Kirk Hunter Studios FAQs, Tips and Peer2Peer Info Sharing Thread

[teacue]

concert strings II - all keys one octave lower

I was trying to build expression maps for Cubase6 today and stumbled over the key mapping. Everything is mapped an octave lower than it should be. Like smooth articulation on c#0 as instead of c#1 ... in the beginning I thought it was just the keyswitches but the lowest starting note of the violins were a G2, violas C2.

Not sure if I understand your question but on my system (Cubase 6, Kontakt 4) "Concert Strings II" acts as it should and is mapped the same way other library are.
And yes the lowest note of the violins is called G2 in Cubase and corresponds to Midi Note 55 as it should.
(In Cubase you can set the preferences to show you the midi value of a note, doing so you can control that G2 is midi 55 in Cubase).
You could compare to the "VSL Strings" from the Kontakt factory library.
The setting is the same also in "Halion Symphonic Orchestra", in "Philharmonik Miroslav" or in "GPO".

There is no real standard on how a Host or a Plugin should label the notes, that is why there are differences between programms, but Middle C should be midi note 60 undependently of how the Host or the Plugin names it.
In Cubase, Middle C is called C3.
And as edc mentions, it does'nt matter.

Best regards

BTW naming middle C as C3 is Yamaha standard and naming middle C as C4 is Roland standard

[jbraner]

a c#1 displayed is a c#0 in Cubase

But that depends how Cubase is set up. That's the whole point. If you change the way Cubase is set up (ie which MIDI note is C0 for you) then something else will be out.

It's always been like this

Also - I think most people would rather see C(something) than "60". Not many people have the MIDI note numbers memorised

[anterroir]

concert strings II - all keys one octave lower

I was trying to build expression maps for Cubase6 today and stumbled over the key mapping. Everything is mapped an octave lower than it should be. Like smooth articulation on c#0 as instead of c#1 ... in the beginning I thought it was just the keyswitches but the lowest starting note of the violins were a G2, violas C2.

Not sure if I understand your question but on my system (Cubase 6, Kontakt 4) "Concert Strings II" acts as it should and is mapped the same way other library are.
And yes the lowest note of the violins is called G2 in Cubase and corresponds to Midi Note 55 as it should.
(In Cubase you can set the preferences to show you the midi value of a note, doing so you can control that G2 is midi 55 in Cubase).

Jupp - everything clear so far

-> now open Kontakt - load for example the 1st violins 16,4, ... all art patch. Go into the settings menu -> set assign smooth to key number 55 - look at the note displayed - it says G3 and tells you later on visually that the keyswitch is positioned at note number G3 but you have to play a G2 midi wise in Cubase for triggering. (because it's set at note number 55 which is a G2 in Cubase but here it's labeled a G3). And therefore it DOES matter.

Which isn't a real deal breaker so far but I just came across this when I tried to to make expression maps with key changes, looked at the key the plugin was telling me, took that for granted and none of my switches worked.

[anterroir]

a c#1 displayed is a c#0 in Cubase

But that depends how Cubase is set up. That's the whole point. If you change the way Cubase is set up (ie which MIDI note is C0 for you) then something else will be out.

It's always been like this

Also - I think most people would rather see C(something) than "60". Not many people have the MIDI note numbers memorised

Until today I haven't heard about those numbers either.

Can you tell me the option I have to toggle in Cubase for doing that - I have not found it - nor anything in the manual.

As far as it seems that is fixed here as 0 = C-2 -> which brings us back to the part where the script is working with 0 = C-1 for visual feedback... and so on.

[jbraner]

Can you tell me the option I have to toggle in Cubase for doing that - I have not found it - nor anything in the manual.

Sorry - I use SONAR, and you just set what's called the "base octave". I'm assuming that Cubase will have something similar - but if you set it to match your KH libraries, the something else will possibly be out

It's always been like that

[anterroir]

as expression scripting goes along the next question arises:

What are the actual keyswitches for the accent styles 4 to 6 for the accent pp/mf/ff articulations ?
1 to 3 are A0,A#0,B0 but 4 to 6 show the same keys - info line says all are accessible by keyswitching

[synchronizer]

Double hit literally means: hit the listed key twice in a row, and the keyswitch will become active. Are these staccato knobs able to be modified in the keyswith edit screen?

