I’m trying to figure out how to change mallets for a timpani player midway through a flow using NotePerformer, but I don’t see a playing technique for mallets, and I don’t know how to add to, and wouldn’t want to mess with, the NotePerformer expression map. Is this possible, and if so, how do I make this work?
I don’t think it’s possible. I have VSL Synchron Percussion with NPPE and you can only ever use one specific triangle or one specific cymbal etc. Same with the timpani. I too would like the option to switch between some of the other VSL timpani libraries mid flow, but I haven’t found a way to do it. NotePerformer is designed this way.
If I want a variety of mallets I revert to my older VSL timpani in the VIPro player which I host in VEPro.
If someone else has figured out how to use multiple timpani slots in NPPE, please let us know!
I’m always surprised, when folks talk about the desired capabilities of NotePerformer, that they do not flag Arne @Wallander in their posts. While adding such capabilities may be impractical to do, Arne won’t know folks desire them unless they let him know.
If you’re using NotePerformer without NPPE, then you could put the notes for the different timpani mallets in different voices and use staff text to indicate which type of mallets to use:
Then in play mode, enable independent voice playback for the timpani, open the NotePerformer VST, and override the sounds to specify which type of mallets to use:
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I didn’t know we could. I’ll be sure to tag Arne going forward.
This worked perfectly! Thanks!
Just following on from this discussion with particular emphasis on VSL Synchron Percussion.
I have Synchron Percussion I and NPPE and it all works fine. Does anyone have Synchron Percussion II or III or either of the two associated Timpani libraries (soft and hard mallets) which can be purchased separately?
If so, does the Synchron NPPE map them?
I’m in contact with Alexander at Wallander Insts. and he thought they had mapped them, although I’m waiting for him to confirm…on their website they only state that they have mapped Synchron Percussion I , so before buying these other two Timpani libraries, I want to confirm that they work with NPPE.
Many thanks.
I have those libraries but do not recall any choice available in the mallets in the NPPE. Here is the documentation :
Hi Marc,
Thank you so much. So are you confirming you cannot access the other Timpani Libraries through the Synchron NPPE? I know the documentation only includes Synchron Percussion I, but it may be that Synchron Percussion II and III were not available when they put that in their documentation…That’s why I’m wondering if indeed they are available…Alexander at Wallander seemed to think they had mapped them.
Thanks for checking!
I can double check tomorrow if you want but yes, that’s exactly what it feels like.
Note that the Eb clarinet that has been made available last month is not included either in the woodwinds, until Arne can provide an update. Actually I understood that NP5 would make these additions and updates way easier on the development side, so I’m not expecting anything new for those NPPE until that major update is available (but I might be totally wrong, only @Wallander could tell)
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I received this answer from Alexander at Wallander Instruments, which clarifies the situation:
At the moment, we’ve only mapped the percussion from Synchron Percussion I in NPPE, so unfortunately it’s not possible to use the additional timpani libraries from Synchron Percussion II or III with our Synchron Playback Engine as it stands today.
That said, with NotePerformer 5, users will be able to add these additional Synchron Timpani/Percussion libraries themselves. We hope to release it before the summer of 2025, and it will be a free update for all NotePerformer users.
This is great news and will doubtless affect other libraries too.
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