise | Wait
"this value is strongly dependant on the song tempo and the picking speed"
What are realistic ranges? I assume that the default value of 0ms is not realistic, even for the fastest Speed Metal.

Even the highest setting (30 ms) will sound realistic in most situations, though it’s not advised for very fast picking or noodly arpeggiating. Rule of thumb: the faster or more intricate, drop the pre-pick noise value lower for a cleaner result.

Strings | Dynamic Attack -> Pitch Drift
* What does this new control do?
* By default, the value is set to 25%. Is this a more realistic value than 100%?

This setting will humanize pick attack, by shifting the pitch of the note up upon attack before settling into correct pitch. The higher the value, the further the “drift.” Realism here depends on playing style and preference.

Tone | Muted
Is terms of real-life techniques, how are the "Mellow" and "Bright" options played differently?

You’ll notice this difference only on muted samples. It is a subtle difference, most notable on cleaner settings. The more effects you have, the less apparent it will be.

Releases | Finger Noise
What do the options "Muted" vs "Muted & Sustain" mean?

Upon release, this will add finger noise to either both Muted and Sustain samples, or only muted samples.

Reset Humanize
Humanization of double-tracking multis can be reset via a button in the multis' script tabs. Is is possible to reset humanization of the single instrument via CC or other MIDI?

This function is more of a “set and forget” for the type of performance you are going for

[anton_s]

Thanks for the replies!

In the Performance tab, there is a slider named "Vibrato Type", and in the Settings | Vibrato tab, there are several "Vibrato | Default Type" knobs, one for each articulation.

You can set up a default vibrato type for each articulation. So, for example, if you switch to octave pinch harmonics you can define a vibrato that will be used for pinch harmonics, while sustain notes can have a different vibrato type.

I was unsure how the settings in Settings|Vibrato|Type Default| interact with the setting in the Performance tab, and which takes precedence. However, I think I have figured it out:
Whenever an articulation keyswitch is played, it activates the corresponding Settings|Vibrato|Default|, which remains in effect until another keyswitch or CC27 is played. Whenever CC27 is played, it activates the vibrato type of the Performance page, and it also remains in effect until a keyswitch or another CC27 is played. So the vibrato type is determined by whichever was played last: the keyswitch or the CC.
Am I correct?

Two vibrato types that I am still wondering about, are "1=Default (fade)" and "6=Default (instant)". What is the "Default" vibrato?
At first, I guessed that these would refer to the default types selected in Settings|Vibrato|Type default|, but apparently they do not. They seem to be somewhat intermediate between the other fast/slow strong/soft types.

Tone | Sustain
Different body sustain values can be selected for Legato, Poly, Solo and Muted. Do these values depend on anything else than the guitar body material, and is it therefore realistic for the four values to differ?

These values differ for the keyswitch selected. For example, you can increase the body sustain to 80ms for muted chords only, while leaving poly sustain at 40ms.

What factors influence the body sustain of a guitar, and would it be realistic to have different body sustains for different modes and/or articulations?

Pre-Pick Noise | Wait
"this value is strongly dependant on the song tempo and the picking speed"
What are realistic ranges? I assume that the default value of 0ms is not realistic, even for the fastest Speed Metal.

Even the highest setting (30 ms) will sound realistic in most situations, though it’s not advised for very fast picking or noodly arpeggiating. Rule of thumb: the faster or more intricate, drop the pre-pick noise value lower for a cleaner result.

What setting would you advise for the fastest, noodliest speed metal arpeggio?

* If I use the Tremolo keyswitch to play a fast tremolo, would Electri6ity's AI automatically adjust the Pre-Pick Wait time, or should I do it manually?

* If I set Compensate Sustain to the maximum (20ms), do I still need to adjust the Pre-Pick Noise Wait manually when sequencing fast passages (without using the Tremolo keyswitch)?

Strings | Dynamic Attack -> Pitch Drift
* What does this new control do?
* By default, the value is set to 25%. Is this a more realistic value than 100%?

This setting will humanize pick attack, by shifting the pitch of the note up upon attack before settling into correct pitch. The higher the value, the further the “drift.” Realism here depends on playing style and preference.

Does Electri6ity's AI automatically adjust the amount of drift to the velocity of the MIDI note, or should I manually increase/decrease the setting when picking hard/softly?

Tone | Muted
Is terms of real-life techniques, how are the "Mellow" and "Bright" options played differently?

You’ll notice this difference only on muted samples. It is a subtle difference, most notable on cleaner settings. The more effects you have, the less apparent it will be.

Are these options only different EQ/recording/ADSR settings, or do they correspond to different playing techniques? (If I want a real-life guitarist to play "Bright" or "Mellow", what should I ask her to do?)


Please also take a look at my original question regarding legato picking. As wagtunes pointed out, legato lines often involve hammer-ons, pull-offs and slides. However, it sometimes is necessary to pick notes in a legato line (particularly in styles such as Black Metal that play legato melodies using tremolo picking without HO/PO), and I am unsure how to sequence that.
(The question also applies to tremolo picking: If I want to re-pick a note using the repeat keys, should the original note overlap with the repeated note, should there be a slight gap between the notes, or should their end and start align precisely?)


EDIT: And two more questions...
Humanize|Sloppiness versus Humanize|Pre-Pick Noise|Wait
What is the difference between the settings Humanize|Sloppiness and Humanize|Pre-Pick Noise|Wait, and how do they interact?

(In the manual, the descriptions of these settings are very similar:
* Sloppiness: "guitar notes contain a relatively large pre-attack phase (which might vary slightly in length) where you can hear the plectrum (see 9.1 Picking Noise) but not the tone itself. Leaving this pre-attack portion in the samples raises the perceived latency, but increases the realism."
* Pre-Pick Noise Wait: "You can setup the delay between pre-pick noise and the actual ‘tone’ of a picked note here. Per default there is no delay. But in sequencer environment you can raise the level of realism by tweaking this setting till you get the best result.")


11.5 Sloppiness | Compensate Sustain (avoid gaps)
The manual states: "11.5 [...] We recommend to set the compensation to the highest sloppiness amount you set in 11.4 and 11.5."
* Since Compensate Sustain is itself 11.5, does this sentence perhaps refer to 11.6 instead? (However, 11.6 Pre-Pick Noise | Wait goes up to 30ms while Compensate Sustain only goes up to 20ms, so if 11.6 Pre-Pick Noise | Wait is set at maximum, Compensate Sustain cannot equal it.)

[anton_s]

Two weeks later (including two reminder emails to Vir2 support), but still waiting...