Seeking Smooth Response from Articulation Smart Control

[Plowman]

Logic can hold 256 articulation ID's per articulation set.

A Smart Control dial can only output 127 values. If you assign a Smart Control dial to non-automatable > Articulation, it stutters and ultimately stops at 127. 

Is there anyway to use a Smart Control or external MIDI controller to dial up to 256 articulations? 

[Atlas007]

I wonder if using the pitchbend as the input?

[Plowman]

I thought about that too, but I didn't proof it with an actual pitch bend wheel (ironically, it's being serviced as I write this). 

Those fine gradations in Pitch Bend have always been obscure to me. But I did observe this: if you create a fader in Environment to send Pitch Bend, it sends the same 0 to 128 events as every other CC. 

[Atlas007]

I think that Logic’s Environment should equipped with a new special fader issuing finer/wider resolution data such as pitch bend…

Edited March 28, 2023 by Atlas007

[David Nahmani]

On 3/26/2023 at 4:53 AM, Plowman said:

Those fine gradations in Pitch Bend have always been obscure to me. But I did observe this: if you create a fader in Environment to send Pitch Bend, it sends the same 0 to 128 events as every other CC. 

The fader itself is 7 bit, meaning it can output only 128 values (from 0 to 127). 

Pitch bend events are 14 bit, they use two 7 bit bytes to encode a value, allowing for 16 384 values (from -8192 to +8191).

14 hours ago, Atlas007 said:

I think that Logic’s Environment should equipped with a new special fader issuing finer/wider resolution data such as pitch bend…

Indeed, having a 14 bit fader in the Environment would allow us to access/create/output all 16 384 values rather than a limited set of 128 values. 

On 3/25/2023 at 3:31 AM, Plowman said:

Is there anyway to use a Smart Control or external MIDI controller to dial up to 256 articulations? 

Unfortunately I can't think of any. I suppose there may be some convoluted way to figure out a combination of faders in the Environment to create more than 128 values but it makes my head hurt just trying to think about it. There's got to be a better way to handle your ultimate goal. 

What are you trying to do exactly? I mean what's the ultimate goal for your workflow? 

[Plowman]

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....but it makes my head hurt just trying to think about it.

Yes. I made some effort at a work-around. Then I decided to work around doing a work-around. 

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There's got to be a better way to handle your ultimate goal.

The goal in this case is immediate V-pot or slider-driven access from Main / Smart Controls to articulations. And we've already got that for any art list of no more than 127 articulations. It is the fastest, most elegant way to dial up patch IDs as you lay in a part. 

But the method is simply limited to 127 IDs. For IDs beyond that, the user returns to the drop-down menus.  It's a long scroll to 256. 

Thanks for de-mystifying the Pitch Bend. 

[Dewdman42]

Are smart controls able to affect values such as articulationID while recording to the track?

[Dewdman42]

Well anyway,  one way I can think off the top of my head, but unable to make an example because my computer is in storage for the moment..

But using Scripter, you can create a Gui Paramter with 256 step values.  That will be available as a smart control.  In Scripter, convert that parameter to an articulationID and assign to the note.  Then when you setup a track, make sure you have that new feature enabled where the midi fx can be applied prior to recording to the track.

 

[Plowman]

Yes, when a knob in Smart Control is assigned to non-automatable Articulation, patches can be dialed up on the fly and they will record. It's just like mousing the drop-down menu in the plug-in window (or the drop-down in Piano Roll when no notes are selected).

I wouldn't turn the Smarty Control when recording though, as it creates faders in the region. It'd be more a set-in-stop mode, then record. 

When I posted, I suspected the answer would come in the form of a script. As I'm not ready to go there, I'll make do. 

Thanks for your post.