Articulation control scripts?

I tried making articulations for some Kontakt programs, worked very well for Emotional Cello for exemple. But when I tried to to the same for IK multimedias Modo bass it only works one time. I press play and the keyswitch for hammer on work as expected, next time nothing. Maybe a bug.

 

Play around with the modes...there are several modes related to the input keyswitch.

eric, how do we access that? I tried using the Books application, it still pulls up a not-up-to-date manual. I also tried via the help menu in Logic, same result.

 

The iBooks app on macOS is buggy as hell.

Try deleting the user manual and then re-downloading it form the Store again.

I tried making articulations for some Kontakt programs, worked very well for Emotional Cello for exemple. But when I tried to to the same for IK multimedias Modo bass it only works one time. I press play and the keyswitch for hammer on work as expected, next time nothing. Maybe a bug.

 

Play around with the modes...there are several modes related to the input keyswitch.

 

Tried everything.... Buhuuoououuuoou

I have modobass I will play around with it tonight

eric, how do we access that? I tried using the Books application, it still pulls up a not-up-to-date manual. I also tried via the help menu in Logic, same result.

 

The iBooks app on macOS is buggy as hell.

Try deleting the user manual and then re-downloading it form the Store again.

It seems that the only available version in the store is still for v.10.3...

Thanx for sharing the online userguide!

I like that Apple embedded the Instruments and effects plugin guides into the main user book.

It seems that the only available version in the store is still for v.10.3...

Thanx for sharing the online userguide!

I like that Apple embedded the Instruments and effects plugin guides into the main user book.

 

No, it was updated for 10.4 the 25th:

 

 

It might be a localization issue.

Try changing to the US site to see if it differs from your region.

yep, deleting it and redownloading it in the Books app brings it up to date. Thanks Eric.

Sounds great Dewdman.

 

Play around with the modes...there are several modes related to the input keyswitch.

 

Tried everything.... Buhuuoououuuoou

 

I setup MODOBASS with articulation Set and seems to work ok. Can you please be more specific about what you're doing that doesn't seem to work?

Anyone having any luck with Articulation Sets for Cinematic Strings II?

 

I can get it to work but I don't understand the reason why, if you watch the CSII GUI, after every note it is switching back to the top articulation - in this case Arco.

So even if all notes have a Staccato articulation assigned to them the GUI flicks back to Arco after every one. Can't decide if this is affecting the sound.

Why does this happen? I've asked Alex at Cinematic - he's very helpful but doesn't know at the moment

 

I've tried making an articulation set via Keyswitching and also using an Articulation set for CC where in the advanced setting in CSII I've set keyswitches to respond to midi CC 31.

Both have the same behaviour. See GIF.

 

Incidentally if using CC to change articulations in CSII - using a CC channel and then specific velocities trigger articulations, how do you select Staccato with the Staccatissimo style? When using Keyswitches you apply a different velocity to the Staccato key switch note to trigger either Staccatisssimo or Staccato...so I would have thought they would have their own velocity value but nothing in the manual except staccato.

 

(The articulation set you see in the animated gif is not complete I just did the half the articulations)

For me, the release of 10.4 came as a complete surprise (more like a shock).

Was waiting for a Ski response to the 10.4 Articulation Sets functionally.

I was actually expecting an announcement that you were in on the development and could now

talk about it because the NDA was over!

Should’ve given you a developer stipend!

Oh there's some ARTzID and SkiSwitcher 10.4 Articulation Sets functionality alright!

 

I've got 10.4 Retrofits available. Email me at support =at= skiswitcher =dotcom= and I'll send you some good stuff!

 

That aside, I'll be sending out a newsletter in the coming days, as there's (more) cool stuff in the works.

Anyone having any luck with Articulation Sets for Cinematic Strings II?

 

I can get it to work but I don't understand the reason why, if you watch the CSII GUI, after every note it is switching back to the top articulation - in this case Arco.

So even if all notes have a Staccato articulation assigned to them the GUI flicks back to Arco after every one. Can't decide if this is affecting the sound.

