Download - Alternation Tool

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Page 1: Alternation Tool

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Working With the Alternation Tool

Vienna Symphonic Library Training Series

T he purpose of the Alternation Tool is to manage the keyswitches (pink keys) in such a way as to help you create natural musical

articulations and phrasings playable as a single line in one MIDI track. Loading Up An Instrument The Alternation Tool will only work on Instruments that have keyswitch-ing built into them. These are the pink notes that you see in many of the Vienna Symphonic Library instruments that are used to trigger different articulations. If you load up an instrument that does not show any pink keyswitching notes, the Alternation Tool will have no effect. 1. In GigaStudio, open the folder labeled 20Vl-14. 2. Click on the + next to 00Vl-14_BASIC_SET.gig. 3. Drag and drop Vl-14_basic-all into Port 1, Channel 1 on GigaStudio. This will be our demonstration Instrument for the Alternation Tool.

Using the "Pink Keys" - Keyswitching 4. In GigaStudio, you will see 8 keys highlighted in pink. These are called keyswitches. They range from C1 thru G1 on your keyboard (Middle C = C4).

NOTE:

There are two different ways for defining a pitch by its MIDI name. The Yamaha method (followed by most manufacturers) defines Middle C as C3. The Roland method defines Middle C as C4. With the Vienna Sym-phonic Library, you'll be using "the Roland" MIDI defini-

How to Set Up and Use the Alternation Tool.

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Working With the Alternation Tool

Vienna Symphonic Library Training Series

tion of Middle C, which is C4. The Vienna Symphonic Library chose to use the Roland definition to avoid hav-ing negative numbers in the lower register e.g. with the double basses. The Play Range pitch definitions also follow the Roland definition of Middle C as C4.

5. Press C1 on your MIDI keyboard and play an octave starting on Mid-dle C. You should be hearing staccatto notes. 6. Now press C#1 and play the same octave. You should be hearing short bow strokes. 7. Now press F#1 and play the same octave again. You should be hear-ing sustained tremolos. 8. As you press a different "pink key" you are using keyswitching to change to a different articulation for the instrument you have loaded.

The Alternation Tool With the Vienna Symphonic Library is the Performance Tool. The Per-formance Tool actually handles five functions: • MIDI Thru • The Legato Tool • The Repetition Tool • The Alternation Tool • Performance Release Tool On opening, it may say Alternation Tool (as in the screen shot) and an icon will appear on your desktop also labeled Alternation Tool. How-ever, the proper term is the Performance Tool.

NOTE: For MIDI Setup, please see the separate MIDI Setup Training Guide.

9. Now, click on the Alternation Tool icon that should already be open in your Task Bar. Go to Port 1, Channel 1 and click on the Down Arrow. Change the setting from Thru to Alternate.

Page 3: Alternation Tool

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Working With the Alternation Tool

Vienna Symphonic Library Training Series

10. Click once the > (greater than sign) under Channel 1.

11. The Alternation Settings screen appears. This is the default tem-plate. Should your template not look like this, be sure to look for the default template on the Vienna Symphonic Library download section.

12. Look at the screen shot above. In the upper left-hand corner you will see the following: Play Zone: LoNote and HiNote This is where you key in the range of the instrument loaded into Port 1, Channel 1 - the lowest note and the highest note to be played by that instrument on the MIDI keyboard. You can set this for the entire range of the instrument, or restrict it to a smaller range. There are two ways to change the set-tings: • Use the mouse to highlight the note and type in the new setting

using your computer keyboard. • Find the lowest note for the instrument on your MIDI keyboard,

press that note, and click in the LoNote box with your mouse

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Working With the Alternation Tool

Vienna Symphonic Library Training Series

while still holding down the note on your MIDI keyboard. The Play Zone will immediately change to reflect the new setting. Now do the same to set the HiNote. Please note that if you make a mistake inputting a note from the MIDI keyboard you will need to hit the APPLY button before you can correct the note.

