Hi!
Sometimes, when playing an instrument, it happens that the first note coincides with the moment when the layer is turned on and the note does not sound or has the sound of the layer from the previous part. Is it possible now in the program to somehow set the advance of turning on the layer relative to the beginning of the part (in milliseconds) or provide for this in the future? This is not always required. but it can be critical on layers for solo.
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Have u tried âPreloadâ options?
I know the issue you mean. If you want to play a note on the downbeat of a change it can be difficult. I now have my parts switch about 1/4 beat early to solve the issue.
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Iâve tried it, but as far as I understand, the Preload option preloads the layer, but itâs activated exactly according to the schedule. I mean, a live musician can hit the right note exactly, but in reality, itâs a few milliseconds later or earlier. If itâs earlier, theyâll hit the previous part and the previous layer. When playing with VL, I have to delay those few milliseconds before hitting the first note in my keyboard solo to ensure that I hit the correct layer.
On a preloaded song at this point, the notes take the sound from the previous layer, and here everything is aligned to the grid. But this no longer applies to musicians.
Another situation where this is necessary is when the instrumentâs part begins due to a beat. I cannot move the beginning of the piece to an earlier position because the beginning of the piece must coincide with the rhythm, but I start playing the piece earlier.
I wonder how VSTL should determin which Layer should be triggeredâŚ
What if you have a âvery late noteâ in Part 1 that has to be played only by the corresponding Part 1 Layer ⌠should it really trigger the Part 2 Layer because it is near Part 2? What might be helpful for some part changes could be âfatalâ for others.
Greets Pit
The preload function has nothing to do with timeline at all. It merely activates plugins so that those are âprimedâ so to prevent them to take time for that later in the project.
Thatâs how it is supposed to be, or with lesser early. Also good for program changes, as many plugins or hardware instruments need some time for that.
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But I know when and what will be played, I distribute the layers myself, I can distribute the parts so that they will be on different layers. If I hold the note it will sound after the end of the layer, But I canât play a note to get the sound of the future part..
The layer is associated with a part. A part is almost always associated with the rhythmic pattern and logic of a song, such as the beginning of a verse or the beginning of a chorus, and the notes may start due to a bar. For example⌠It is very strange to make a part at the end of a verse in order to play three notes that should be played due to a bar, or to delay pressing a note in order to avoid playing the wrong sound. I say not about the property of the entire project, but rather about the property of each specific layer within a part. It is about the ability to adjust a specific layer.
Yes. âPreloadâ is a great option, I started to preload the whole project before rehearsal, and at home I work without preloading.
I understand that it is most likely, that with a new Part and a new Layer the sound would be played immediately. I just wanted to point out, that the logic for this might not always be convenient.
Did you try to solve this with automation? Using a Global Layer for the following Part and unmute, when the Part starts?
Very good question!!!
Iâm playing the keyboard right now and I have a chord at the end of a measure, thereâs a bell sound that should extend to the next measure and a pad sound that should stop. If the layer had a pull or stop switch at the end of the batch (maybe with fading) That would be cool.
But you asked that question, I was just guessing. 
I used the track creation for each situation, but this is very cluttered project. Now everything is compact for each part one or two layers under the live keyboard and the problem is only with the time of pressing.
Of course, if it will be very disturbing, I will make a track with mutes. It is not even necessary to make a global layer. The layer associated with the track works for the whole song. But this is the creation of unnecessary objects where they are not needed.
But imagine the difference for the user in terms of time to write on the layer for example -500ms or to do automation
But I wrote with a tag âfuture requestâ, not a problem that is impossible to work with.
Instead of playing the Layer of the next part in advance wouldnât it be better to âfireâ a note again if the next part starts and there is a note still pressed?
Before you discribed your request I didnât expect that the Layer of a following Part âignoresâ still pressed keys.
I just donât get comfortable with the âin advanceâ approach.
And if itâs an instrument with a hard attack and decay, like a piano, for example. It will play twice then. On the other hand, the note of the layer stays after it if I press and hold them. Thatâs not a problem, is it? What is the difference between before and after?
A layer and a part are not the same entity . A layer is a tool, and a part is a length of time. These are even more independent things in essence than a part and a track. If the concept of the program is such that we can play the instrument without creating tracks, then we should be able to start playing at any time without breaking the structure of the parts.
Global tracks are a good idea. Like, I bring a piano to a concert and play the entire concert. But how can you control it if itâs not a piano, but a synthesizer with preset changes? The parts layer reads all the instrument parameters saves it and plays, but how i can transfer this to the global tracks? I still havenât come up with a situation where I could use them, except perhaps for drums. Make global layers for each preset? There will be several dozen of them for all project, as well as automation tracks to turn the sound on and off?
In general, I think that the most logical way to link a layer would be to a song, just like a track, with the ability to set boundaries at any point in the song without being tied to specific parts, but with the ability to align the borders at the beginning and end of the parts. Or⌠allow the layers to expand beyond the boundaries of the parts
Today I was recording my part on the keyboard and the first notes at the beginning of the parts are constantly missing. But even more interesting is how I had to play 3 notes before the bar and part. I had to set up a preset in a combination of two sounds separated by velocity, and I had to play the last three notes of the part with all my might to make them play with a different sound. This is because these notes already belonged to the next layer.
Iâve been using VL for six months now, and the problem described here is very annoying. When The entire ensemble plays under a metronome, the first parts at the junction of the parts in half of the cases either receive the wrong sound or loose sound.
A very strange solution is to link the boundaries of the layers with the boundaries of the parts.
Notes related to a part can be played due to the part.
But I would really like to be able to start a layer before the part it belongs to. Itâs completely wrong to expect musicians to adjust their playing and music to the behavior of the program, and it shouldnât be like that. Music is created by humans, and computers shouldnât dictate how humans should write it and play it.
Any DAW does not have this problem, because there are no layers and parts, and sound control is done exclusively from the tracks, and sound is enabled and disabled through automation. Of course, we can also create two tracks (midi and automation) for each layer, but in this case the layers lose their purpose, and the layout of the parts becomes even more difficult than in a DAW.
Thought occurs as to how you would have achieved this in the old days - ie at which point would you have changed the sound manually on your synth and how would that have affected your playability of the sound?
One possible solution is to use a Shared Layer across two parts and use automation (or a pedal) to bring up the volume at the relevant point.
Or you could do a Wakeman and add another keyboard or maybe split the keyboard.
Or a global layer and send program changes via virtual midi tracks in each song so youâll be indipendent from parts
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In the old days, I would have mmm⌠five 
synthesizers, each with a preset set before the song started, and I would simply switch between them. In our case, the sound is turned on, when I start playing an instrument (The beginning of the part), and turned off when i stop it (end of the part). If i have one synthesizer I can switch presets at any moment, usually before the part I want to play. But there I have midi keyboard and computer with layers.
To solve this problem, I make a midi track. I donât link layer to the keyboard, but to the midi track out, I connect the keyboard instead of the layer to the track input, I make an automation track for this midi track, and I set the monitor to turn on and off a second before the part starts, or a certain number of notes before the part starts. But this is very time-consuming and laborious, and the automation track editor contains errors that are very annoying. As a result, the project contains many tracks that are essentially unnecessary.
I use midi track in a song to control this layer and automation track to control monitor switch, but it takes a lot of time.