You can find MIDI Polysher here ā MIDI Polysher
Thank you for that.
Having read what itās for etc. Iāll pass thanks because my controller (Akai MPK mini MK3) comes with a program that allows me to do exactly this anyway, and I can then select my own choice of mappings/splits as I need.
Seem to be getting slightly off-topicā¦ but, IIRC it means that I can use the āProgram Changeā function also on the controller to select this program as needed - despite of course itās probably desirable to just leave it as default.
If Iām not misunderstanding the entire concept, some of the VSTs I use also have their own control mapping. So I can either remap those to fit my current layout, or write a new layout to match their default mapping. I presume this would be the intended behaviour?
If I understand you, yes, that is the intended behavior.
Hi, @alan9990
I drop here a simple workflow for you to test
Set a series of chords in Scaler using Voice Grouping C3-B4 and send the Scaler output to the VG SILK
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Then drop a transposer tool before VG SILK set to +2 octaves, so the Scaler output falls into the VG SILK Chords area
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Now drop an instrument track that listens to your keyboard, and send its output to VG SILK
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Then move octaves down in your keyboard so to send the output to the 2 areas below
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Now start your DAW and play notes with your hands on, while Scaler sends chords
Let me know
Wow, thanks for taking the time on this - very interesting!!
A couple of questions/comments, if you donāt mind:
Iām guessing the caps are from Bitwig? Looks like it. Relevant to my remarks and workflow.
I see that you are using an instrument-per-track approach. How does this differ functionally from what I did, which is to add Scaler, then attach VG-Silk to its output? What I achieve is that anything coming out of Scaler goes directly into the UJAM plugin? So my chords trigger the sounds because I simply set the chords I chose in Scaler into the <Octave: 4> setting i.e. C4 and it triggers it perfectly.
None of this is to say that your approach above isnāt helpful, Iām just trying to work out why and how it differs and what extra it can achieve?
My āissueā has been that when storing chord patterns in Scaler, the moment I load Pattern 2 and up, it appears to now trigger the āwrongā part of VG-Silk, despite Iām now feeling that this is in fact how Scaler works, rather than a fault in the UJAM. I do note your earlier comments in that all V2 work fine!
You have given me a good solution though, because what I could do is to simply load up multiple instances of Scaler, each on its own track, and direct all outputs into VG-Silk. Then, I simply put my chosen chords into Pattern 1 in each instance (different patterns per Scaler instance), and play away!
To be clear: the final step in your suggested workflow above is the thing Iām trying to avoid i.e. I DO NOT want my keyboard to trigger UJAM inside the C1 - C2 range.
I try to put it simpler
I love jamming on an accompaniment base, so with my workflow, Scaler sends chords in the C3-B4 area, BUT the transposer tool sends them 2 octaves higher, so perfectly in the VG SILK Chords area
Then, drop an empty Instrument track linked to your keyboard, and send its output to VG SILK
Now, I have a 49-keys keyboard, so I must hit the Octave up/down buttons to reach the Common phrases and Style phrases areas of the VG SILK GUI, but you can skip this step if you have a larger keyboard
Then hit the keys on your keyboard that fall in the Common phrases and Style phrases areas, and job done
You can also select Latch, so that you can hit Pattern keys only when you need a change
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On the other hand, If you want to drive VG SILK automatically, you clearly need a 2nd Scaler instance synced and properly transposed to hit the Common phrases and Style phrases areas
This has been very interesting and informative, and I appreciate the time and help.
I have however given up on this particular idea. Iāll explain why:
1: Misunderstanding on my part.
2: unnecessary complexity plus lack of features of the plugin.
Scaler remains excellent, I have no criticism at all!
I had been trying to help a friend create a backing track for vocals. So, I purchased an official score. I patiently laid out the set of exact chords for the guitar part inside the Scaler pattern arranger. So far so good.
And then, doh!!! I suddenly realisedā¦ VG-Silk is created as an instrument that will take a single midi note and replay a chord. So itās a complete waste of time, and utterly counterproductive, to try to feed it complete āchordsā because it will just get confused.
I then read the manual for VG-Silk. I kinda wish I hadnāt! Thereās a section explaining the extended chords available inside the plugin. First though, hereās the opening bars of the song:
Em7; A7#5; Ab7; G9; C6; Eb9; Ab9#5; D7#5; G7#5; C; B7sus ā¦ and so on.
A beautiful sequence indeed, and fed into a different instrument, it sounds lovely. BUT!!!
some of these chords arenāt even available inside VG-Silk. Those that are (and yes, substitutions would just about work) are more complicated to play than if Iād learned the keyboard and just play the actual chord!! Trying to creat Em7 in VG-Silk takes four fingers.
Yes, weāre in the Scaler plugin forum, not the Juiilard Academy or Royal Music School. As a graduate thereIād be expected to play this stuff in my sleep. I was trying to use technology to help me make music.
For ājammingā sure, VG-Silk still sounds quite believable, but ābuilt by guitarists for guitaristsā ? Cāmon, theyāre having a laugh surely?
All this said, your workflow and methods remain interesting and informative, but personally I need to continue my search for a decent-sounding nylon guitar VST. I suspect Iām going to end up back in Kontakt/NI. Theyāre pricey, but for a reason IMO
Frankly speaking, I donāt give a damn of the theory
and I am very, very happy I donāt need music to earn my living
I play for fun and nothing else matters
Unless you arenāt very skilled at keyboard, I am afraid youāll have to buy, and learn to play, the real stuff
I had the 2 NI Sunburst and the Orangetree blues guitar: well, the sounds are great because even scratches are sampled , but you donāt have any control on the riffs, and they are quite scarce for the high price IMHO
You can certainly play them manually, but to use che chords and all the articulations, you must be very skilled at keyboards, having possibly 3 hands (not very common nowadays) or better 3 hand + a pedal
My 2 cents of an axe
I agree with both what you wrote. Yes they are pricey and, yes, that is for a reason. Kontakt/NI are superior to most of other instruments on the market. During the Summer Sales, I bought a few of them for 50% off and when I pay 50 bucks for such good instruments, this is worth every penny.
