Articulation set problem/BBC Core/ Logic

RPerrillo

I am experiencing an issue with the articulation set. I'll try my best to explain:

Project is approximately 24 tracks, using a separate instance of the player for each track and using the Spitfire provided articulation set to change articulations within each instrument track's separate regions using the piano roll editor window. I have not merged same track separate regions. For each instrument I have purged unused articulations and total RAM usage is around 5.4Gb. My late 2017 iMac Retina has 24Gb of RAM.

The problem, which is repeatable, began after I added a previously purged articulation (trumpets/muted/long). This articulation is only used on one region, but when listening to entire composition I noticed that the trumpets part on an earlier region, which were legato, had also changed to muted/long. Checking these notes in the piano roll still show that legato is the selected articulation. I tried several different ways of "resetting" these notes by highlighting them and then changing the articulation to something other than legato then changing them back to legato with no luck. The only remedy was to once again purge the muted/long articulation which made those earlier notes revert to the correct legato articulation. Interestingly, the phenomena has only presented itself on one of the trumpet regions. There are several other regions in between suffering no such issue.

Certainly would appreciate any help anyone can provide.

Thank you!

Ron Perrillo

aldous

@RPerrillo A few things that may help:

(1) Yes, the articulation maps from Spitfire use the key-switches. Setting a note's articulation is just a convenient alternative to putting the articulation's key-switch in the piano roll... it's just nice not to have the clutter in the piano roll, to get the names, etc.

(2) If you use the plugin's technique editor to remove a technique, then add it back in, the key-switch is forgotten. So, even if your articulation mapping says a note is e.g. "Long", the plugin won't change articulation because it has no longer got that key-switch mapped. I think this may be your problem above?

You can check by going into the plugin, clicking on each technique, and making sure you see "Trigger: keyswitch", the key's name, etc, on the right. If any shows "Trigger: None" then you can either set it manually, or you can reload the preset from scratch and purge the unwanted techniques again, which will the leave the key-switches set correctly the techniques you keep. I recommend the latter, to make sure the key-switches still line-up with Spitfire's articulation map.

(3) For notes without a specified articulation, no key-switch is sent. This means that (by default) any chosen articulation is "sticky": if you play a note whose articulation is set to "Legato", then all following notes without an articulation of their own will be played with "Legato" until it encounters a note with a different articulation specified... even if you pause playback, skip to a different region, and start playback again. That may explain how an articulation in one region can affect another region?

Mario

Do you have two tracks each with an instance of BBCSO loaded one with trumpets a3 with just legato and one with just Long muted articulation? If that is the case it should really work without issues without key switches.

On the other hand if you have one track with one instance of BBCSO and legato and long muted articulation (or more) loaded where you want to have one legato and one long muted region to play correctly on the same track, you need to add key switches below the first note in both regions. In Logic C-2 for legato and A#-2 for muted. So an octave lower than shown in the plugin if you have note changed the default middle C in Logic. Alternatively create an articulation with these key switches if you do not want the low notes in your score. You can than also highlight notes and change articulation and use color of notes by articulation to clearly see them.

RPerrillo

Hi Mario - thank you for trying to help. I am using one instance of BBCSO for each instrument track, in this case trumpets a3 and using the articulation set available here:

https://spitfireaudio.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360018909538

to change articulations on a note by note basis as necessary. This is done by highlighting the note or notes and assigning which articulation is desired in a drop-down menu in piano roll editor (left side where the quantization and other CC automation controls are.) I don't know if the articulation set at the link above uses keyswitches in it's control structure, however no keyswitches appear in the piano roll itself. This articulation set has worked perfectly fine except for the problem I described in my first post where changing the articulation of a few notes in one region also changed the articulation of notes in a different and separate region on the same track. Another thing I neglected to mention as it did not pertain to the issue I'm having; using a single instance of BBCSO, I can't seem to understand how to have a region be played/recorded with anything other than legato, which is of course monophonic. Example; if I want to record a region using anything other than legato do I first have to open the BBCSO player and change the articulation to what I need? Currently I record the multi-note polyphonic part on a scratch piano track then copy and paste it into the region where I need it, then change the articulation(s) as noted before.

And, as always, my apologies for being very new to all of this as I'm sure my improper use of terminology doesn't help. Thanks again for chiming in.

Mario

OK so your main problem is switching articulations during or before recording. Maybe others have a better solution but this is indeed not very logic.

If you record while having the BBCSO plugin open in Logic and play notes you can switch articulations in the plugin and you hear the correct one but the keyswitch notes are not recorded. So when you playback the recording all is Long (my default) again. You can then use the method you describe with the articulation set to manually enter the articulations again.

The only way to solve correct recoding of articulations while you play is as far as I know to press the keyswitch notes for the articulations while you are playing or if you want to start with e.g. stacatissimo for trumpets a3 you have to record a first note D-2 in the piano roll or enter it manually before you start playing. Switching during playing is tricky when you do not have a full 88 keys keyboard. You can shift the keyswitches to the right but this is again a pain as you articulation set with the default switches will not work anymore. So you have to save the preset with the modified keyswitches and adapt your articulation set I think.

Mario

PS. If you have an iPad you can use Logic Remote (free) or an application like TouchOSC (5 Euro I think and you have free BBCSO templates) to switch articulations in Logic during playback. Both programs write the keyswitch notes to the piano roll. So simply connect LogicRemote to your Logic session and use it as second keyboard showing the keyswitch range C-2.... .

RPerrillo

@aldous

Yes, that's exactly the information I needed! Bravo and much thanks!