Why does this happen? I've asked Alex at Cinematic - he's very helpful but doesn't know at the moment

 

I've tried making an articulation set via Keyswitching and also using an Articulation set for CC where in the advanced setting in CSII I've set keyswitches to respond to midi CC 31.

Both have the same behaviour. See GIF.

ScreenFlow.gif

 

Incidentally if using CC to change articulations in CSII - using a CC channel and then specific velocities trigger articulations, how do you select Staccato with the Staccatissimo style? When using Keyswitches you apply a different velocity to the Staccato key switch note to trigger either Staccatisssimo or Staccato...so I would have thought they would have their own velocity value but nothing in the manual except staccato.

 

(The articulation set you see in the animated gif is not complete I just did the half the articulations)

Not to sure about your issue, but I think that some Articulation assignment are meant to be momentary while other are toggle type...

In trying to setup my own articulation sets for Kirk Hunter libraries, I have determined the new articulation set feature is inadequate to support it. Mainly because numerous situations with Kirk Hunter libs require a sequence of several keyswitches in order to activate certain articulations. The only thing I am able to do is at least use the articulation set feature to "name" articulation id's, so that its a little easier to work with, but ultimately I have to write my own Scripter script to convert articulation id's into the right sequence of keyswitches. Not that terribly hard and I'm working on it now, but just wanted to report that. I think the new articulation set feature is at least useful to be able to name them, and to provide various controls for assigning them to notes, etc..but at least in my case, the actual key switching support is entirely inadequate.

I have Kirk Hunter issues as well, @Dewdman42. Did you try assigning two articulation items to the same one, in the hope that they would transmit in the right order? If you get something working and would share, I'd love to hear from you. Hopefully you also find a way to attach other symbols to notes, albeit by replacing some of the less useful ones with our own glyphs (and names?) in the resources - wherever they are.

 

I think Ski's ArtzID for 10.4 will easily handle all such cases as the Kirk Hunter two part keyswitch. Before Logic 10.4 made the Articulation ID visible by color in the piano roll, and on the score (even making due with the limited symbols they provide) it was hopeless. All available solutions using MIDI channel or Program Change struck me as kludgey, every one having different gotchas or limitations.

 

The Program Change approach, assuming a PC is "tied" to every single note, has a huge advantage in that it's part of the MIDI standard, unlike Articulation ID which is Logic-only, and MIDI channel, which is already "taken" for many other purposes, beside being limited to 16.

 

Looking at the complexity of the countless tasks that go into making it work, I'm really impressed with Logic as a whole. But I wish Apple didn't play it so close to the vest and engaged more with others to help develop standards.

Yes I just posted my first try at a solution on that other thread for sharing articulation sets. It’s in the patch sharing sub forum, check it out:

 

viewtopic.php?p=695867&sid=750a250932ba1ae01332750262326793#p695679

Edited February 17, 2018 by Dewdman42

Indeed, both SkiSwitcher & ARTzID handle two-part (split) keyswitches. And for those aspects of Kirk's patches which require simultaneous keyswitch notes to be sent, my Capsule Script can be used for that. (Of course it doesn't matter that they're not Capsule patches. It's the MIDI 'action' that counts). Articulation Sets do not support that kind of thing.

Kirk hunter TVEC has a lot of situations that only work with articulation id if you have up to four keyswitches sent in a sequence for some articulations. It definitely requires scripter support of some kind the LPX feature is not adequate alone. The articulation set is good for names and GUI access in lpx. I shared a script on that other thread that handles KH TVEC strings along with a matching articulation set. after I get more feedback I will also do KH brass and other stuff. I haven’t checked out the artzid updates yet to see if it could be used instead of my handwritten script but I will eventually. For kh strings I came up with 89 articulations that are basically all the various combinations but that is not including smart legato which can be handled without keyswitches, mutes, which can be handled with automation.

