Sending velocity

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jimhanks
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Sending velocity

Post by jimhanks »

"Note on" events should include velocity value, not just 100 for all notes. There's a good discussion going on over here on this:
http://www.patchmanmusic.com/forum/view ... 382#p33382
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admin
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Re: Sending velocity

Post by admin »

Thanks Jim! I realized this week when playing with some patches that it will be necessary to adjust velocity-- I didn't realize how often wind patches use it for things other than volume. Having it at 127 does some crazy things with some of them ;) I'm waiting to be accepted to the Patchman forum, but I'll take a look at that. I'll add both velocity and the semitone shift to the next version of the software (hopefully a beta soon).

I assume the default velocity should be 64, is that correct? Then I'll have an input for each "instrument" in the Config Tool so you can change it from the default.
Andrew Mowry
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jimhanks
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Re: Sending velocity

Post by jimhanks »

That’s a good question how it should be implemented for WARBL. For the instruments that aren’t using expression, I suppose a fixed value makes sense. If expression is being sent as a CC value, it seems that the velocity should be the same as that initial CC value. I suppose you could do that for all instruments but they don’t have the scaling parameters currently.

Now maybe Matt (Patchman) has more details on how this “ought” to be implemented. But seems that’s just scaling off the pressure sensor would be a good start.
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Re: Sending velocity

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Okay, thanks. I wasn't sure how useful velocity was for wind players because it can only be sent once, at the beginning of the note, but I see that it would make sense to include and I'll think about the best way to implement this. For starters I'll add the ability to change the overall velocity (which is now at 127), but I guess it also needs to be added as an option in the expression panel.
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jimhanks
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Re: Sending velocity

Post by jimhanks »

Yeah, the "sent once" is exactly the point. The synth can use the velocity to control the attack portion of the note, e.g. more chiff with higher velocity, and then use the CC2 for the sustain portion of the note.
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Re: Sending velocity

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Ah, okay, I got it. I guess you would need to be able to map the pressure to velocity similar to how you can do it now with CC, correct? Would it work to use the same mapping, or would you need another set of sliders etc. so you can control mapping separately for CC and velocity?
Andrew Mowry
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jimhanks
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Re: Sending velocity

Post by jimhanks »

I think it would work fine to use the same mapping.
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Re: Sending velocity

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Ok, that would be easy enough to do then—just a switch to send velocity.
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Re: Sending velocity

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I've added a 1.5 Beta version of the software to GitHub: https://github.com/amowry/warbl

Jim, I know you've updated the software before, but for others, the instructions are in the user manual, but just let me know if you have any questions. There are now methods for both Mac and PC (the Mac method is a little more complicated).

When you connect to the Configuration Tool after installing this version, some new controls will appear:

- There's a switch in the Expression panel for mapping pressure to velocity. It works in a rudimentary way, but it needs some work. I think what we will need is to use a combination of instantaneous pressure and rate of change of pressure, because neither by itself seems sufficient. If you use instantaneous pressure, when you go from silence to triggering a note, the pressure when you trigger the note is always the threshold note-on pressure (naturally). That means that even if you blow hard to trigger the note, the instantaneous pressure is always the same, and therefore velocity is the same. However, if you're moving from one note to the next, instantaneous pressure works well. The alternative is to use the rate of change of pressure, but the problem I see with that is that if you're already blowing hard but not increasing the pressure, the velocity would be set low. Maybe that's what is desired for wind patches? I'm not sure. The other problem with using rate of change is that you probably have to introduce some amount of delay if you wait for the pressure to stabilize before triggering the note. That might be okay with sounds like sax that have a very slow attack, but for something like whistle, I think it's best to keep the response as fast as possible (it currently responds to pressure changes in less than 2 mS). We can play with all this and research our options. I also have changed the default velocity to 64 instead of 127 (that was a poor choice on my part ;)).

- There are now semitone shift up/semitone shift down options added to the button configuration options.

- Also, both the octave shift and semitone shift button actions can now be set to "momentary" (just turn on the momentary switch for that button). I'm excited about this, as it adds the ability for any button to be used as an accidental key (semitone shift) or a momentary octave shift key, making any fingering pattern chromatic and extending the effective range to 4 octaves, including overblowing.
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jimhanks
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Re: Sending velocity

Post by jimhanks »

Awesome! 8-) I have a busy weekend ahead, but I'll definitely be trying out these new things as soon as I can.
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