Love the new cello
I've been having fun playing the new cello using a leap motion controller. I've mapped expression to up down, bow pressure to left right and vibrato depth+speed to hand tilt. It is not as tiring as a breath controller and one can control more midi parameters at a time.
It is really great to be able to simply play music directly and not need to speed a lot of time editing the midi after the fact. The following are not very polished, but I basically just played the the music and didn't do a lot of editing.
The leap still has some problems... occasionally cuts out or sticks. I'm hoping the new orion drivers (in beta) will help when they become available for Mac.
The biggest problem with realtime playing I have at the moment is getting enough control over portamento speed. The velocity based method occasionally results in extremely slow portamento if one hits the note too lightly. I tried mapping it with the leap motion instead, but I can't get a range that is controllable(at least by using the min/max range settings). If I get a useful range for the lower notes then it is too slow for the higher ones.
The portamento sounds really great and is easy to edit in the midi, but it would be great to have a way to reliably perform it.
It is really great to be able to simply play music directly and not need to speed a lot of time editing the midi after the fact. The following are not very polished, but I basically just played the the music and didn't do a lot of editing.
The leap still has some problems... occasionally cuts out or sticks. I'm hoping the new orion drivers (in beta) will help when they become available for Mac.
The biggest problem with realtime playing I have at the moment is getting enough control over portamento speed. The velocity based method occasionally results in extremely slow portamento if one hits the note too lightly. I tried mapping it with the leap motion instead, but I can't get a range that is controllable(at least by using the min/max range settings). If I get a useful range for the lower notes then it is too slow for the higher ones.
The portamento sounds really great and is easy to edit in the midi, but it would be great to have a way to reliably perform it.
Comments
Is this tilt in two different axes ?
With a breath controller (and Flutes - but I am sure this will work for the Cello as well) I am very happy with keyboard aftertouch for Vibrato Debpth.
Duncan wrote: ...portamento speed. The velocity based method occasionally results in extremely slow portamento if one hits the note too lightly. I tried mapping it with the leap motion instead, but I can't get a range that is controllable...
I feel that when playing with a keyboard, using velocity for Portamento (or "expression transition" with the woodwinds - see a recent thread in the forums - is a very natural choice: fast movement from tone to tone (in legato mode) -> fast portamento, slow movement -> slow portamento.
Also with the Flutes I did not yet find a decently working parameter setting. Still trying...
If it would be just a function that needs to be applied to the velocity value, I could easily do this with Reaper means (JSFX). But I am not sure that this would help.
Re the music:
Sounds great and very "natural" !!
Just a little critic; please consider that I have close to no knowledge with either classical music or bowed string playing.
To me it sounds odd that nearly every tone lasting for some mount of time is played with rather strong vibrato. My feeling is that vibrato should be used to emphasize emotionally important notes or sequences but not be overused. (That is why I route it from aftertouch and not from the keyboard's "Effect"-wheel <that in fact is free right now in my setup>.)
-Michael
The velocity control for portamento feels fairly natural as you point out, but the problem is that one can occasionally get a 1 or 2 second portamento when trying for a much faster one. (which can sound quite silly) I find it very hard to reliably get a particular portamento when performing. If I could simply cap the maximum portamento length it would help.
A fellow musician in my band said that the vibrato I use with the flute sounds nice but synth-like. So this seems to be a matter of taste
With the Flute I rather unsuccessfully tried to make out what exactly the multiple parameters that influence the velocity control of the portamento do. (See ongoing discussion -> http://www.samplemodeling.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=15814). Obviously the portamento control is a lot more important with a bowed string instrument.
-Michael