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  3. Legato Settings Questions

  • Legato Settings Questions

    C
    C
    I have just begun using the Legato Tool - and loving it.

    Q1. Does it make any difference, to the sound, how overlapped adjacent midi notes are? I can;t seem to hear a difference after casual listening but thought I would check. Does the tool simply disregard the Note Off command when another note on the same channel precedes and overlaps it?

    Q2. Per the Legato Threshold and Release Times, the manual says "Threshold lengthens the pitch." Which pitch is being lengthened? Does this delay the enterance of the next note? Does it lengthen the sime between notes? What is the aural effect of these parameters? Why should the threshold and time always be set identically as the manual states? If this is always true why not simply have one parameter instead of two?

    Thanks,

    Craig Duke
  • H
    H
    The performance legato mode is monophone, that means in the moment you press a new key, the previous one gets a note off.

    The legato treshold slider forces the tool to stay in legato mode even if you make short breaks between the notes.

    If you make generally short breaks it's better to set legato treshold and release time to the same value, because here you get right legato transitions.
    The release time value is a simply note off offset.

    This settings should simply help non keyboardplayers (like me) to perform easier with the legato tool on a keyboard.

    best wishes
    Herb
  • C
    C
    Just to make certain I understand, these parameters do not effect the inter-note (legato) sound but rather compensate for non-overlapping notes (possibly a result of keyboard technique). Is that right? I was just wondering if these parameters are a means to alter the legato sound (assuming all notes do overlap) in some way. Thanks.
  • T
    T
    I have to confess that I am also confused by the legato tool. It seems that the amount of note overlap DOES matter. For example if note A overlaps note B by 4 ticks as opposed to 20 ticks... there is a difference in timbre.

    Also, the legato effect doesn't appear to be consistant. Sometimes I hear it, and sometimes I don't (please note that this is after I have recorded my line not while playing the keyboard). Does that make sense?

    Any further pointers as to the correct use of this great tool would be very much appreciated.

    Thanks in advance!
  • H
    H
    If you are not sure, if the legato tool remains in the legato mode,
    maybe this little trick could help:

    If you play for example a scale upwards, hold the first key you are playing during the whole passage. It's a similiar effect, if you press the sustain pedal.
    Here you could make longer breaks between the keys, and the tool should stay in legato mode.


    My experience is, if you play very fast movements, you could loose the legato mode between two notes, this effect is most transparent if the starting note has a typical attack, or is very slow.

    A higher value of the legato treshhold should help, but it seems that there could be conflicts if the treshold length is overlapping over more than two notes.

    Generally I prefer a shorter legato treshhold, because you have a better controll, where a phrase starts with a new attack, or wher you want to stay in legato mode.

    The playing tempo is generally an important issue. Especially for the strings. Very fast tempos should work without a problem, because the note length of each note is so short, that it could not develop to the full level.
    If you slow down the tempo in the sequenzer step by step, you will hear that some notes could rise up in volume a little slower. If you slow down the tempo more, this effect mostly disappears, because the "slower" notes have enough time. This effect is absolut natural, because the musicains, played the intervalls in a certain tempo.
    (That's why the Pro edition will offer also "perf-leg_grace" instruments for the strings)

    That means, in a certain tempo, the legato mode could be less effective.

    A fast solution (if you don't want to adjust velocities in an editor), is to layer it with a "0sus" file. (a suggestion especially for the strings).

    If you setup the balance right, you won't loose the effect of the legato playing, and you get a very balanced level out of the box.
    My experience, that there shouldn't be any phasing problems.

    One thing is important if you use technique:
    The "0sus" instruments are multi velovity instruments (except the "0espressivo"), and the legato mode has only one velocity.
    So you should stay in the right velocity level of the "0sus" instrument.

    best wishes
    Herb