As we have a Violin patch loaded, set the LoNote to G3 and the HiNote to D7.

WARNING! To repeat, the Alternation Tool is using the Roland defi-nition of Middle C to define ranges so that negative num-bers in the lower range can be avoided. Above, we have the violin range in Roland language from G3 to D7. Mu-sically, this is wrong. The violin range (and the range here is for a virtuoso) is G below Middle C (G2) to D above double high C (D6).

13. To the right you will see settings for the Base Function Key and the Dimension Start Key. We'll talk about these in detail a little later on. For now, they should both be set to C1. 14. The Polyphony box should remain unchecked.

NOTE: You can use the TAB key to jump forward from one parameter to the next. Use SHIFT plus TAB to jump backwards.

15. In the bottom half of the screen you will see 12 blue boxes laid out in two columns. In each blue box you will see a row of numbers.

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Working With the Alternation Tool

Vienna Symphonic Library Training Series

16. To the right of each blue box you will see a note name (the first is C1, the second is C#1, etc.). The technical name for that pitch is a Macro Key, however, the word Macro is also used in GSEdit and has a different definition. So to avoid confusion, think of these as trigger notes that act as a trigger to play an alternating pattern of keyswitches set up in the blue box. 17. Press C1 on your MIDI keyboard. Play two octaves on the keyboard starting at Middle C. You should hear the violins alternate between staccato and short bow strokes for each note you play. Look at the blue box containing the combination triggered by C1 and you will see the numbers 1 and 2 alternately highlighted as you play. 18. Now press C#1 on your MIDI keyboard. Play the same two octaves and you will hear the pattern reversed. Look at the blue box containing the combination triggered by C#1 and you will see the numbers 2 and 1 alternately highlighted as you play. 19. Keyswitch number 1 accesses the first pink key for the instrument set you have loaded into Port 1, Channel 1. Keyswitch number 2 ac-cesses the second pink key for that instrument. The chart below shows the keyswitch number and the pink note it triggers for the Vl-14_basic-all set we currently have loaded: Keyswitch No. Pink Note Articulation Played 1 C1 Staccatto 2 C#1 0,3 sec. 3 D1 0,5 sec., vibrato 4 D#1 sustained, vibrato 5 E1 sforzato, vibrato 6 F1 cresc-dim, vibrato 7 F#1 tremolo, sustained 8 G1 pizzicato, vibrato 20. You can have a total of 12 combinations assigned to 12 Macro Keys (trigger notes). Up to 12 keyswitches can be used in any one combina-tion, but the number of different keyswitches available depends on the instrument you have loaded. Our Vl-14_basic-all set only uses 8 key-switches. This means that you only need to use keyswitch numbers 1-8 when setting up your combination.

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Vienna Symphonic Library Training Series

21. Press Macro trigger note A1 on your MIDI keyboard. Repeatedly press Middle C and watch the combination assigned to the A1 trigger note play through keyswitch numbers 1-12. You will hear no change in numbers 8-12 as there are only 8 keyswitches used by this instrument.

NOTE: As soon as you play a note, the next number in the se-quence is automatically highlighted, so the highlighted note on screen is always one step ahead of the note you've just played.

22. To quickly familiarize yourself with the tool, press each of the Macro Key "trigger notes" in turn, from C1 to B1 and play the keyboard. Listen to each pattern and watch the Alternation Settings Screen to see which combination of keyswitches is being triggered. Now comes the fun part, creating our own Alternations...

Creating Your Own Alternations 23. Look at the black box containing the number 2, to the left of the first blue keyswitching row. This is the Variation number that tells you how many keyswitches your combination will be using. Next to the number 2 you will see up and down buttons. Using your mouse, click on the Up Button once so that the number 2 changes to a number 3. You have now specified that three keyswitches will be used by the combination triggered by C1.

