Simulating Accedentals with Midi

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mcewen
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2005/08/16 09:39:50 (permalink)

Simulating Accedentals with Midi

Fellow Music Makers:

I’m a bit of a newbie and am looking for some sage advice on midi sequencing. I have a piece of classical music I’m entering into Sonar and I’m currently trying to incorporate the accidentals. Things like volume adjusters like pp, mf, ff, velocity adjusters like a bar or dot over the note and note slurs.

Do any of you have a good resource on how to simulate the aforementioned properly with Sonar’s automation envelopes? I.e. should a dot over a note be depicted as a ramp or a straight jump in value? Is a slur a ramp or a curve? Etc. Any advice or reference resource pointers should be greatly appreciated.

Bruce
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    cjstearns
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    RE: Simulating Accedentals with Midi 2005/08/16 10:46:19 (permalink)
    Not sure what your asking, but I hope I can get it .
    A dot over a note is a staccato marking which is a detached note, and also very lightly accented, best thing to do Imo is shorten the note in the piano roll edit, and very slightly increase the volume of that note just a little (depending on the music situation, if it is a whole run of staccatos you don't want to keep increasing volume).
    As for slurs there should be no volume, or velocity adjustment, just increase the note length to its maximum value, there should be no empty sound space between the notes.
    When I am making volume adjustments I use the envelope feature, and use ramps if the music states a crescendo or decrescendo. I use the curve for more of a dramatic movement, usually when its not implied in the music. If I have a piece that goes from, lets say piano (p) to forte (F) I will create nodes and move directly from a lower volume to a higher volume, with no ramp or curve.
    All I can say is experiment with the envelope feature. Hope this helps.

    Cheers
    CJ
    #2
    mcewen
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    RE: Simulating Accedentals with Midi 2005/08/16 13:48:41 (permalink)
    cjstearns:

    Thanks for the tips. this is exaclty the type info I'm looking for, however, I thought maybe someone ha a pointer to a web resource that had some well established guidelines or tutorials on the subject.

    Bruce
    #3
    cjstearns
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    RE: Simulating Accedentals with Midi 2005/08/16 15:14:04 (permalink)
    I don't really know any resources on the web, but you can pick up "Sonar Power" by Scott Garrigus, who also posts on this forum. He has some good information on envelopes that might be useful to you, plus there is alot of other useful info in that book.

    Cheers
    CJ

    lwmmusic@sbcglobal.net

    Whoever has skill in music is of good temperament and fitted for all things. We must teach music in schools.
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    http://www.soundclick.com/cjstearns
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    garrigus
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    RE: Simulating Accedentals with Midi 2005/08/16 16:13:07 (permalink)
    Hi Bruce,

    As CJ suggested (Thanks, CJ!), my books covers all of the features in Sonar. You can find more info and a discount at:
    http://www.garrigus.com/powerbooks.asp

    As for your question... envelopes are best used for simulating cresendo and decresendo markings. For something like staccato, you would need to alter the velocity and duration of the notes. If you're going to be entering a lot of music by hand in notation, you would be much better off doing it with a dedicated notation program such as Finale. Find more info at:
    http://www.digifreq.com/digifreq/newsinfo.asp?NewsID=2522

    A program like this will not only give you easier notation input, but also simulate the performance without making you enter envelopes or changing note velocities or durations.

    Best regards,
    Scott

    --
    Scott R. Garrigus - Author of Cakewalk, Sound Forge and Sound Forge 6, SONAR, SONAR 2, SONAR 3 and Sonar 4 Power! books.
    ** Sound Forge 8 Power The Official Guide - Now Available! ** Books up to 37% off at:
    http://www.garrigus.com/

    Publisher of DigiFreq. Win a free copy of Cakewalks' Sonar Home Studio 4 music sequencing software and learn cool music technology tips and techniques by getting a FREE subscription to DigiFreq... over 17,000 readers can't be wrong! Go to:
    http://www.digifreq.com/digifreq/
    #5
    mcewen
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    RE: Simulating Accedentals with Midi 2005/08/17 11:50:18 (permalink)
    Thanks for the additional resources. I'll check themt out!

    Bruce
    #6
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