Donāt forget that several times a year there are periods of quite a substantial rebates, very often 50% off so just arm with the patience and maybe in a few weeks there will be rebates. At the latest on Black Friday, but I believe this will happen earlier.
I own about six guitars, but while I may not exactly be ātoo lazyā to play them, in fact my interest in DAW lies largely in how and whether one can substitute a physical instrument - the limitations of using a keyboard accepted.
Thereās a lot of additional mucking about when recording an acoustic guitar, including mic and mic placement, let alone the editing of the resulting file.
So, thereās as much a āproof of principleā involved here as anything else.
I would also just add that IMHO, while EDM and other electronic music genres do have their own demands and limitations, it strikes me that a lot of these more difficult nuances occur when dealing with more āacousticā treatments of tunes, and in which thereās a lot more āroomā for things to breathe.
I shall indeed remain patient.
My experience with them to date hasnāt quite reflected this though. Things may change. I bought their āsession hornsā a while back. Fantastic! But, thinking of upgrading to the full brass, they kept tempting me with discounts. When I passed (I do not have a money tree in my garden), the price went back up to full, and has stayed there ever since.
However, we like to live in hope
If I had even just one, plus the ability to play it, Iād never searched for a guitar plugin, but Iād rather used an audio-midi interface to play along with the other instruments I donāt have/I am unable to play
I really donāt understand why you risk losing a high manual ability that you reached studying and practising a lot
As far as I got, you can do it only with sample-base plugins, but at the cost to have precooked loops, exactly like precooked MIDIs
That is by accident at the base of one reasoning of mine
And this is why I started using EZBass manually
But playing a bass with a keyboard is easier than a guitar
And you are thinking to substitute a physical sax with a plugin, you are in more trouble
Fair question.
I suppose itās a bit like the reason why, despite I have well over 1000 DVD and Blu Ray movies, I instead sit on my sofa with a remote control, scouring the streaming channels hoping that āthereās something worth watchingā - despite I could just walk downstairs! And yes, I have movies still in the shrink wrap!
I donāt see myself as losing a skill but as acquiring new ones. An exchange perhaps?
And Iām not sure that the world of digital audio is really one where one can master everything? As such, Iām more interested in mixing and mastering than I am recording.
Remote control are the humankind ruin
Kill the remote control, and youālive a better life
sure.
But listening to music is a psycho-acoustic experience. We end up āhearingā what our brain constructs for us. Therefore if the overall result of my combining a bunch of tracks into a song, and someone comes away thinking āwow, love that sax solo!ā to me it becomes immediately immaterial where the sound came from.
Personally I find it useful to find some happy middle ground between whatās ārealā and what is generated. Itās all about the final impression.
I donāt think itās true that having a sample-based VST ties one to loops. I know you donāt like NI and Kontakt, but thatās certainly my experience that they do a brilliant job of sample libraries, and which give us a completely open and non-constrained instrument.
A sample is a sampleā¦
If the sample has a āscratchā in certain places, you cannot remove them or move them elsewhere in the loop, unless you split the sound and restitch it, but this is a huge job that keeps you far away from Mix & Max
The MIDI can be easily edited, but I find it boring in the long time
Playing all instruments with a little help instead is funny, but YMMV
give us a completely open and non-constrained instrument.
If you mean guitar libraries, only if you are very able at keyboardsā¦
Otherwise, you are in a very boring cramped cage
So, friendly advice could be to test before buying, but you cannot with NI
I use scaler for a lot of music but actually find using EZ keys as a controller for UJam product far more productive and easier
Midi out from Ezkeys into Ujam
Iām a guitarist of 40 years and with a little tweaking on the Ez editor setting up Logic to raise the key range and adjusting the midi by nudging midi and optimising chords on grid ! I donāt have any issue with UJam (2) products?
So perfect results.
So Back to this after a littler research to see what problems you are having ā¦ Use scaler to find your chords - drag these directly either in bandmate or onto grid.
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Using EZkeys as controller for UJam midi out - You can select any Chords (Any) Maj Min 7th Add 9 ! I have not found a single chord you cannot use in UJam ! so that doesnāt seem to be an issue
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As with all of these midi through midi driven products you will have to set up and use the Grid Editor at some time to get the right chord or key, this is so simple in EZ - there is an Octave feature and also Chord Inversion included in the Circle of 5ths also a function for sparced chords and Melody/ostenato.
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You can adjust the chord blocks in EZkeys to create new Patterns ! ( so the lack of patterns in Ujam) doesnāt apply - use single phrases in the ācommon patchesā and build your own. ! or mix and match with UJam
Maybe as an experienced Logic user and guitarist is may seem a little easier for me to work out
I have tried NI ( still have mint )and several other Guitars based VSTs with a seemingly more open architecture but what I found is I end up spending hours trying to build patterns and midi in the VST and wasting time in complicated confused interfacesā¦ just to have to alter the midi then again in Logic
EZ products are you friends with Scaler as a midi in and chord construction superb !
Yes, I use The Toontrack trio when I want a fast base to jam on
nevertheless, I cannot avoid putting Scaler in the formula, because it helps me with solos using keys-lock sometimes, or having Scaler suggest me the possible matching scales that I recreate in Ableton Live