Homegrown Sounds

Astralp · Post by **Astralp** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 7:38 am

Blimey! A lot posts whilst I slept! I'm busy doing some particularly unsavoury work today, so shall answer later on

Astralp · Post by **Astralp** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 8:32 am

Ok I have a little time to answer some..

Do you think it will be too confusing for the user or is there too much Midi activity going on?

Possibly both, we'll give it a try.

The main problem is that the CCs used by the Ammonites will still be used and so if they are shared with the external CCs it may be undesirable as they would probably control different stuff. Of course it could also be interesting! I think what I'll do is add another row of buttons to send CCs through. I'll filter out volume and pan as I think in this situation they are best left with the external device.

Astralp · Post by **Astralp** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 8:36 am

The trigger buttons can be switched on and off when you use Step sequencer but not when you switch to multisequence mode.

They operate the same way, all that the multi sequencer does is play multiple sequences at once, the sequences themselves use all the same settings as if you were triggering them in single mode

We'll have to do some testing next week on your DAW and find out where the problem is, but I would prefer you put SP3 on it just to be sure as we might waste hours otherwise if it is related.

Astralp · Post by **Astralp** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 8:40 am

jensa wrote:Another thing Andy, when feeding external plugins, like Zebra, where you have right-click -> "Midi learn" instead of assigning a CC-number. How do you connect CC1, CC2, CC3 and CC4? I don't seem to be able to. Is there a way to send simple CC manually to bind them to a parameter in a plugin?

Not following this one, which host are you using? If I understand correctly, you would have to set the CCs manually as Vortex has no way of knowing what is going on with other plugins. Only CCs are supported, ie Vortex can only modulate plugins which have CC values not VST automation.

I might have misunderstood!

Astralp · Post by **Astralp** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 8:45 am

1. The new 'global' switches in Synths for Direct Out and MIDI Thru don't seem to be doing any thing except momentarily flashing.

They are set all switches, the equivalent of CTRL clicking a button except that they set all buttons in the row the state of button 1.

2. I'd like a similar 'global' switch for Internal in the MIDI Mixer and for activated in the CC Mixer ... even if they don't work, 'cause I know sooner or later you'll fix them.

Ok, but you can do it now by CTRL clicking a button.

3. If this isn't too big a PITA, as in 'give 'em an inch, and they'll take a mile,' now that you've nicely added the Hold Bypass keyboard, it would be nice if held notes in the global keyboard were a different color from momentary ones ... like maybe red for 'held.'

This probably won't happen, currently the keyboard has no way of distinguishing what the notes are, it simply displays their on/off state.

Besides Vortex, I'm in a bit of sonic nirvana as I just got my most recent eBay purchase delivered today: an Ensoniq MR Rack. It is sounding really nice ... but I haven't fed it some Vortex, as I haven't had time to rack and set it up in my system.

Nice!

So many projects, so little time.

Yep, it never ends!

Astralp · Post by **Astralp** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 8:49 am

Well it won't be in v1.0 as it's quite a bit or work, but I am thinking it would be good to implement a Scale for each repitch trigger and I could give them their own Scale Mode. The big issue with what you describe however is keeping track of the original root note. Hard to explain but that one is a bit of a nightmare. remind me of this after the sub sequences are done in v1.1.

como baila wrote:OK ... my last entry for today.

I did a little midi recording experiment to clarify for myself how the pitch shift worked. I now realize that if I'd asked the question more clearly, Andy could have already answered me.

I turned off squash2scale, although I now realize that that also would have made no difference.

I drew a few arpeggios in C major using only C, E, G and B (OK, C major 7th).

I then enabled pitchshift, recorded a few bars and then began also recording the sequence while engaging the pitch shift keys.

What I conclude is that pitch shift works exactly like 'Transpose' on the sequence page. If you hit the D note in pitch shift, your entire sequence is transposed up so that now the root is D ... same as setting the transpose to +2.

In triggering the various pitch shift key ... only the 'white' diatonic, I recorded notes like C# and A#, which aren't in the key of C at all (the original sequence).

I guess what I wish for, were it possible, is for the pitch shifted sequence to simply start on a higher note, but remain in the key of the original sequence.

I can accomplish this with use of the MIDI Modifier plugin in Cubase by setting, in this example, the key to C and the scale to major in the plugin to filter Vortex' output to behave as I'd like. But I still wish, if it were possible, to be able to do this directly in Vortex to generate harmonically correct variations on the riffs in the sequences.

I don' want much, do I?

See you all tomorrow!

Como

Musical Gym · Post by **Musical Gym** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 9:13 am

Is there (or will there be) a short demo video available of basic usage during the promo period?

Astralp · Post by **Astralp** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 9:15 am

Hi Jim

There is a video on the page, click on the video tab

But there will be more coming.

como baila · Post by **como baila** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 3:03 pm

Astralp wrote:Well it won't be in v1.0 as it's quite a bit or work, but I am thinking it would be good to implement a Scale for each repitch trigger and I could give them their own Scale Mode. The big issue with what you describe however is keeping track of the original root note. Hard to explain but that one is a bit of a nightmare. remind me of this after the sub sequences are done in v1.1.

como baila wrote:OK ... my last entry for today.
Como

Will do, Andy. I'm glad it makes sense to you, anyway.

