Need help with variation on a note

[Kalamata Kid]

Hello,

What is the best way to get variation on a note(s) of the same velocity. I am playing the piano and want to repeat a note several times but do want a subtle or perhaps not so subtle random variation of the note.

In Cubase 3 use an MFX or use energyXT and use a VST midi FX? I have experimented with not satisfactory results.

[loveless]

That depends on if you're using a sampled piano with multiple velocity layers. If so, just adjust the velocities (in a piano roll, or played via your midi controller) so that it's not maxed out like: "127 127 127 127 127" ie Machine-Gun(y)- also, slight timing variations help a lot. Don't (over) quantize if you want a "realistic" performance.

A lot of punctuation.

[Andywanders]

You could also try changing the sample start point very slightly with a controller. Most samplers have a parameter for this tucked away somewhere.

Other parameters you could look at are filter cutoff and fine tune.

[BertKoor]

What is the best way to get variation on a note(s) of the same velocity. I am playing the piano and want to repeat a note several times but do want a subtle or perhaps not so subtle random variation of the note.

Subtle changes in piano sound come from variation in timing, velocity and note length. Do not copy & paste one note, just record the whole bunch with a keyboard that's sensitive to velocity.

[Kalamata Kid]

Thanks for the replies. The piano though it was my prime instrument the question was about I need an answer that would apply to other sampled instruments and synths.

I get some variation with different velocities but want a little more or maybe a lot more within a various velocity ranges. Lets say within a velocity range 72 to 84 I want every third not to be the perfect note but variations of it in the first and second. Perhaps some randomization may be even better.

Changing the start point of a sample will make it sound the same every time I hit that key. I want some perhaps random variation that returns to the proper sample lets say every two three or four strikes of the key. Let me explain further, the first or second strike is the perfect note and at the approximate similar velocity the following note perhaps starts the sample a little later or some variant of the perfect note.

Could this be done using and MFX or VST midiFX? I have many of these but obviously not knowledgeable enough to use them properly.

[Kalamata Kid]

Perhaps a more basic question is to get subtle or not so subtle variation on a single note that is repeated will the best way be done with MFX, VST midi effects or VST (audio) FX?

[deaf dunderkwac]

I find its a lot easier to do with synths thn with samples. setting-wise on samples is varying the velocity and pitch (and ) offsets of each note. Tedious but worth the effort.

[TrevorMag]

What is the best way to get variation on a note(s) of the same velocity.

Some high-end samplers have not only velocity-switched layers, but multiple samples for the same velocity range. They use either a "round robin" or "random" algorithm to switch between them.

If that's not possible, you can use the "different velocities" method to force the sampler to use different samples - but what if you don't want that amount of dynamic variation?

• you can use "too much" compression to fix it up
• some samplers let you flatten out (or even invert) the velocity-volume relationship.

But what if it's on an already-recorded track? I vaguely recall a MIDI-controlled comb-filter plugin. You could use something like that - with a MIDI input of notes all over the place. That could do the trick, if the plugin's mix setting was subtle.