Re: MIDI "Controller" Support
Re: MIDI "Controller" Support
- Subject: Re: MIDI "Controller" Support
- From: Bill Stewart <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 14:39:58 -0700
I note I'd like to add to this (in the spirit of Robert's point about
usability)
Many patches on hardware synths have configurations for controllers
like mod wheel, aftertouch, foot controller, etc, that are designed as
part of the patch... This provides a very satisfying experience when
you are trying the factory patches in a synth as you play the note,
press the keys, twiddle the mod wheel, etc, and the sound changes in an
often expected and satisfactory manner... This customisation of
'hard-wired' controllers to aspects of a particular patch should not be
under-estimated for providing a good experience of your synth when a
user first tries it.
That's why I included these common ones (and we can add poly pressure!)
to the list of things that are worth considering for a soft synth...
As for the "new" feature of midi-learn - hardware synths have had
reassignable controller functionality since at least the DX7-II (and
lets not forget the analog patch cords)... so in some respects soft
synths are actually just catching up to their "hardware" brethren... In
fact one of the most common complaints about soft synths that I hear is
their lack of controllability (which I take to mean "I choose this
patch, move the mod-wheel/press on the keyboard (sometimes even the
pitch bend wheel) and nothing happens")...
I also believe that the MMA's MIDI Implementation chart is a good chart
to publish for soft-synths as well (we should to this for ours!) - yes
its a computer with a slightly better display than LED's, yes we can
all spend hours teaching our synths how to be controlled with our tens
of different control surfaces and our thousands of patches, etc,
Its useful to think about the degree of control/customisation (and
perhaps most importantly consistency across different manufacturers)
that has already been achieved in the hardware realm just with the
agreement of some small/basic set of control semantics.
The useful parts of the MIDI spec (and I'm thinking more of something
closer to my abbreviated list of controllers, not the GM list), and the
degree of consistency and user experience this can give rise to,
shouldn't be discarded just because you are a soft-synth and the
"right" host app (or "right" UI) will let you do anything you want...
Bill
On Monday, July 14, 2003, at 01:21 PM, Glenn Olander wrote:
I'm not suggesting that one should offer midi learn to
the exclusion of predefined controller-to-parameter mappings. I'm
just pointing out that relying on the hardwiring of cc7 to volume
is not a general solution to the problem Doug described.
By all means, provide default mappings. However, as I believe
Angus is pointing out, you shouldn't be surprised when the
default mappings for any modern synth look nothing like
the midi cc table :-).
- Glenn
Robert Grant wrote:
I think the answer for the 21st century is to provide sensible
default mappings for the common CCs *and* allow the user to
reconfigure them using MIDI learn. My Evolution MK-225C has 8 labeled
knows that by default are mapped to common CCs and it's great to
attach it to a synth and adjust the resonance or release of a synth
with out fiddling with anything. If you have no equivalent mapping
then ignore it and allow the user to map a different CC to that
parameter if they want. But if there is a mapping then it only makes
sense to provide that as the default and let the user override it as
they wish. It would be *very* unfriendly to not provide any default
mapping (for those that make sense) and *force* every user to make
those mappings.
IMHO,
Robert.
On Monday, July 14, 2003, at 03:00 PM, Glenn Olander wrote:
Hardwiring cc7 to a synth's volume would help Doug Wyatt :-),
but it wouldn't be much help to many other users, especially
if they use an expression pedal instead of a volume pedal or have
an array of midi cc's on their keyboard that they would like
to use for that purpose.
As I mentioned before, the answer for the 21st century is to
implement midi learn. Enough synths offer it today that you're at
a decided disadvantage if you don't.
It also makes midi implementation charts unnecesary. Okay, so the
filter cutoff on ModelE is CC71. Now what? I don't have a knob
assigned to 71. I don't want to map controllers in the host or my
controller because a moment later I'll be working with a
different synth. If instead you're working with a synth which
has implemented midi learn, just choose filter cutoff from the
GUI, twirl a knob on your controller, and you're ready to go. There's
a good reason why midi implementation charts are virtually extinct.
Let's leave it that way :-).
- Glenn
Doug Wyatt wrote:
On Sunday, Jul 13, 2003, at 00:38 US/Pacific, Urs Heckmann wrote:
I've often been asked why my stuff does not support CC7 (Volume).
I replied "uhm, please, try in Logic" and they knew why. (Because
the host already uses it for channel volume)
Ouch, this is my pet peeve! ;-)
I use my volume pedal extensively. I want it to affect the synth's
output level, not the Logic channel strip, so that if I have an
effect (say a reverb) following the synth, I'm not killing the
reverb as I fade out a sustained sound. But there are and will be
other hosts, and the last time I tried I did manage to make an
environment to route CC7 to a synth. Please, implement it. For
Logic users, you could also connect volume to a different control
source (I believe Expression is sometimes used for this purpose,
foot controller might not be a bad choice either if you don't want
to go through making a UI to make it user-assignable)
Doug
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