How To Program Changing Velocities Per Note?

Hello Everyone,
 
This might be simple or it might not even be possible, not sure lol. 
 
Basically right now I have a synth bass line, where the patch sound changes with different velocity hits.   I want an entire piece to have the same 5 notes with the following velocities:   70, 90, 70, 90, 80.   It gives the baseline some "bounce" if you will.
 
Problem is, it would be a pain in the ass to have to go into Piano Roll and double click EACH and EVERY note to plug in it's velocity number. 
 
I was thinking of a groove-clip and stretching it across the track, but then the problem is the chord changes.  I usually don't use Groove-clip looping because setting up the markers is a pain.
 
I was wondering if there is a way to program in Sonar to automatically adjust all my velocities on my baseline so that the velocities of 70, 90, 70, 90, 80 just repeat as each note is played.   It would have to be "by-note", not by beat, because some beats don't have a bass note.
 
I hope I made myself clear.
 
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
 
Thank You,
Adam

I'm not sure but isn't this the kind of thing Calscripts do? Probably a complex thing to learn just for one song but then you know how to do it for the future.
 
Personally, as someone who yet to learn how to do such fanciness I would probably just copy/paste my way through.
 
hmm... again I'm not sure if this is possible but perhaps there is a way to copy just the velocities in the Controller Pane then apply it as needed through out the track. That way you can just paste the velocity on all the parts instead of fiddling with it one section at a time.

I think you can draw velocity in in the Controller Pane too so if you don't need exact accuracy maybe you could just go through with the draw tool and draw in the rises for each section of notes. Would take a lot less time than screwing around with the notes themselves.
 
Edit: I'd try all this out for you (except the Cal stuff) but I have all the MIDI tracks in my current project archived and hidden.

You can use Select By Filter to select notes that fall on particular beats or tick values/ranges and then drag their velocities in the PRV. Or use Find/Replace to change them as well as select them. Depending on the rhythm, you may need to do it once for each step in the pattern.
 
That said, I highly recommend you get a keyboard controller and learn to play in basic stuff like this in real time. It makes getting natural dynamic feel and timing so much easier. Frankly I don't understand how people can devote so much time to this level of fiddling in the PRV. In the long run, that time would be better devoted to learning to play keyboards and/or other controllers.
 
 

brundlefly
You can use Select By Filter to select notes that fall on particular beats or tick values/ranges and then drag their velocities in the PRV. Or use Find/Replace to change them as well as select them. Depending on the rhythm, you may need to do it once for each step in the pattern.
 
That said, I highly recommend you get a keyboard controller and learn to play in basic stuff like this in real time. It makes getting natural dynamic feel and timing so much easier. Frankly I don't understand how people can devote so much time to this level of fiddling in the PRV. In the long run, that time would be better devoted to learning to play keyboards and/or other controllers.
 
 

Hello, I DO have a keyboard controller, I played all this stuff by hand.   Just this is a very sensitive patch and the velocities need to be perfect.   It's impossible to play the same velocities over and over.  
 
I will play around with the Select By Filter and Find/Replace.
 
Thank You,
Adam

holy cow!   I'm going to check out this CAL script right now and save it for future use!  I need to learn more CAL scripting!!!
 
 
THANK YOU SCOOK!!!!!  I will update this thread soon!!!

aglewis723
Hello, I DO have a keyboard controller, I played all this stuff by hand.   Just this is a very sensitive patch and the velocities need to be perfect.   It's impossible to play the same velocities over and over.  

 
Is it that the patch has jarring layer changes or too few layers? I try to stay away from synths/patches that do that because it can be difficult to avoid getting unintended timbre changes when velocities are very consistent but are falling randomly on either side of a layer switch by a few values.
 
If a synth has even and predictable response to velocity I find that it isn't usually that critical to have such consistent velocities so long as the dynamic relationship between sequential notes is roughly consistent. Sometime it's enough just to change the range of velocities which can also be done with Find/Replace or the Event Inspector or even just with the Vel+ control, depending on the situation.
 
Anyway, just sharing some thoughts. Only you can know exactly what the part needs.
 
 

Sonar has a procedure to apply "groove quantize" to existing material. For quantizing, a groove consists of a sequence with notes at specific grid offset times, velocities, and durations. I have not examined precise results myself, but I wonder if you could use your precisely adjusted notes to apply groove quantize to the rest of your notes using a 100% strength to the velocity component (in the groove quantize dialog). If that idea sounds groovy to you, the manual tells how to use the Process > Groove Quantize command. You might have to do a little wading through the manual because groove quantize is heavily documented for use on audio, whereas you just want to apply it to your midi track.

Aren't quantize functions basically easy access calscripts? I have yet to really dig into all that stuff because up until this point it has been more effort to learn than it's worth for my purposes but it's certainly on the agenda... probably soon.

I would think quantize functions are compiled code as opposed to scripts. CAL can be very handy but I worry about the long-term viability as it has not been formally supported for a long time and no effort is being made to ensure that its functions continue working, like the status messaging that it used to do. I recently discovered one script I wrote myself was no longer working in X3. I haven't yet taken the time to see if it's fixable.

Thanks, Dave.
 
beepster: The groove quantize dialog also works on audiosnap transients. Definitely out of cal's reach.
 
Bill B.

John T
Repeat for each of your five notes.

My understanding is the pattern isn't using the same five notes every measure.. If it were, he could just adjust one measure and copy/groove it.