24. You should see the following numbers appear in the blue box: 1:2:1. 25. Using the mouse, click in the blue box so that the first number is highlighted. 26. Press the Up Arrow on your computer keyboard until the number 1 changes into a number 5. Now press the Right Arrow on your com-puter keyboard. The number 2 will be highlighted. Use the Down Arrow to change this to the number 1. Leave the third number 1 as it is. Your combination should look like this:

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Vienna Symphonic Library Training Series

NOTE: You can also press the spacebar on your computer key-board to jump to the next keyswitching number in the combination.

27. Press Macro trigger note C1 on your MIDI keyboard. Now play the keyboard. You should hear the violins play a pattern of one sforzato short bow followed by two staccato notes. Look at the blue box contain-ing the combination triggered by C1 and you will see the keyswitch numbers alternately highlighted as you play. They will play through the sequence in a continuous loop. 28. To reset the keyswitching sequence at any point, simply press the Macro Key for that combination and the sequence will return to the start.

NOTE: Think musically when creating your own keyswitching Alternations. Remember that you're creating a repeating pattern. The default settings for the Alternation Tool pro-vide a good starting point for common articulations, like creating alternating up and down bow strokes. You will most likely find yourself working with sequences of 2, 3, or 4 keyswitches, but you can get as complex as 12.

Polyphonic Mode Vs. Monophonic Mode So far, we've been using the Alternation Tool in Monophonic Mode, which is great for playing single note lines. But what about when you want to play two or more notes together? This is where you need to switch to Polyphonic Mode. 29. Press Macro trigger note C1 to use the 5:1:1 combination we've just set up. Now repeatedly play a C Major chord on the keyboard and watch the keyswitch combination on screen to see what happens. It appears to be stuck, and the keyswitching you're hearing is erratic. 30. Click to put a check mark in the box marked Polyphony (shown below). Now play that C Major chord again. This time, it will cycle through the sequence of keyswitches correctly.

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Working With the Alternation Tool

Vienna Symphonic Library Training Series

In Polyphonic Mode, all keys must be released before the Alternation Tool will move to the next keyswitch in the sequence. If you press and hold one key, then press a second key (without releasing the first), both notes will use the same keyswitch articulation. Only when both notes are released will you move to the next keyswitch in the sequence. 31. To turn Polyphonic Mode OFF, click in the Polyphonic box to re-move the check mark. You have now returned back to Monophonic Mode. Dimension Start Key

Think of this as your "first pink key" for the instru-ment currently loaded into Port 1, Channel 1. Most of the Vienna Symphonic Library has a Dimension Start Key of C1. This means that when you look at the GigaStudio keyboard, the first pink keyswitching note will most likely be on C1. Exceptions are instru-

ments such as the Tuba and Double Bass, where the first pink key-switching note is C6. For these instruments, your Dimension Start Key should also be set to C6. Base Function Key

This lets you define where your first trigger note (Macro Key) will be on your MIDI keyboard. Normally, this will be the same as your Dimension Start Key, but it doesn't have to be. Let's set it to a different note value and see what happens.

32. Use the mouse to highlight the Base Function Key currently set to C1. On your computer keyboard, type in B1. Now click on the APPLY button in the lower right-hand corner of the screen to apply the new setting (you

can also input a new setting using your MIDI keyboard as outlined ear-lier).

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Working With the Alternation Tool

Vienna Symphonic Library Training Series

33. The Macro trigger note names down the right side of the blue boxes will change to reflect the new setting. Your screen should now look like this:

34. Press Macro trigger note B1 on your MIDI keyboard and play some notes. You're now triggering the keyswitch combination previously as-signed to C1. Press Macro trigger note C2 and you'll trigger the key-switch combination previously assigned to C#1.

WARNING! Make sure that your Macro trigger notes are assigned to blank notes of the keyboard. They must not cross the play range of the instrument. If they do cross, then every time you play a note that's also acting as a trigger, you will jump to the keyswitch combination assigned to that trigger note. The trigger will always take priority.

