How to progressively diminish the sound in a portion of a track in cubase 12

Cubase
1

Hello

Here is my problem.
I have a score with the timpani that makes a roll for 12 bars, starting with a hit + roll in FFF, making a diminiando up to ppp….

In the score, it’s one hit with a roll + diminuando… so the musician should hit the timpani very strongly and continue the roll making a diminuando until we do not hear it.

In cubase, I cannot diminish the velocity as the velocity is for each new MIDI sound… So as I have the first hit on the score, if I use the « roll sound » for this one single very long note… I have to chose between a loud continuous roll or a very low continuous roll… and this is not relevant.

I am using the iconica opus vst sounds, and I do not have an option to make a diminuando of the roll using the articulations for example (with the silent orange notes)….
So the roll is always loud! When it should diminish.
Or low when it should start hard and loud.

I created a different track for this passage, muting the original track, and using different methods on the new track, to have the effect I need :

I tried to write very short notes (the same one), like hundreds of 1/16th notes repeating to the end (in replacements of the hole notes and 1/2 notes), using the roll sound articulation in Halion… trying to change the attack of each portion of 1/16th note, trying to « hide » the attack of each new 1/16th note, to simulate a continuous roll diminishing sound…
Problem is : it’s not working… I still hear every new hit and it’s horrible… the sound is not diminishing in a continuous way…

So the best solution is maybe to have the Hit+roll on the first sound, than diminish the volume of the roll over all the needed bars.
How to do it? Knowing that all the instruments of my symphony (15 tracks for 15 instruments) are on the same output……

2

You can use cc7 to turn it down which turns the overall sound down on the channel as posed to velocity. Select it in key editor at the bottom and draw it in. Don’t forget to put it back up though as you may end up wondering why there is no sound

3

You could try rendering in place (so it becomes an audio track rather than midi) and then fading it out.

4

Another way is by automating a gain plugin. Unfortunately Cubase doesn’t have a stock gain plugin (like Logic’s or Ableton’s) but something like Kilohearts’ will work. This technique is useful because it’ll work for any kind of instrument.

gain automation
gain automation1446×940 112 KB

5

That was very helpful thanks !!!

6

Of course that would be a good solution, if the problem was local…

But it’s not. That’s a kind of problem that happens all the time in my symphony and I cannot follow the music with hundreds of little audio tracks instead of the MIDI sounds written in a coherent score for a full orchestra…

7

How do you use this please?

8

Fair enough. One other possibility would be to make a new sample, of a timpani roll with diminuendo, by rendering in place and then fading just the one example. Then use midi to trigger the new diminuendo sample when required. On balance I might prefer the idea of volume automation more though; it seems neater.

1 Like