Orchestral libraries - articulations

[DanielBeach]

Posting in here as using Logic....

Hi All!

I'm starting to really get into the nitty-gritty of using orchestral libraries and programming with them. It's a weird one in a way for somebody used to playing in orchestras live, as I know what I want to hear but can't always achieve it!

I'm using EastWest for now as their subscription model is affordable, compared to buying a full library from anywhere, for now.

My question is about switching articulations. Obviously, there's a keyswitch patch for all instruments, but that generally only contains three or four of the articulations which are available for that instrument in that library - generally the articulations are set as different instruments.

So, what's the best way to deal with constant articulation changes if they're not available on keyswitch?

Do I set up several incidences of Opus, on different tracks, putting the MIDI on whichever track is necessary for each individual note or phrase, and then maybe Stack Track them? Or is there another more clever and easy workflow which I haven't been able to think off??

Many thanks,

Daniel

[RichardT]

I don’t know Logic, but in a DAW, that kind of approach is probably necessary.

Another approach might be to use a single track and change the midi channel of particular notes that you want routed to particular articulations, and load all the articulations into one instance of Opus, responding to different midi channels.

My experience of doing this kind of thing in Cubase is that getting good results, with appropriate micro dynamics and phrasing, is extremely time consuming. The raw samples, even legato patches, don’t sound like a human is playing them because they are not adjusted to what’s needed at a particular point in each phrase. I had to adjust velocities, lengths, timing, and multiple CCs by hand to get a better result.

I’m not sure if you are producing mock-ups or material for release, but when it comes to mock-ups I’ve abandoned using Cubase and moved to Dorico and Noteperformer, using Noteperformer to drive sample libraries from EW and Spitfire.

Essentially, I write the score in Dorico, with playing techniques (arco, pizz.), slurs, dynamics and note articulations (staccato, tenuto, marcato etc) marked as you would expect.

Noteperformer interprets all these elements, analyses the phrase structure, and calculates all the dynamic and timing adjustments and the right sample library patch to use for each note. It then calculates the midi and passes it into the sample library. You don’t need to load all the different patches for an instrument, it does that automatically behind the scenes.

It’s not perfect, but it’s very good, and I only rarely need to manually adjust any dynamics by hand. The time saving is absolutely vast.

[Bob Bickerton]

I use mainly Spitfire libraries in Logic but tend to have fairly simple articulation requirements for the music I write.

You can create articulation sets in Logic, this video might give you some insights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXa4h6PDCuM but in actual fact, I haven't used it much as I tend to just set up a different track for each articulation.

I do like the sound of Richard's solution!

Bob

[The Elf]

Having done this stuff for many years, I typically just record passes of each articulation and cross-fade between them.

In the past I've found articulation switching is at best a faff, and at worst it just doesn't work properly.

[Moroccomoose]

I'm not really a composer much of any sort, nor am I in any way qualified to comment on the realism of a nuanced virtual instrument performance but.... I do enjoy getting into the nitty gritty of setting templates up and exploring the technical features of a DAW.

I spent some time setting up the cubase 'articulations' feature. You can set it up to use keyswitches or midi messages cc or sysex or some combination of all.
Once set up, it can read the articulations directly from Dorico. Within cubase, composing with articulations is similar to comping a track, only instead of choosing portions of audio takes, you simply switch which articulation track you want to follow for that time portion.

It is a faf to set up, and time consuming, especially if you need to set up a full orchestras worth of articulations. A lot of cut, paste and modify comes into play! But once its done, it's done.

I set my orchestration template for my E-MU proteus virtuoso, the Spitfire BBC SO Discovery and the Halion basic orchestration sounds. I can switch or blend between sample sets, and they all follow the same articulation switches.

I know I won't be dealing with the same number of articulation choices as a serious composer, but I think the feature is pretty scaleable.

The other method I've seen is templates having a separate track for each articulation, but for me, this makes the most unwieldy template.

There is an extension plugin for reaper which attempts to do a similar thing, but I didn't find its implementation a patch on the cubase feature, it felt very much like a beta feature.