Need source of information about flute articulation in Studio Woodwinds

StuSchaffner

Hi, newbie post. I did a search. I have been using the core version of Studio Woodwinds, in Cubase, for some time, mostly for flute parts. I use UACC and expression maps for articulation. I will need much more articulation control than I am using now, but don't have a good source of information beyond "try it out, it's cool". In particular, I am having problems when I use the Note Editor (piano roll) to write a score. It seems that the UACC mechanism isn't generating events to stop a note, especially for articulation Long. In contrast, Tenuto seems to stop early, contrary to what I read in music books. It seems that Spitfire treats Long as what a standard music text would call Tenuto. In many cases, Long produces a hung note, even when the note is short enough to not overlap the beginning of the next note.

Another small source of irritation is the different origins for octave numberings. In the non-MIDI world, C4 is middle C, but I understand that in MIDI it's C3. I got used to that, but I just bought the Professional version of Studio Woodwinds and there it seems to be C4. This leads me to believe that there's a nifty switch somewhere in the MIDI instrument.

I imagine that these are known issues. Can someone point me to some helpful information?

StuSchaffner

No answers yet, but have been doing some more poking around myself. On the issue of the one-octave difference between the MIDI and outside-world octave numbering convention, I noticed that there is a transpose setting in Studio Woodwinds, at least for the flutes. Does this do what I want, or does it do some sort of waveform stretching?

If transpose IS a solution, can I somehow lock the transposition value in the stored sample library? Is there some way to add automation to change this value on the fly?

I am still unable to get articulation Long to work. Weird chord-like noises and stuck notes. All the other articulations work. The MIDI looks good in the List Editor.

The MIDI instrument window for Studio Woodwinds solo flute has a keyboard along the bottom with the normal range of a standard concert flute. All these notes play correctly when you depress them, or when you move notes in the note editor. However, in Legato at least, some of the lower notes are silent when played. Is the range restricted for the particular articulation?

One comment pointed me to a short video on string articulation. This was interesting, but right now I am interested in a flute, not a violin. There was a comment about the need to set the velocity low. As far as I can see, Studio Woodwinds has Expression and Dynamics and seems to ignore velocity.

In this video clip, the cure for improperly shortened notes seemed to involve a Sustain parameter. Again, I don't see this in Studio Woodwinds.

StuSchaffner

I have found some more specifics about the range and articulation problems. They seem to be in both the Core and Professional versions of Studio Woodwinds. I am using the solo flute patch.

The range is restricted, but by exactly one note: C3 in MIDI (called C4, the note between Bass and Treble Clefs in the rest of the world). C3 sounds properly when you press it on the keyboard on the bottom of the MIDI instrument window. If you move a note to C3 in the Note Editor of Cubase you will also get the proper sound. C#3 does sound when played. As a flute player myself, I can understand that many flutists might wish that the standard flute didn't have those roller thingies at the bottom end, and hence stopped at C#3.

In the Pro Version at least, Long C#3 sounds like a train airhorn, a highly dissonant Dyad. It does cut off, and doesn't hang though.

The VST seemed to have encountered an error somewhere in all this, for there was the following comment at the bottom of the window:

Script warning: (Line 14860, Script 2): Control ID was not declared

StuSchaffner

It's taken several more days of work on articulation before I found the "problem" with long articulation. It came from what I would call a very misleading interface in the Expression Map Setup -> Output Map window in Cubase 11. Somehow I had some extra commands in what is actually a list of commands to be executed on a key switch depression. So, I had inadvertently tried out the multivoice capabilities of the long patch!

Angus

Hi @StuSchaffner

Sorry I seem to have missed this post. If you need any further help, @ me here or contact our support team directly at www.spitfireaudio.com/support

StuSchaffner

Thanks, but I'm OK. The problem was due to an awkward user interface design in Cubase. I had my articulation key switch programmed to do three actions, not one. One action was garbage, one was correct, and the third was a second tone pitch-bent up. When I played a note I got all three: the note I wanted, a dissonant second note, and some sort of error. Hence the air horn sound that wouldn't turn off.

The problem was that these three concurrent actions were presented as if they were a list of three options, with the option I wanted highlighted. Actually, I was supposed to know that this was a list and the highlighting on one element of the list was just an artifact of editing.