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I always thought PrgCh messages are better suited for traditional keyswitches because they change the Program in some kind of way, don't mess up musical notes in the Editor and don't cause problem in MIDI Chase Mode when you start in the middle of the cue and want to make sure that the most recent keyswitch message is sent.
But how do you use Program Change to control the H-Span in a VI Matrix? I could use the Transformer Object to to change Specific Note message into PrCh messages. But as far as I know, the VI doesn't respond to PrCh messages.
Too bad VSL gave you the cold shoulder. In my opinion, the user interface experience is still the weakest part of the overall VSL experience. At the end it doesn't matter how big or how good he sounds are, if it is too complicated or complex to work with them, then the whole package looses its appeal.
I have can't figure out how your solution with the program change message in Logic work. I can use the transformer in the Environment to to modify the incoming MIDI messages from the external MIDI keyboard/controller before they hit the sequencer Track. So if you send PrCh and convert them to MIDI notes then the Editor still display MIDI notes and not PrCh messages. Can you explain in more details how your setup works or maybe post your Environment file.
Thanks
Hello Edgar,
I am struggling with a controller/keyswitch-setup that meets my need for flow, and what you wrote
"I change the Key Switch assignment and apply my Controller Assignment and save it as a Custom Preset.
gave me important information and inspiration. Thank you.
I am missing clarity in one point:
Would you be willing to post how you setup Logic's score-window(s), that the keyswitch-notes don't show up?
Sebastian
@Sebastian said:
I am missing clarity in one point:
Would you be willing to post how you setup Logic's score-window(s), that the keyswitch-notes don't show up?
It is very simple.
In the score editor, go to "Local Menu> Layout>Staff Styles". This will open a window where you can edit the appearance of all the individual staffs. Select the staff style in the left upper popup menu. Right underneath you can see the line "Higher Note" and "Lower Note" which will limit the displayed note range for that staff style. Just click drag on the note next to it to set the limit.
In my case, I set the Lower Note limit to C#0 so all the Keyswitch notes that I'm using in the range of C-2 to C0 won't show up in the score editor.
By the way this is another advantage of of my universal keyswtich range that I forgot to mention. You have to make that setting for the staff styles only once because you always use the same keyswitch range in your Matrix. Right now with the original keyswitch range being different on different VI Matrices, you have to constantly change the staff style settings to eliminate those "extreme" notes that mess up your score appearance.
If I would have betatest the VI for VSL, this "keyswitch all over the place" issue would be the first complaint I would have sent back. I know that there are a lot of factors that force a developer to make compromises (multiple computer/DAW platforms etc), but at some point too many compromises add up to an unsatisfying user experience at the end. That is where I am right now with the VI plug-in.
Here is a link to the LogicProHelp Forum where I discuss that issue and made some suggestions on how to solve it on the DAW level. The original Performance Tool for the VSL sound library was a nightmare (some of you might still remember) and the VI plug-in is a major improvement but there are still too many steps that forces the user to deal with the messy controls situation and less time on actually making music.
http://logicprohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=30890&sid=ca65f2ee50f4c1b1ef7cfd2a3a4411c8
2) Separate Controller Keyboard
So step one is to use the same assignments for all the Presets I use. This is not a problem for the controller but more for the Keyswitches. To make sure that the keyswitches are not overlapping with musical keys of the actual instruments, I use the two lowest octaves in the MIDI specs C-2 to B-1. Most 88-key keyboards don't have those keys so I got a 2 octave M-Audio KeyRig Keyboard that can be easily placed on top of your master keyboard.
Thanks for this, I'm very keen to hear about other people's working methods and this is one I'm graduating towards, though don't need the separate keyboard as most of my work is sequenced rather than played from a keyboard.
I originally preferred cc data for switching patches horizontally within a matrix, but the problem is that as you add a new patch and the matrix expands, the range of cc for each cell changes which can mess up any switches you put in previously. I got round this by always having 12 horizontal cells, evn though some were empty. This works OK, but I now find it more elegant to use keyswitches, as each time you add a cell it does not affect the KS assignments you already have.
However I hate (I really hate) key switches in Locic score even when you can hide them, and/orand CC events in the event list as you just see numbers that don't tell you what they do in Vienna. I now like to either use program change events, text events or Score symbols (trills etc) (All transformed to note keyswitches C-2 to C-1 in VI) . This is great because the program change events can be named to go with the articulation so it is very clear in the event list what the switches are. Text events are a little more complex as you need to change the 2nd data byte which affects the positioning, but nothing you can't realign. And it's very cool to have a trill symbol switching to a trill articulation.
I'm happy to share the transformers I've developed to do this if anyone is interested (along with the custom Vienna performace environments I've already uploaded here)
