Articulations and speed

[PaoloT]

Hi, I would like to add some degree of automation in the way a sample player selects an articulation when playing at a certain speed. For example, if you have the needed articulation I find it natural to choose the following pairs (respectively for slow and fast playing): - staccato, spiccato - normal legato, fast legato - détaché long, détaché short - portamento slow, portamento fast What about with the ordinary sustain? When playing fast, would the normal sustain be replaced by short détaché, staccato, or on the contrary fast legato? I would say staccato, or any degree of non-legato between short-détaché and staccato. Legato seems to be a different state of mind, asking for a different set of articulations (the legato pair/combo). What do you do in this case? Paolo

[Cyril Blanc]

What DAW are you using ?

[jasensmith]

Are talking a standard library or full?

One of the Special Editions?

I haven't used the speed matrices in years but I would do Performance Legato with Sustain.

Also, I would couple Performance Trill with Fast Legato. 

But this assumes that  you have the full libraries.

[PaoloT]

Hi,

Thank you for your answers. I'm using the full libraries with both Logic and Dorico.

Using Speed control seems very interesting. You can simply focus on the basic articulation (say, sustain, staccato or legato), and let the Vienna Instrument player choose the correct articulation for that playing speed, without having to add manual controls for this.

In the end, I think it is not a good idea to let playing speed select a shorter articulation instead of a long sustaining one. Assigning a shorter duration to higher speeds means risking to end a phrase on a short, non-sustaining note.

An alternative I could find among the VSL articulations is the Fast Attack (fA) Sustain. This type of articulation lasts as a normal sustain, but has a faster attack, much better suited to higher playing speeds. I found it suggested as "optimized for legato", but it works great on non-legato, high-speed sustains.

The fA articulations don't sound exaclty the same as the ordinary sustain ones, but this slight variation should add to variety and vivacity of the phrase, making it sound more real.

Paolo

[Cyril Blanc]

The trial I made a few year ago with Speed Control was not conclusive/relayable because VSL does not know in advance what will be the length of the note

The problem is Midi, the protocole says :

Play A2 at xx velocity ......... and later.......... stop A2

 

It will be great if VSL found a solution since ?

Another solution is that Articulation Switching could be used in the Transformer of the Environnement

Apple has to make this modification in Logic, Steinberg in Dorico

Best

 

Cyril

[PaoloT]

I guess speed detection is happening on the last note length. So, the articulation selected according to speed seems to be the following one. This is the reason why I can't mix long and short articulations in the same column controlled by speed.

In any case, where speed can be a valuable controller (like for switching between legato slow and fast, and sustain normal and fA), I find it is working reasonably well.

Paolo