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  4. Harp glissandi in Digital Performer

  • Harp glissandi in Digital Performer

    G
    G

    I am in Amajor. I want to do some 1 octave Harp glissandi on C#m and F#m, so I set the gliss minor medium matrices which contains both C# and F#, set the control change to the right number, and when I playback I see the correct keys being depressed on the keyboard at the bottom of the VI player, but no sound ?  But playsback ok when note is moved to adjacent C or D naturals.


    I notice the manual says on p12 :


    "Glissandos slow, medium, and fast.
    Major, minor, diminished, pentatonic, and whole tone The Patches are mapped to white keys"

    Obviously not the two sharp keys I want to use.


    So what am I missing ?
    I am guessing something to do with harp pedalling mechanisms ?
  • G
    G

    Specifically, given that there is a C#patch, how is it triggered if only white notes are mapped to the patches ?
  • G
    G

    Some of my confusion is that the harp does not seemed to be organised like my  others VSL VIs.

    For example, in my strings, the note in my DP sequence determines the pitch and the CC value determines the articulation in the matrix, typically for changes like from Pizz to legato etc.   So here pitch and articulation are under separate controls.

    But in the harp, the patch name is also the pitch name, so I am struggling with what exactly is their relationship to the playback ?  Are they one-to-one - seemingly not, since only white keys are mapped, so what is the relationship between the pitch note in my DP sequence, and the patch played back in my Harp VI ?
  • G
    G

    I can report some progress through simple trial and error learning

    Thus far in VSL, using strings and winds, I have always used MIDI CC to change the articulation and the note in the sequencer to get the note, but this does not work in the Harp.

    So I tried it with the Key Switches from C1 and it worked - I got the patches to play back.

    I must say the manual is misleading where it says :

    “Mapping:
    C3–D4: 1 octave glissandos, in various ranges (p and f for C and B, mf for other scales) F4–A4: 3 octave (p/f)
C5: 5 octave (p/f)
D5: single cross-glissando (p/f)
    E5: multiple cross-glissando (p/f)”

    But what actually seems to be the case is that the C3-D4, C5, D5, E5 give the different patches for various ranges and dynamics for the pitch chosen by the key switch.

    The manual also says

    “The Preset information lists the Matrices used in the Preset as well as its keyswitches. All other information can be gathered from the Matrix and Patch listings, so there’s not really much to say here. Please note that the Matrices of a Preset can also be switched with MIDI Program Changes (VI: 101–112; VI PRO: 1–127) instead of keyboard notes, and if you like to keep your keyboard free for playing instead of switching, you can disable Preset keyswitching and only use MIDI Program Changes. Vienna Instruments PRO also allows you to define a MIDI Control for Preset keyswitching. “

    This too is not at all clear.

    Note that what VSL call program changes - matrix switching - DP call patch changes.

    Next I tried to use MIDI program changes instead of key switches and that worked, but not quite as described in the manual.

    01 HA1_7gl_sl-C-mi was loaded In the Matrix Control.

    X axis was set to CC0

    In the DP MIDI event list I selected Patch Change, which brought up this input field :

    squares-hash-n-diamond-n-n.

    If the second n matched the CC0 values in the Matrix Control, the glass was executed.

    Hallelujah.

    (What are the 1st and 3rd ns for ?)

    So I can now get to execute the chosen patch.

    I see a row of patch names C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B.  So I am expecting something chromatic, but it doesn’t sound like that.  Am I unconsciously expecting arpeggios ? 

    Is it that the patch names are of the start note of the gliss, whilst the notes included in the glass are just different depending on the  start note because of the complexities of harp tuning ?
  • andiA
    VSL Team
    andiA

    Hello Gone To Lunch!

    The patch names of the harp glissandos indicate the key signature and not the start note. The start notes depend on the keys you trigger, but are not diatonic.

    The glissandos of the different key signatures are always mapped to the white keys, because the harp player always played the same strings, just with different pedal positions. This way these glissandos are in different key signatures. There are no strings for black and white keys. The pitch always depends on the pedal positions.

    I hope this makes things a bit clearer for you.

    Best regards,
    Andi

    Vienna Symphonic Library