Old 01-13-2022, 02:15 AM   #1
robynsveil
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Join Date: Dec 2019
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Posts: 75
Default Am I holding this wrong?

Background: I'm on a 2012 a1278 Macbook Pro, dual-core i5 with 8gig RAM, and 1tb x 2 SSDs (replaced the optical drive with an SSD). I've been a Reaper user/licence owner since version 6.03 (we're now on 6.45!). I write my music in Musescore, then import the MIDIs to Reaper. The music is genre sort-of classical (small orchestra). I use Reaticulate for articulation switching for my Spitfire Studio Woodwinds, Strings and Brass libraries.

Disclaimer: I still see myself as very much a total neophyte in things digital audio. Sure, things work, but I'm convinced that my "workflow" is a total kludge: things most likely work despite my setup and not because I've set things up properly. I have searched for posts that discuss non-performer musicians/composers but based on the emphasis on recording what is being played, I can't seem to find much. Probably not looking correctly.

Roughly, the way I set things up is this: hope it's not too cringeworthy... in the FX window for a given track, say, violas, I've got:


IOW, I've got the strings set up to MIDI channels 1-5, the woodwinds: channels 6-12 and brass to channels 13-16. If you ask why, well: no real answer to that... seemed like a good idea at the time.

Now, I'm not so sure.

It was a way to 1) make sure that the channel switches automagically in Reaticulate when I select a different instrument in the MIDI editor and ... well, this is where it gets a bit involved. I have found that in order to produce the sound I'm after, managing articulations was only the very basic beginning. I found I not only had to manipulate CC7 (volume, which seems related to CC1 dynamics) and the velocity channel, but also CC1 (mod wheel) and CC11 (expression). The controllers on that nki in Kontakt appear to respond to entries in the expression and dynamics CCs and it most definitely affects the sound that is produced. So, my MIDI editor typically looks like this:


This is, of course, still quite rough, but it produces a sound much closer to what I was hoping for. Still, I'm pretty sure I'm approaching this all wrong. I hope, eventually, to be able to use libraries where Reaticulate won't be able to manage articulations with UACC - Spitfire LABS, I'm looking at you :-/ - and each articulation will require its own channel. I'll quickly run out of channels.

My question is basically: is there a resource I should be studying to help me set up my tracks correctly? I have tried to download some orchestral templates but because I don't own the libraries or the version of Kontakt is older than what I have, I can't examine the setup.

Thanks to all who consider this little conundrum.
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