When it gets into the # of permutations you're talking about with KH, a specialty script is definitely the way to go. Edited February 17, 2018 by ski

In the process of figuring it out, I came up with some of the following things which make the new articulation set feature a bit too limiting. Maybe in the future we will see some enhancements that make it more useful, but in my mind its mainly only useful for very simple keyswitch scenarios. The main limitations are related to the keyswitch handling.

 

First the good useful bits:

 

1. Names for articulation id's. Definitely very useful and a very welcome addition to LPX 10.4!
   
2. Various ways in the LPX gui to set and view articulation id's to notes, by name or directly by number (ie, colorized notes, right click on notes to set, use the note inspector to view or set, event list, and the smart control for input key switches can also be used.
   
3. Input key switch definitions, can be different then output key switches.

 

Now the not so good news:

 

1. There are numerous situations where more complex output keyswitches are needed. For example, with KH strings, I found 89 different articulations, and Kirk's keyswitch design actually makes more sense since he has more like one octave of key switches which are used in combinations together to select one of the 89 different actual articulations to play. Its not practical to have 89 separate keyswitches to select each of those articulation possibilities. Other libraries may have other unique keyswitch approaches which the LPX Articulation Set feature simply does not support directly. Some simpler libraries like the ones shipped with LPX, or GPO, for example, will work fine with the existing limitations.
   
2. I think I noticed that LPX sends the keyswitch to the instrument and does not send the corresponding note-off until the next articulation id or new keyswitch is about to be sent. I'm not sure if that is an option to turn on or off, but I'm not sure that is always desired to hold the keyswitch done until the next one comes.
   
3. The input keyswitch mechanism is very simple, it makes sense in some way to have one incoming keyswitch for each available articulation. But on the other hand its not practical to have 89 different input keyswitches, for example, for the KH Strings set I did. The way Kirk designed his keyswitches actually makes more sense, where a combination of keyswitches produce a permutated resulting articulation. Perhaps if a note could have more than one articulation id assigned to it, then a 1:1 relationship of input keyswitch to articulation id would make sense, but with many libraries you use various key switches in combination to produce a resulting articulation. What would be more useful would be if we could detect combinations of keyswitches and assign those combinations to articulation id, in order to handle more complex scenarios such as KH Strings, Modobass and many others.
   
4. As has been noted on other threads, the LPX feature to add articulation symbols to the score is a nice idea but hardly sufficient in its current form. I think it will only be useful in the most simple situations.
   
5. The articulation set doesn’t chase channelized cc’s pitchbend and aftertouch across channels properly
   
6. There are some bugs where events without articulation id assigned will have the output keyswitch for the first defined articulation get sent out. On top of that, while you are recording a track if you don’t use input keyswitches then the first defined articulation id, (or whatever is selected in the inst plugin window articulation control), gets defaulted to every event, if an articulation set is active. End result is some screwball behavior.

 

Anyway that's what I'm coming up with right now. All in all I think the new feature is great for simple libraries such as GPO or the ones built into LPX with a few articulations. More sophisticated libraries will require more elaborate scripting in order to take advantage of articulation id's. Its the actual keyswitch handling that is just kind of limited. On the other hand, the ability to name Articulation ID's and the GUI access to do so is a very welcome update to LPX.

Edited March 29, 2018 by Dewdman42

Didn't know that Logic re-sends the articulation keyswitch (etc) every time. How did you verify this?

 

(I assume that if you use MIDI channels as a means of specifying articulation this wouldn't be a problem.)

Just add some logging in a Scripter Script and you can see it all play out.. I didn't spend too much time analyzing that, so its just an initial impression.

 

If no actual keyswitches need to be sent, then obviously there is nothing redundant to worry about. Channelizing notes based on articulation id is an easy task and there is no extra midi event like a keyswitch that could be redundantly sent.

I take that back, I just tried it again and the key switch was not redundant...but it doesn't send a note off until right before the next keyswitch is sent...

I take that back, I just tried it again and the key switch was not redundant...but it doesn't send a note off until right before the next keyswitch is sent...

That may have something to do with how the articulation is programmed in the “articulation set”. It can be programmed with “Permanent”, “Momentary” or “Toggle” response to MIDI input (like note on/off events). I’m betting that the ones programmed to “permanent” send the note-off command when the next articulation is selected.

