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  3. General CC workflow advice

  • General CC workflow advice

    W
    W

    Normally I would never ask a question like this because I typically work in a notation software, however I find myself working on a project where the "mock-up" will be the final product.  So in an attempt to make it sound as good as I can I wondered how folks deal with drawing and/or recording CC data. 

    First of all I'm only using the Synchron SE libraries and think those will be adequate, however bringing a MIDI export into Reaper and dealing with that presents quite a learning curve. 

    What I've come up with so far is to delete the CC11 data, turn on CC2, draw in some more realistic sounding curves for CC2 and copy/paste that into a CC11 lane.  From there I just adjust to get a better balance and adjust note lengths and keyswitches along the way for correct articulations. 

    So my first question is my method for achieving balance a sound approach (see what I did there :) ). Right now my process seems pretty random so any tips on going through things more streamlined would be appreciated as well. 
  • C
    C

    That's as valid as anything.

    I usually have more than one controller, ie CC1 or 2 and CC11. In Synchron, if you get into more detailed libaries you'll find a lot of it, CC1 for mod wheel/timbre and layers, or CC2 for it, CC11 as a second volume control under that, CCs ('A' thru 'E' potentially) for crossfading (like going from a light to a heavy vibrato) and for the mixer faders. I generally don't control mixer paradigm with CC at all. Vast majority is penciled in a lane in Cubase. Some things require touch, like pitch bend. I would probably use some breath control today if I had the device.
  • W
    W

    Thank you for the feedback.  Glad to hear I'm on the right track then and from someone who knows what they're doing!!  

    I'll explore some of the other CC's as well.  I didn't notice CC1 was available to me in the SE volumes but thought CC2 changed the timbre.  Anyway ultimately I'm trying to just let my ear guide me and focusing on sound orchestration but I am finding rendering the results as if real players are playing it quite challenging.  

    Thanks again for the feedback.  
  • C
    C

    Yeah, in the VI product line they went with CC2, now Synchron tends to default to CC1 which is probably more popular. I tend much more towards monophonic solo instruments and linear writing so velocity crossfade has historically not been a big thing for me. Used to be we'd have to create a mixer slot for a xfade for differing vibratos, now the vertical dimension is built to do that via CC, saving one step. 
  • W
    W

    Aah ok.  I guess I misunderstood what velocity Fade is then.  I thought that's how you changed timbres of instruments. 
  • C
    C

    For instruments designed to use it it is; the difference which is immediately evident is libraries where velocity doesn't do anything, it's all Velo XF. For something monophonic solo, velocity brings timbral change along with volume. Plus, in highly articulated libraries of VSL, there'll be dynamics samples for that kind of workflow.
  • C
    C

    Polyphonic things like strings may use both. Another immediately apparent sign in the VI interface is the lack of layers, in which case there's no use in it [VeloXF]. OTOH certain of the BBO libraries don't respond to velocity, 1 is same as 127. In these cases I go with modwheel for dynamics/timbral gain, and assign the slot xfade to CC20, if only because it appears in several of my CC lane presets in Cubase as it is.