I want to keep the expression in the snare but lower all velocities proportionately - how do I do that?
Thanks - rev
Hi Rev,
You select all your midi triggers which you want to lower proportionately and then at the top of the midi editor window you should see a box which says velocity. Just type in the velocity value you want and all your selected midi triggers will fix to that value.
Thanks but I don’t want to set them all to one value. If I have say 120 and 110, I want to lower them by a % such that I keep the difference and they now become 110 and 100, for example. Setting them all to one value will remove all the expression in the snare.
Good question, I wanted to do this myself and couldn’t see anything.
Doing that doesn’t set them all to the same value, but it also doesn’t scale them like you want (I think).
Lets say you have 3 notes with the following velocity values in order from 1st note to last:
100, 85, 93
If you select all 3 notes the value shown in the info window for velocity will be 100 because that is the first note (and it can only show one value). If you change that number from 100 to 80, the values of your 3 notes will now be:
80, 65, 73 - all lowered by 20.
To scale the values by %, select all the notes and have the Velocity Lane visible. If you hover & move your mouse around the top center of the selection in the Velocity Lane you will see 2 options for changing velocity by dragging. Slightly off center it will say “Move Velocity” this just does what happens when changing the value in the info line - if you move down by 20 all the values will be reduced by 20. But right at the center it will say “Scale Velocity” and if you use this it will scale them as you drag the values. So if in the initial example above you dragged down so the value shown in the info like (aka the 1st note’s velocity) is 80, your three notes will now have scaled values of:
80, 68, 75.
FYI if you hover over the right edge of the Velocity Lane about halfway up you can scale around the absolute center of the range or the relative center. And the top right and left corners let you tilt the values which is very useful for creating dynamic changes over time. These same tools are available for any controller lane like pitchbend or the mod wheel.
Thanks dude, that’s pretty cool!
rev
These tools, which by the way also exist for editing note expression data, can be real useful for compressing or expanding controller data. To compress first use the Scale function to lower all the values. This will leave the highest and lowest values closer together. Then use the Move to raise all the values back up into the range you want. To expand do the opposite - lower withe the Move and the raise with the Scale.
I also like to use them when I hand enter notes that all have the same velocity to create a sense of phrasing. First I use a logical preset I have to randomly change the current velocity by plus or minus 4 (or whatever). Then select different sections of the notes and use the Tilt tools to create sections that subtly (or not) rise and lower the velocity.
I’d be interested in how other folks find them useful.
great, thanks.
Not at my DAW at the moment but if you select your track, in the inspector is midi modifiers. There is a slider there (Vel Shift) that will reduce (or increase) the velocities by a value, whilst retaining the difference between them.
The Vel Comp (velocity compression) below that is also useful.
Hope that helps.
Raino’s suggested method is of course perfect ( 
), but if you want to scale by a precise amount, you could use the Logical Editor…
Upper section…
Type is___ Equal___Note
Lower section…
Value 2___Multiply by___ (set desired value…e.g. 1.2500 to increase, or 0.7500 to decrease)
Function = “Transform”
+1 on Vic’s approach. The Logical Editor is a powerful tool to get comfortable using.