Como

jensa · Post by **jensa** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 3:29 pm

Astralp wrote:Not following this one, which host are you using? If I understand correctly, you would have to set the CCs manually as Vortex has no way of knowing what is going on with other plugins. Only CCs are supported, ie Vortex can only modulate plugins which have CC values not VST automation.

I might have misunderstood!

I feel my English skills are in decline with my increasing age, but I'll try to explain again.

Yep, we agree that Vortex can't know what plugin I'm feeding, but I need a way to use "Midi learn" in the plugins, and that is only possible if Vortex could send the CC-message of my choice from Vortex WHEN I WANT TO without a lot of notes, other CC-messages etc interfering. Just as when you do it from a MIDI controller: Enable Midi Learn for a knob/fader in the external FX/Synth, turn the controller knob/fader and hey presto, they're linked. I want it the same way from Vortex since it's really a supercharged "virtual MIDI controller": Enable Midi Learn for a knob/fader in the external FX/Synth -> Click/drag/turn something in Vortex that sends just one of MY choice of CCs (i.e. the CC number of the sequencer I'm editing) to link them. Yay!

Musical Gym · Post by **Musical Gym** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 4:18 pm

Astralp wrote:Hi Jim

There is a video on the page, click on the video tab But there will be more coming.

Thanks Andy

Astralp · Post by **Astralp** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 6:52 pm

Ahhh Got it! so if I add a button to the side of the CC List to send value that should cover it? I take it 3 + 4 are covered as they always have knobs, it's really just 1 + 2 that need something..

Your English is fine, it sometimes just takes me a while to "tune in" to an idea

jensa wrote:
Astralp wrote:Not following this one, which host are you using? If I understand correctly, you would have to set the CCs manually as Vortex has no way of knowing what is going on with other plugins. Only CCs are supported, ie Vortex can only modulate plugins which have CC values not VST automation.

I might have misunderstood!
I feel my English skills are in decline with my increasing age, but I'll try to explain again.

Yep, we agree that Vortex can't know what plugin I'm feeding, but I need a way to use "Midi learn" in the plugins, and that is only possible if Vortex could send the CC-message of my choice from Vortex WHEN I WANT TO without a lot of notes, other CC-messages etc interfering. Just as when you do it from a MIDI controller: Enable Midi Learn for a knob/fader in the external FX/Synth, turn the controller knob/fader and hey presto, they're linked. I want it the same way from Vortex since it's really a supercharged "virtual MIDI controller": Enable Midi Learn for a knob/fader in the external FX/Synth -> Click/drag/turn something in Vortex that sends just one of MY choice of CCs (i.e. the CC number of the sequencer I'm editing) to link them. Yay!

soundklinik · Post by **soundklinik** » Sat Mar 10, 2012 8:53 am

Hello, I just tried VORTEX in CHAINER host and I must say WOW. It is really a great VST.
Today I tried to open it in NI's MASCHINE, that plays all VSTs without a problem, except Vortex.

In maschine,(32bit) when I load Vortex, the master Vortex volume immediately slams hard left,=no sound. This happens if I don't even run the clock in maschine. When I run the clock, the volume goes to zero, so no sound and 2 other midi pots go flicking between 0 and 60 (value) rapidly when I play a note!!When I manually drag the volume up, a second later it is back to zero?
Is that some MIDI bug? (Also the 2 jumpy pots are not named, (so I can not tell you which ones they R) all other midi functions are mapped/named automatically in maschine, so it is easy to tell what you tweak.

Sorry, I could not read through all the 29+ pages, but I did read a lot of entries.
I would really like to buy this baby, (for the 70 bucks intro price), but not if it does not work in Maschine, which is in a way my main "DAW".

Does the demo allow recording? I tried to use that, it doesn't seem to work
Has anyone with Maschine try Vortex?

I use W-7 64bit.

Astralp · Post by **Astralp** » Sat Mar 10, 2012 12:51 pm

There were some problems in Maschine early in the beta testing, although I'm still unclear if they are fixed (TJ & Jens?). I'm happy to send you some debug versions to get to the bottom of it though. The Volume responds to CC7 so it seems that something is sending out a message CC7 with the value zero within maschine?

I'm not aware of any unnamed pots, where are they on the GUI? Again if they are jumping around the controller must be sending their corresponding CC Values. You can find a list of CCs that Vortex responds to at the back of the manual (CC Assignments).

Yes recording does work in the demo, if you click on the config file button it should open a text file with the location where the recordings are stored.

jensa · Post by **jensa** » Sat Mar 10, 2012 2:46 pm

Astralp wrote:There were some problems in Maschine early in the beta testing, although I'm still unclear if they are fixed (TJ & Jens?).

I haven't tried it inside Maschine, just tried using it as a controller in Reaper. I'll see if I can do a quick test.

Homegrown Sounds

KVR Audio

Vortex VSTi - Multi Timbral Groove Machine Beta