could some one show me how to get started creating one?
Now there's a challenging concept. I don't believe that there are any "heat & serve" pedal steel presets in DimPro. I have used both Rapture and DP to "split" guitars per-string, using Elements (at times, in multitimbral mode). There's going to be some obvious compromises in using that concept for pedal steel, considering one or two necks, 10-12-13 strings each, and the copedent configurations of pedal arrangements.
You might get some starting point ideas from that, though. Here's the link: [
Synth [CLOT] Guitar By The Elements], and there's an embedded link there to a live demo .mp3. You may have to compromise, and group two Elements together to produce the characteristic diads for melodies. By this I mean conceptually: "tuning" a pair of strings with Lo/High Key, leaving one Element of the pair static, and using the MIDI Matrix to "pedal in" a whole tone bend. Then set up another pair of Elements for a second pair of strings in a similar manner. Perhaps the second pair could be Transposed up in octaves for another common melodic device.
Although it seems logical, I'm not sure that starting with an electric guitar Multisample would be the way to go. Perhaps a Martin acoustic sample, and softening the pick attack by slowing the envelope onset in the Amp EGs. Also, get rid of any decay curve after the Sustain point. Portamento is *possible* in .sfz editing, but I don't think it'd be practical or realistic in this case.
Slide and pedal control can be set up in the MIDI Matrix. This is an area that'll take some serious fine-tuning and technique to get close to realistic. For starters, you might have an Element copied to the next Element, with the second string "tuned" by Transpose. A switch on your keyboard sends some MIDI message (say, CC#108) on & off, preferably in a momentary mode. The Matrix line would look something like this:
CC 108 -> Pitch 2 -> 200 -> 1.0
Just a touch of Smoothing, and one of the string pair gets bent upward by two semitones. Another "pedal" gets set up between E3 and E4, controlled by another KB switch. As for the overall gliding sound of the slide, you'd use a comprehensive setting over all "strings". Be careful: larger Depths in the MIDI Matrix slot will sound more & more contrived. I used the sustain pedal as a source for this:
CC 64 -> Pitch All -> 500 -> 3.0
Larger range of semitones and greater Smoothing value. You can shut down the Sustain itself in DP by setting Sust/Sost to Off/On in the Multisample editor.
Edit: This is just a rough outline off the top of my head. More later if I can come up with something useful.
post edited by b rock - 2006/09/27 08:50:04