So, the title pretty much says it all. Using Spitfire Symphonic Strings with Kontakt. Anyone? Please help!
if c3 is central C, I believe E-2 is out of midi notes range. So it probably triggers nothing.
Welcome Pedro
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Have you watched any of the video tutorials about setting up expression maps and VSTs?
eg. Playback Explained, Including Expression and Percussion Maps | Discover Dorico with John Barron - YouTube or Creating and Sharing Playback Templates | Discover Dorico - YouTube -
With Spitfire Libraries I find it easier to use their UACC to switch articulations rather than keyswitches. (eg. Pizzicato is cc32=56, Tremolo is cc32=11 etc.)
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Hey Janus, thanks for getting back. I just saw the videos and those were great (and I’m definetely gonna follow that fella) but didn’t quite work for me. The thing now is not figuring out the KSs. But actually make them trigger the expressions in the play and write mode. At the expression maps window, when I hit the play button, all expressions assigned sound fine, but when I hit play at the flow, the expressions are not triggered. Below goes a couple of screenshots. Hope they help you help me out! P.S.: I don’t know why the violin 2 name (which is the one instrument I’m using the expression map I created) is missing !
- Why is your Violin II channel set to 1 in Dorico? It should be channel 12.
- Why is your Violins 2 channel set to omni in Kontakt? It should be channel 12.
Hey MiloDC. Thanks for the feedback. That was my first attempt. And it’s curious, because when I set that way and click right in an individual note at write or play mode, it plays, I can hear the note and the expressions. But when I hit play in the transport to actually play a phrase, no sound comes out. And that’s why in the end I set the way it shows at the screenshots, because that’s the only way I found to actually play the notes. For sure, I must be missing something…
Can you, perhaps, just post a Dorico file, here? Some of us (myself included) use Spitfire libraries. I have strings playing back flawlessly on my machine.
Sure! Btw, as you might already have noticed, newbie here at Dorico. Orch - Flow 1.dorico (828.6 KB)
Meanwhile, I managed to make the expressions work. But the seem to be “piling up” (e.g.: Spiccato+Pizz) Screen Shot 2021-10-17 at 17.36.14.pdf (29.7 KB)
I run into problems with your file. First, I see this:
… and in Kontakt, the instrument looks like this:
I’m not sure I can work with this. Kontakt tries to load samples that are apparently dated 2016. What version of Kontakt are you using? How old are your Spitfire Symphonic Strings samples? (Have you updated them recently?)
Here’s a file with the violins playing correctly, though I don’t know that you’ll be able to load it:
curvello.dorico (3.2 MB)
If you’re interested, I keep my Spitfire expression maps, Kontakt multis, and playback template here. My multis comprise the following Spitfire libraries:
Spitfire Symphonic Woodwinds
Spitfire Symphonic Brass
Spitfire Percussion (Joby Burgess)
Spitfire Hg2O
Spitfire Orchestral Grand
Spitfire Symphonic Organ
Spitfire Harp
Spitfire Solo Strings
Spitfire Symphonic Strings
My winds include an E♠clarinet, which is just a B♠clarinet with its range artificially tweaked for the higher notes. It’s the clarinet on channel 1 of the Woodwinds_B multi. I think there might be a few Cinematic Studio horns in there, too, but if so then they’re there only to supply solo muted horn sounds, which Spitfire lacks.
Most of my percussion set-up is by @MarcLarcher, who devised excellent Spitfire percussion maps that are pretty much the standard around here. (I made some changes to suit my personal tastes.)
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MiloDC, those are great tips. Can’t thank you enough. Your Spitfire templates are gonna come in handy! And yes, an update in my library is needed!
Glad to be of help. Definitely keep your sample libraries, and especially Kontakt Player, up to date. (I’ve had significant problems with Kontakt Player in the past couple of years, but with the latest version, things are running very nicely, at last. The big issues were samples occasionally not loading automatically, and the application taking several minutes to unload samples from memory, and sometimes even hanging on unload. Those problems have vanished.)