Timing of notes in VSL

[orijames]

[[;)]] I am am using Opus 1 and Solo strings, both of which are great. I use them with Digital Performer. I've spent the past few months getting this all to work, and have gotten to the point where I can now experiment with different combinations of instruments.
I am having a problem with the timing of the notes as I play them from my keyboard. To be clearer: for practice, I am trying to orchestrate the slow movement of one of the Beethoven piano sonatas (Op.2 #1). The first full measure begins with a quarter note, followed by a turn, folowed by a grace note which precedes four eighth notes. The turn is executed as follows: a dotted eighth note followed by four 64th notes.
It is there that I begin to have problems. I am giving this passage to the violin ensemble, and I can't seem to get it to come out with the timing sounding right. It sounds sluggish, if not just out of tempo. I imagine that is because I can't play the notes quickly enough from my keyboard. I have tried to play the passage using the Ivory piano program, and then assigning those notes to the VSL violin track, but what results is not entirely satisfactory, as it lacks the string articulation. I have this problem with clarity of articulation when I use the strings or woodwinds or brass as legato instruments (but not with pizzicato or staccato) . It seems that there is a slight but noticeable delay between the time I touch the key and the time it's fully depressed. Has anyone else encounterd this situation, and how do you handle this? I hope I have explained myself clearly enough. Any help would be much appreciated. Thx, OJ

[gugliel]

One of those cases, perhaps, where you must use rhetoric: ensure that what you play SOUNDS right even if it is strictly not accurate. For the group of 64th notes, for instance, divide into two tracks, put half of the fast notes in one track and half in the other, in an editor slide the nominal beginning of the note forward until the sound starts at the right time, and allow the note length to be long enough so that the sound can develop adequately, even if that results in an apparent overlap.

You also must choose an articulation with a fast enough attack, or edit your own for this purpose, even when using this strategy -- it simply won't work if the attack length is longer than the desired note length.

[mpower88]

Did you try holding down the repetition note for the legato strings? I think it's D1 or D0 when you do that it removes the attack of the string which can be slow. In other words you're playing the notes correctly but the attack is slow as it's the start of a note. The other way to do it is to load a separate instrument for the 64th notes and play those with a repetition instrument. Usually I find that playing notes with something like ivory piano works well and then just copy the part to the track you want. in the above case just do the same thing, copy the 64th notes (since they are as you played them) to the second track with the repeition instrument loaded, and mute or delete those very notes from the legato track. If you load the identical instrument styling it should sound the same and as though it were playing in the same "moment". Also, you should remember that you will then need to add some track delay to the repetition track until it feels right. You can get an indication of what it should be from looking at the performance tool you will see a delay indicator with a slider there, if the delay or latency is 48ms then set your delay for the track or part to -48ms (that's how you do it in Logic probably something similar in DP). However, having say that I often find that you need to add more delay than that to get the right feel - the way it was played, sometimes twice as much so you may need to give more more negative delay say up to -100 or more. Sounds complicated but once you try it out it's simple enough.

Cheers,
Miklos.