Zeta+ patch does not seem to be responding to velocity info. What could it be?

Probably some fixed velocity thing maybe?
 
Anyway... here's the deal. I've got a patch loaded in Zeta+ that has a portamento effect. Portamento of course being dependent on the note that precedes it (so a lower note before the target note causes a rising tone into the second note.... a higher first note a descending tone into the second note).
 
What I am attempting to do is create a rising portamento effect up to a specific note WITHOUT hearing the first note (it is kind of a little breakdown part where the synth is silent then a little riff plays). What I WANTED to do was make the first note have the lowest velocity value possible hoping it would be inaudible but still cause the rising portamento effect into the next note which I do want to hear. That unfortunately is not happening. No matter how I set the note's velocity it seems to remain just as loud as everything else (indicating a fixed velocity).
 
So I have a couple ideas to fix this but I wanted to learn more about what could cause something like this and how the pros deal with this type of situation (where you want something like a portamento effect or other effects that rely on notes interacting with each other to trigger the effect without necessarily hearing specific notes in the sequence).
 
Not a big deal. I can just do a quick gain/volume automation but I imagine I am not the first person who's wanted to mess around with something like this.
 
It is literally something that happens for a fraction of a second but still and only a spazz like me would get weird about it but I do like to be knowledgeable enough to make anything I intend to become a reality... and of course I am total n00b when it comes to synths and MIDI (but learning).
 
Thanks doods.

Thought 2 - CC11 (volume) will fade a Midi note up or down and more importantly, will happen over the duration of a Midi note - Velocity only triggers after a Note On message, so anything you do after that will have no effect

Yes mate, all fine here, except I'm about to lose my DAW for a week - it's got to go back for them to have a look at a couple of issues.
 
What I was trying to explain is that, when a Midi note is triggered, it will trigger at a single velocity  - the one which is applied when you record it or enter it into the PRV. The velocity at this point is fixed. You already know about clip & track automation, so we won't go there.
What you can do is insert a Continuous Controller, like CC11 which acts as an Expression Controller, allowing you to vary the apparent volume for the duration of the entire note whilst the note is playing. It's similar to automation but all done in midiland.
 
Hope this helps!!

I still have my old XP32 machine so I might just fire that up and do a spot of housekeeping with it.
 
I think the last version installed on that bad boy was X1, maybe even 8.5
 
I do have a couple of projects on there that need to be bounced to audio so I can carry on with them in Splat