Minimum velocity

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Hi gang

I've been programming most of my sounds for the last 5 years or so on an EMU Xboard. I hadn't noticed - until now - that I had the minimum velocity set to 20... I suspect this caused many of the more dynamic patches (e.g. Czarendorf) to be less than optimally playable by "real" keyboard players (the softest notes are much too quiet). Any comments?
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Didn't The Xboard have the possibility to change the velocity curve?

Yes, the patch doesn't seem to respond that nice because of that.
ENV1 vel to around 60 seems OK on my setup.

If you are using FL Studio, you might wanna check out the MIDI options for tweaking the global velocity curve as well.
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3ee wrote:Didn't The Xboard have the possibility to change the velocity curve?
I guess you replied before I changed the title of this thread...

Yes, the Xboard has 8 velocity curves, a minimum velocity setting (now changed to 1) AND a pair of "velocity sense time limit" parameters - so it's actually VERY flexible. I'm mentally kicking myself for not checking those settings! :dog:
Last edited by Howard on Sat Nov 05, 2011 8:47 am, edited 1 time in total.
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The Xboard is a fine keyboard.
Doesn't it mean that for everyone else the patches were even more dynamic, since their controller could send even lower values than yours did?
Shouldn't be too bad, I think.

Well it never bothered me, as I rarely play that soft on a midi keyboard.

(On an older topic, when you asked for advice on a new ready-built PC, did you read about the www.da-x.de recommendation? You didn't reply to that one, but feel free to check them out, they're very good)
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The unshushable Coktor wrote:(On an older topic, when you asked for advice on a new ready-built PC, did you read about the www.da-x.de recommendation? You didn't reply to that one, but feel free to check them out, they're very good)
They look just perfect, Mr Coktor :-). I must have missed that recommendation. If I hadn't already decided on a top-of-the-range iMac, that's what I'd go for!
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Not a real keyboard player, but I see what you mean - there's not much between full on and near silent.

Lovely patch, btw. One of my favourites. :)
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hakey wrote:Lovely patch, btw. One of my favourites. :)
:tu:

Ya know, this thread has opened my eyes for fine-tuning the expressiveness of a patch.

I'm remembering how I've scrolled through Zebra's factory patches a couple of times and really liked some of them (they all are good, but some are subjectively more appealing than others) but today, once I've changed the velocity response on this patch I really understood that a small difference in the dynamic response made a big difference on the overall feel of the patch.

So a "nice" patch turned out into a great one just by a simple knob twist :?
Yep! :)
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:-o I added a midi reaper plug into the FX chain before Z2 to add 20 to every velocity note...I have to say, some patches that I previously didn't click with are now jumping out at me! And yes, Czarendorf+ really does benefit from that new minimum.

Gonna have to re-audition the factory now with and without +20...

EDIT: HS Pushunder always felt too "hard" for me. Now it's just right! Amazing what a little bump in that min velocity can do. ;)
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bmrzycki wrote::-o I added a midi reaper plug into the FX chain before Z2 to add 20 to every velocity note...I have to say, some patches that I previously didn't click with are now jumping out at me! And yes, Czarendorf+ really does benefit from that new minimum. Gonna have to re-audition the factory now with and without +20...EDIT: HS Pushunder always felt too "hard" for me. Now it's just right! Amazing what a little bump in that min velocity can do. ;)
FYI: I'm currently adding sensible X/Y control to all presets. This will take a while, as you can imagine! At the same time I'll tweak any overly dynamic patches to suit linear velocity curve with minimum velocity = 1. The change to sounds played with higher velocities will be minimal.

For now, feel free to offset all velocities +20, as Brian suggests :-)

@Brian: Do you know how to convert MIDI CC in Reaper, in realtime? I want to convert MIDI volume data to e.g. CC#02 (breath).
Last edited by Howard on Sat Nov 05, 2011 8:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Is Hans Zimmer aware of that? :hihi:
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Howard wrote:FYI: I'm currently adding sensible X/Y control to all presets. This will take a while, as you can imagine! At the same time I'll tweak any overly dynamic patches to suit linear velocity curve with minimum velocity = 1. The change to sounds played with higher velocities will be minimal.
Take your time Howard, the sounds are still very usable with the workaround. By the way, did you also program Zebra Science with the same keyboard? I'm writing down in my notes which presets should use the velocity offset.
Howard wrote:For now, feel free to offset all velocities +20, as Brian suggests :-)
For those interested, here's the tool I used to adjust the velocity in Reaper:
ImageThe rest of those values are set to their defaults when loading JS: MIDI/midi_velocitycontrol. Also, set it to 19 and not 20 because the minimum note on value is 1. Ignore the plugin JS:bmr/AXIS-49 Zero Remover, that's there to work-around an issue with the MIDI keyboard I have.
Howard wrote:@Brian: Do you know how to convert MIDI CC in Reaper, in realtime? I want to convert MIDI volume data to e.g. CC#02 (breath).
Absolutely, the JS section of the plugins is a veritable playground for midi manipulation. :) Just make sure Zebra is loaded after JS: MIDI/midi_CC_mapper in your FX chain.
Image
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bmrzycki wrote:By the way, did you also program Zebra Science with the same keyboard?
Yes. Thanks for the tips!
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