View Single Post
Old 01-15-2018, 12:17 PM   #22
SymboliC
Human being with feelings
 
SymboliC's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 289
Default

Thank you for inputting your thoughts and experiences Tod. I appreciate it since you're far more experienced than me.

However, even Host Automation is specific to Kontakt in this case, I think the instrument libraries have gone quite far for what they offer.

I mean, back in the days (when I was a kid and unaware of all those things =D) it's understandable to manage most of the realism through CC data, yet, some libraries -or most libraries- today, started to offer individual MICs, "playing styles", exceptional articulations, in-built reverb, attack, sustain adjustments and so on which become hard to control through all that CC maze...

I can understand your reasons and in most of the videos I've watched on YouTube professionals do it your way. But, for some people like me, it's a bit distractive to go back and forth in MIDI editor and I usually just use it for note insertion, overall velocities, quantization/humanization and prefer to see the overall adjustments in one place : Arrange window.

Also, I've seen that(if I'm not mistaken) in FruityLoops and Logic, you can manage most of those tiny bits like expression, modulation and so in the main "arranging window" of those DAW's. This way, I can see which instument does what at that specific moment without worrying to open&close MIDI editor.

Think of regular automation for audio files or rendered items. Wouldn't it be inconvenient to have to double click, open the wave editor and do your adjustments/tweaks in there rather than seeing it as a whole as we do it today?

My proposal is just to make the same functionality for MIDI department.
Yes you can do some of the things like expression and volume control with some CC data or to a limit with the help of ReaControlMIDI but when you want to have more control over your libraries in a "packed view" it becomes hard.

I think that's why Kontakt introduced or implemented such features like MIDI & Host Automation.
I'm just saying that it becomes messy when you have multi-timbral VSTi in one track.
If I were to use one instance of Kontakt per instrument, I wouldn'T need that flexibility since the corresponding and related MIDI lanes would all stack up under it in the arrange window in Reaper.

This is more related to Reaper's structure as I understand from the info I gathered up to now.

DarkStar's request of that feature -> ability to reorder/drag automation lanes. That would also solve most of my problem with multi-timbral VSTi's automation lanes. As of now, when you create an automation lane for one instrument in that Kontakt instance which consists of several instruments, it just pops-up sticked to that Kontakt track, not the instruments MIDI track. It's not a very nice way to keep your track view organized. However, you can do this in Logic if I'm not mistaken as ashcat_lt also confirmed a couple posts above.

As a professional, you may find it a bit cheesy to lay down all string sections with a "full ensemble" patch and then try to tweak cello, viola mics via MIDI/Host Automation which Kontakt & Sample library offers but this comes handy when you quickly want to build ideas instead of going into deeper details, though you can even have more control even if you go deeper. i.e. There are 4-5 mic positions which can be automated even for a single string instrument in some sample libraries.

Anyway...
At least now I can solve my problem with a couple more mouse clicks with addition of a plugin and renaming functions and so...
maybe some day it will get easier...

Cheers,
__________________
Just music. Nothing more, nothing less.
SymboliC is offline   Reply With Quote