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Working With the Alternation Tool

Vienna Symphonic Library Training Series

Using the Alternation Tool as a Simple Keyswitch Transposer For those with smaller keyboards (5 octave or 76 Keys), accessing the pink keyswitching notes can be a problem as, in many cases these notes will lie beyond the physical range of the keyboard. The Alterna-tion Tool provides a way around this problem. Using the Alternation Tool, you can use the Macro Key function to set up trigger notes that mimic the pink keys by changing the position of the pink keys to a more accessible place on your keyboard. Please note, however, that the pink keys you see on the GigaStudio keyboard will not change. You're simply overriding them with the Macro Keys. Here's how to do it: 1. Make sure that the appropriate Port and Channel is set to Alternate in the Performance Tool (Read the earlier section labeled "The Alterna-tion Tool" if you're not sure how to do this). 2. Click once the > (greater than sign) under Channel 1.

3. The Alternation Settings screen appears. 4. Make sure your Play Zone is set correctly for the lowest and highest note of your instrument. If you need to change the values, find the low-est note for the instrument on your MIDI keyboard, press that note, and click in the LoNote box with your mouse while still holding down the note on your MIDI keyboard. The Play Zone will immediately change to reflect the new setting. Now do the same to set the HiNote. Please note that if you make a mistake inputting a note from the MIDI keyboard you will need to hit the APPLY button before you can correct the note. 5. Next, look at where your first pink key is on the GigaStudio keyboard. Now make sure the Dimension Start Key in the Alternation Tool shows the same note. Remember that Middle C = C4. 6. Decide where you want to move your pink keyswitching notes to. They must not cross the play range of the instrument. 7. Press and hold the note on your MIDI keyboard where you want your first pink key to be moved to. While still holding the note down, use your mouse to click in the Base Function Key box. The note will change to

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Working With the Alternation Tool

Vienna Symphonic Library Training Series

the one you pressed down on your MIDI keyboard. The note names to the right of each blue box will immediately reflect your new setting. 8. Click in the each black box containing the Variation number (this sets the number of keyswitches that will be used by the combination), and use the Up and Down buttons to change each Variation number to 2. This is the smallest number possible. 9. Because each of these new "pink keys" should only trigger one ar-ticulation, we need to have just one number repeated in each combina-tion. Click in the first blue box and use the Arrow keys on your com-puter keyboard to set the keyswitching numbers to 1:1. 10. Now click in the second blue box and use the Arrow keys to set the keyswitching numbers to 2:2. 11. Go through each combination in turn setting the keyswitching num-bers to 3:3, then 4:4, all the way through to 12:12 in the final blue box. When you've finished, you're screen should look like this:

(Please note: I've set my Base Function Key to C2, which is now my first Macro "pink" key, but you can set it anywhere you like as long as it doesn't cross the play range of the instrument.) 12. Now try pressing each of your new Macro "pink" keys in turn, then play the keyboard to hear the different articulations they trigger. Congratulations! You've just created your own keyswitch transposer. Move on to the next section to learn how to save your settings.

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Working With the Alternation Tool

Vienna Symphonic Library Training Series

Saving Your Alternation Settings Once you've created your own keyswitching combinations, you'll need to save your Alternation Settings to the hard drive. Here's how to do it: 1. Click on File, above the Play Zone and choose the Save As option from the dropdown menu.

2. Type in a file name and save it to a file folder of your choice. The file will be saved with a .pal extension.

Opening an Alternation file 1. To open (load) previously saved Alternation settings, click on File, above the Play Zone and choose Open from the dropdown menu. 2. Navigate to the file folder containing the Alternation Settings you want to load. Select the correct .pal file, then click the Open button. The Alternation Settings will load up on screen ready to play.

Conclusion So far, you've learned how to use the Alternation Tool on Port 1, Chan-nel 1. If you look at the Alternation Tool, you have 16 MIDI channels available for Port 1. Now go and experiment by putting a Vienna Sym-phonic Library Instrument in Channel 2. Remember, you can also load up a previously saved Alternation .pal file. Have fun!


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