[anterroir]

*facepalm* yes it's working - sorry - I think I should stop for today

[kcisANDderit]

as expression scripting goes along the next question arises:

What are the actual keyswitches for the accent styles 4 to 6 for the accent pp/mf/ff articulations ?
1 to 3 are A0,A#0,B0 but 4 to 6 show the same keys - info line says all are accessible by keyswitching

4-6 are MOLTO. i.e., when that midi note is played twice quickly the MOLTO articulation is activated (molto marcato, detache, or spiccato)

[teacue]

-> now open Kontakt - load for example the 1st violins 16,4, ... all art patch. Go into the settings menu -> set assign smooth to key number 55 - look at the note displayed - it says G3 and tells you later on visually that the keyswitch is positioned at note number G3 but you have to play a G2 midi wise in Cubase for triggering. (because it's set at note number 55 which is a G2 in Cubase but here it's labeled a G3). And therefore it DOES matter.

Yes of course, I see your point and it does matter indeed to know how the plugins and hosts name the notes.
But as soon as you know it and get used to the fact that each developper may have another labelling then erything is working as it should and there is no need to change any setting.
And in this matter "Diamond" is set the right way.

AFAIK there is no way in Cubase to change the labelling of middle C and as far as I can remember Middle C has has always been labelled as C3 in all versions of Cubase.

Best regards

[anterroir]

So I'm done with the Concert Strings 2 |Violins expression map for 1st and 2cnd violins 16,8,4,1 players - all articulations for Cubase 6

lane 1 - 4 trigger the different divisi sections
lane 5 - 14 -> trigger the articulations
lane 15 - 20 -> trigger the accent style
lane 20 - 23 -> for accent pp, mf and ff selection

You can rename everything in the lower right box of the expressions maps settings menu as the names are mostly written out for easier matrix programming but need to be changed to the proper symbols if you want to edit things with the score editor.

For divisi live | mutes | triplet | duplet | .... I would suggest setting up controllers and change them with the note expression feature.

-> http://anterroir.com/misc/cs2_expressionmaps.zip -> for download

They worked properly in a clean test situation but I don't know how this stuff behaves in everydays work. If someone wants to give it a real test ride -> I'm much obliged for that.

-------

Maybe I get the Violas done later this week. I used to be faster but then I took an arrow in the knee so -> it may take a while.

*edit -> DONE

[DarkStar]

^^^^
For those of us without Cubase - perhaps you could post a couple of screenshots to show what you've done?

[anterroir]

Cubase has a programmable "keyswitch matrix" called expression maps. With that you can access keyswitches in the piano roll.

http://anterroir.com/misc/exmap.png

In the middle you see the normal piano notes lane. Underneath the articulation selector. Which gives you access to the 128 combinations that are possible when you want to select divisi sections, articulations and accent styles.

http://anterroir.com/misc/exmap2.png

Thats the settings menu where you put in the possible combinations -> so for whole and legato it should send note on commands for D#2 and C#0, for whole, accent_ff, marcato molto, D#2/51,E0/28 and two times A-1/21 - midi note numbers are really handy here

You can also specify controllers, channel changes, velocity changes and define new keyswitches and so on. The 4 groups represent the logical combinations and only one switch in a group can be active ... a deeper description of that matter lacks my English language knowledge. I hope that helped a bit.
The cumbersome part is that you have to put in every combination manually as there aren't any copy and paste functions. The expression map itself is saved in xml language but the script gives every object a unique id which changes with every content change so you can't edit it "outside" the box. At least not I for myself, as I'm not a programmer nor do I possess the knowledge to do that.

But before starting a take on violas/cellos and basses I'm thinking of changing the keyswitches in the Kontakt file to keys that aren't used by any of the stringed instruments so they are consistent and you would only need one keyswitch preset for all. But that makes sharing more complicated ...

[Breeze]

But before starting a take on violas/cellos and basses I'm thinking of changing the keyswitches in the Kontakt file to keys that aren't used by any of the stringed instruments so they are consistent and you would only need one keyswitch preset for all.

Thanks for sharing your work! It might be possible to use a second midi keyboard, merge it with your main, and transpose it so you can access the lower range of 0-128 which isn't usually assigned to anything. Something small like the Korg Nanokey or the AKAI LPK25 might do the trick, and sit conveniently on a desk. How many octaves do you need?

[Breeze]

double - diregard...