how can I make a crescendo on 1 string-note

[wazapamani]

Hi,

 

I'm trying to find out how to make a crescendo on 1 note, for example strings, or brass. In piano roll I tried out expression and drew a line under 1 note, but I think that only controls volume. I'm looking for a crescendo that lets the stringplayer actually play louder ( press harder on the bow), so the velocity has to increase. That is possible for more notes in a row, but not for 1 single note AFAIK.

 

So maybe expression needs to be assigned, but I don't know how.

I tried this out with the exs24, and NI Kontakt 3.

Any suggestions?

[camillo jr]

Let's get one thing out of the way... velocity won't do it. A single note is always going to be only one velocity. It can't change velocities mid stream.

 

The kind of expression you're looking for really depends on two things, the sounds being used and the programing. There are string sounds for Kontakt that use the mod wheel to change the volume and sometimes also fades in a new sound. Some of the Legacy VSL strings that come with Kontakt do this nicely. But if the sound itself doesn't contain a "press harder on the bow" kind of sample, you won't get that regardless of programming. With Kontakt, I don't bother trying to make that happen, I just look for sounds that already have something like that built into them.

 

You can do a bit of this with the EXS, assigning relative volume and crossfading of samples {assuming that there are layers of sample to crossfade) to the modwheel. This can sound pretty decent but you do end up layering the louder sound on top of the quieter one, which may not be quite what you're after in some situations.

 

To give you some ideas on how to make the EXS do that, here's an instrument I modified recently to do the kind of thing you're talking about. In this EXS sampler instrument, I've assigned the modwheel to control relative volume, sample xfade and some filter cutoff. If you want a greater amount of loud to soft ratio, raise the relative volume parameter in the second slot.

 

Install it here:

 

User / Library / Application Support / Logic / Sampler Instruments

Violins 2 Leg_Mod 2.exs.zip

[wazapamani]

Thanks Camillo, I'll try that when I'm in my studio.