No those parameters you are referring to are related to the input keyswitches, not the output ones

I was trying with KH spotlight solo strings, and assigned a toggle for portamento, and assigned it to a fall symbol so it looks like a slur on the score. It seemed to retain the previously selected base articulation, so it worked like the way it would with an actual key switch. If that's the case you wouldn't need 89 combinations?

The way it works is that the input keyswitches are used while you play stuff on your keyboard. All incoming midi that is recorded to a track, MUST have an articulation id assigned to it when an articulation set is active. A value greater then or equal to 1. So you use the input keyswitches to specify on the fly which Artid will be assigned to all incoming midi you are playing. If you don’t use any input keyswitch, then LPX will default them to the id of the first defined articulation in the articulation set, or actually the inst plugin window on that track will have an articulation control and whatever that is set to will be the default art id encoded to every event like it or not. There is no way to disable it other then disabling the articulation set while you record the parts . The various modes you mentioned refer to the way the input keyswitch behaves with regards to the above process. This has NOTHING to do with the playback later. Yes the input keyswitches could pass through and overlap as you describe but each recorded note only had one articulation id assigned to it.

 

So then the middle pane has the actual articulation names for each id, the score symbol and a midi channel that can be used to channelize each articulation during playback.

 

The third pane is where you specify the keyswitch to send during playback for each articulation. It does not have to match the input keyswitch and notice there is no option to configure the various modes you mentioned, not multiple keyswitches.

 

I setup something for kh tvec strings but I had to write my own script to send the output keyswitches instead of using that third pane, because I needed multiple overlapping keyswitches attached to a single articulation id embedded in each note. I ended up with 89 articulations but later reduced it to around 30 by using mod wheel to choose the accent level to use.

 

I needed to have an articulation set with up to four keyswitches each. I shared that setup over on the patches subforum, but I haven’t gotten around to doing spotlight strings yet. I’m working on a more general purpose solution that I plan to share when done but it’s going to take a while. Pm for early access or I can try to help you hack together spotlight strings

Edited March 29, 2018 by Dewdman42

I can see how the input keyswitches would work like kh originally intended as you play your keyboard, multiple overlapping keyswitches would be in effect. But each midi event on the track will only have one articulation id and one outgoing keyswitch in that third pane.

Every duck has his day. Or something. Babylon Waves' Art Conductor now offers a ready-made set of 1000 template Logic Articulation Sets for 68 different Libraries, for 37 Euros. Sadly KH is not (yet?) among them.

 

Whoa. I'm trying out this offering with some Spitfire libraries and so far nothing matches the (very) promising claims of a universal layout starting at C-2.

 

 

I won't post the mapping I'm staring at in disbelief that uses UACC KS on the outs,

but on the inputs manages to scatter 16 articulations over a whole 2 octaves, with no

sign of a "unique universal keyswitches systems".

 

I've contacted the vendor, we'll see.

Another issue with Articulation Set system is that while it recognizes input keyswitches in various modes such as permanent, toggle, momentary the output switches are singular and do not work very well with actual instruments that use toggles and momentary switches.

 

The KH Spotlight Strings is a case in point. The Staccato keyswitch is a toggle. You hit it once to turn on staccato versions of everything and hit it again to turn it off. This is very different from the articulation keyswitches that are mutually exclusive. Whichever one you turn on, automatically turns off the previous one. With staccato you have to remember to turn it off when you're done using it.

 

The other "playing style" switches for slide, slur, portamento and jamaboree are momentary switches...again, not supported by the output section of articulation sets. You turn it on and it only stays on for one note.

 

I think the articulation set feature is going to need some improvement in order to be able to handle some of the more elaborate keyswitching instruments...bottom line.

 

Anyway, Fernand, please try the attached articulation set and Scripter script I made for KH Spotlight and let me know how it works. It sorta works but I'm still having some troubles with the staccato toggle switch.. would appreciate your feedback.

 

KH-Spotlight.zip