Producing a Nice Trill

[Artlowell]

This is a Logic question, even though it's a GPO intsrument that is involved.

 

I'm trying to use a GPO solo string voice to produce a pleasing trill. I've complained to Northern Sound that the solo string trill voices give only the 2 notes per each midi note. Since nobody there wants to explain this to me, I have concluded that this is the way the trill option is designed to work. (This makes some sense, since it gives the user the ability to design some variability and expression into the trill).

 

So, my quest is to learn how to use Logic to click in a single note and produce maybe 50 or 100 re-iterations of that note. I have my piano roll divisions set at 1/32nd notes, and I am using the "copy MIDI note" function. I find that the note is, indeed repeated, but that each re-iteration is located on the first beat of each subsequent bar. This is not what I want. I want each re-iteration to occur on every 32nd note division.

 

Once I have achieved this, I am going to want to be able to vary the spacing of these notes that I've created. More often than not, a trill will initiate at a slower speed, and then quickly accelerate in speed and intensity. Can Logic give me some help in controlling this? Is there a way to merge regions that are at different tempos? Varying the tempo is the only way of changing the speed of a trill that I can think of without physically moving the note events.

[Jordi Torres]

So, my quest is to learn how to use Logic to click in a single note and produce maybe 50 or 100 re-iterations of that note. I have my piano roll divisions set at 1/32nd notes, and I am using the "copy MIDI note" function. I find that the note is, indeed repeated, but that each re-iteration is located on the first beat of each subsequent bar. This is not what I want. I want each re-iteration to occur on every 32nd note division.

 

Use the Repeat Regions/Events command (Command-R). Set the Adjustment to "Division"

 

Once I have achieved this, I am going to want to be able to vary the spacing of these notes that I've created. More often than not, a trill will initiate at a slower speed, and then quickly accelerate in speed and intensity. Can Logic give me some help in controlling this?

 

You'll have to use the tempo track for this.

 

Is there a way to merge regions that are at different tempos?

 

So far you've only mentioned a single region. Can you give more details about your goal with this? If you want to go back to a fixed tempo after messing with the tempo of the trilled notes, you could smpte-lock the trills region and then change the tempo to whatever you like. The tempo of your trilled notes won't change. If you're planning to have the same instrument play something else (at a fixed tempo) you could create a new track assigned to the same instrument and channel strip and put your other region there. You don't have to merge them.

 

J.

[Artlowell]

Use the Repeat Regions/Events command (Command-R). Set the Adjustment to "Division"

Thanks. That's a great function! It will save tons of un-necessary work. So, here's what I'm thinking of. Say, a violin solo with a piano accompaniment. The piano is playing a 4/4 passage at a steady tempo (with no rubato) while the violin plays a trilled note. The trill is a perfect series of 1/32 or 1/64 notes. It would give us that "machine-gun" sound. I haven't tried the "humanize" function yet, but that's suppose to prevent that. But, beyond that, a natural trill would start out a little bit slower and quickly speed up, while the piano plays on at a steady 4/4 beat. What would be a good way to blend the two sets of notes?

If you want to go back to a fixed tempo after messing with the tempo of the trilled notes, you could smpte-lock the trills region and then change the tempo to whatever you like

This may solve my dilemma. It will take some experimenting, which I can't do today. I'll get back to you. Thank you.

[Artlowell]

So, the repeated notes worked, somewhat. I get a fluttering sound that isn't quite what I want, but I think this is going to take a great deal of experimenting. I don't understand how to operate the "humanize" function at all. Thanks for the tip, though.

[camillo jr]

Sometimes when I'm creating trills from scratch, I play the trill very slowly, as a separate recording pass. Then I Option-drag the region boundary to shrink it down and speed up the trill. I usually try a few out until I get what I want and I also have to experiment with how much to shrink the MIDI region so that it's the right speed. This has proven to be the simplest way for me to create trills that either aren't in the sample pool or are too difficult to execute live.

 

Part of this really depends on the sample you use. Some sounds are just not going to work for this but if it has the right attack (not too soft, not too hard) you can make it work.

[Artlowell]

Thank you Camilo. You have shown me something else i did not know about. The option-drag function should be awfully useful. It would have been a way to blend regions with notes that are in different tempos. It doesn't work, however, unless the region is sufficiently zoomed out. Again, thanks.

[camillo jr]

You're welcome, Artlowell. The Option-drag thing works both ways of course - for shrinking and expanding MIDI regions. It's also good for stuff that I need to play at half speed and then bring up to tempo.