Breath-based Vibrato

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jv6886
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Joined: Thu Jun 17, 2021 2:40 pm

Breath-based Vibrato

Post by jv6886 »

I'm wondering what is the best way to configure the WARBL to be able to accommodate breath-based vibrato?

I'm a WARBL (and MIDI) newbie, but according to my understanding at this point, this has to do with velocity. I have experimented with settings around this and had some limited success, but am mostly having difficulty with finding the balance between using velocity for vibrato and also for moving into the higher registers.

Any help or advice regarding this would be very much appreciated.
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admin
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Re: Breath-based Vibrato

Post by admin »

Velocity actually only controls the volume at the start of each note, so for vibrato you would instead want to use a MIDI CC message. That will be sent repeatedly while you are playing the note, instead of just at the start of the note as with velocity, so it can continuously change the volume. Most MIDI apps/synths etc. like Celtic Sounds will respond to CC 7 to control volume, so you could try a setup like in the attached screenshot below (this is firmware v. 2.0-- the interface is slightly different if you have any earlier firmware version installed). Many more advanced apps/synths will also respond to CC 2 for breath expression, adjusting volume but possibly other parameters like like pitch, "growl", breath noise, etc.

It is a bit tricky if you're also using overblowing to control the register. You can see in the screenshot that I've limited the input pressure range, which will help some, but you'll want to experiment with both sliders, likely limiting the output range as well. It's normal for acoustic instruments to have higher volume in the upper register, so to some extent it will sound natural to combine overblowing with breath control, but you'll have to compromise in terms of how much you control the volume. Of course the other option would be to use your thumb to control the register instead.

One other thing you might experiment with is turning on the "Pitch Expression" switch. That will vary the pitch of the note instead (or in addition) to volume. Breath vibrato on an acoustic instrument is really a combination of the two, so this should work quite well. Additionally, I designed the pitch expression to take overblowing into account, so it works well regardless of which register you're in.

CC-7.jpg
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Andrew Mowry
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jv6886
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Joined: Thu Jun 17, 2021 2:40 pm

Re: Breath-based Vibrato

Post by jv6886 »

Thanks so much. I am looking forward to trying this out this weekend.
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