More specifically, a sound’s attack, decay, sustain and release (ADSR), along with its timbre, dynamics, and pitch. You’ll notice that the second half feels much groovier due to the changes in velocity.Īrticulation refers to how a musical note is played. The first half of the following audio example doesn’t make adequate use of velocity, but the second half does. Listen to the difference velocity makes in a simple arrangement using Grand Rhapsody, Bass Fingers (Waves’ virtual bass guitar) and some drums. That allowed all of those significant elements to be grouped on adjacent faders, making balancing easier.
The template also featured sub-groups for instruments, drums and vocals. This is a go-to trick I use when using multi-sampled instruments. By placing it on a MIDI track, it allows you to create subtle random velocity variations, similar to those present in a live piano recording. If you’re using Ableton, there’s a MIDI effect called Velocity that allows you to randomize velocity values. I’m not the greatest pianist on earth, so being able to selectively focus on velocity changes can bring an incredible amount of life to my compositions. You can take advantage of velocity using multi-sampled virtual instruments in your own songs by either playing dynamically on a keyboard or by adjusting the velocity level of individual MIDI notes within your DAW.Īlternatively, you can map the velocity curve in Grand Rhapsody to a MIDI controller’s knob or slider and perform changes in velocity this is a great way to improve a MIDI performance after you’ve recorded it. Without changing anything except for velocity values, the second half sounds perfectly usable. Musically, the first half of the audio file doesn’t seem to work. The first half of the audio example doesn’t make use of different velocities, while the second half does. The following audio example contains a staccato chord progression that I created using Grand Rhapsody. For example, at lower velocities, the sound of the piano strings will be quieter, making the pedal noise more apparent. It will play back entirely different samples based on the input velocity. This virtual piano calls on samples from an extensive library of sounds based on the parameters that you set within its interface. With this knob set to its minimum value, Grand Rhapsody will produce a soft tone when fed a moderate velocity value, and a more aggressive tone when the knob is turned up. Waves virtual piano, Grand Rhapsody, sampled on the Fazioli F228 from London’s Metropolis Studios, allows you control of a velocity sensitivity curve knob. This doesn’t just mean that the sound will be louder it will also change the character of the sound. The higher the velocity you use to perform one of these actions, the bolder the resulting sound will be. Velocity refers to the speed at which a drum head is hit, a string is plucked or key is struck, etc. Intentionally adding imperfections and randomization to your virtual instruments can overcome this. By default, many virtual instruments can sound quite perfect, often missing the human element straight out of the box. You need to strike a balance between perfection and human error. Whether your client is ok with replacing a real recording with a virtual instrument can depend on the quality of the replacement you’re able to produce. In addition to providing access to instruments you don’t have, virtual instruments can allow you to sufficiently compensate for poor studio recordings, saving you time and money. In this piece, we’ll walk through 5 tips to make virtual instruments sound a little more real. While virtual instruments are efficient, practical and sound great, there’s sometimes a lack of “life” and “realness” present when trying to make them pop in the mix, in the way that a dynamic performance of an acoustic instrument would provide. A quality MIDI instrument will provide you with a detailed level of control over its parameters via an easy-to-use user interface. Virtual instrument plugins allow you to add drums, piano, bass, guitar, woodwinds, brass sections, and almost any instrument you can imagine, to your musical compositions.
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Learn how to make your MIDI sounds “real” using velocity automation, articulations, modulation, re-amping and FX. The breadth of sounds you have access to with virtual instruments is enormous.