I’m trying to do an expression map for violins of Cinematic Studio Strings Library and have some issues:
I can’t connect ‘measured tremolo’ articulation with any existing playing technique. 3 lines tremolo uses ‘tremolo’ PT while 1 or 2 lines tremolo don’t use any. Is there any way to connect them to a PT?
I can’t get trills to work. They play ‘natural’ or ‘legato’ instead ‘trill’. I suspect it has to do with mutual exclusion groups, so I tried some different ways but they don’t work.
I want to trigger marcato articulation when the notes are short (16th or shorter) because long and legato articulations have a bit slow attack and almost don’t sound. How can I get it?
Only for curiosity: when I convert a single note to an artificial harmonic (4th partial), it connects to ‘natural harmonic 1’ instead ‘artificial harmonic’ PT. Is it right or is it a bug?
I only use the three line tremolo in CSS and am not aware of any way to get a one or two line to work (which doesn’t mean there might not be one). In what sort of specific circumstances would you want this?
Trills work on the basis of needing to play both the notes of the trill simultaneously So you really want one staff to notate the trill and an extra " add staff below" where you play it. Afterwards you can then “remove staff” and the content will still be retained. An alternative is to use a script like this CSS Control Panel – Alex John Ernest Vincent which is what I’m now doing. sakasuri is working on a customised version of this and may wish to comment further.
There are two types of marcato articulation, one with and one without spicc overlay – F#0, 127 and F#0, 1 respectively. I have also added CC58,85 to switch off the legato.
Dorico’s “o” symbol has only playing technique mapping for “natural harmonic 1”. In the Properties panel, you can change the appearance in the score to an artificial harmonic. The fact the CSS have recorded artificial harmonics is irrelevant – just ensure your Expression Map uses the natural harmonic p.t so it matches the Dorico p.t. Otherwise it won’t sound.
I would like to achieve the right playback of this notation. Some libraries, like Action Strings, have especific samples for note repetition that sound much better than a repeated long or short note.
Hi Miguel – I’ll have a look at 1. but I doubt I’ll be able to do much
2. trill whole and half step are the only ones supported by the library. Trill itself has no function unless you’re talking about the inbuilt Dorico support which can create variable speed and augmented trills instead of the ones CSS provide (in general I don’t like them very much)
For runs and short notes, I’d simply try playing live to see what gives the kind of sound you’re after. What makes CSS stand out from most others is that the standard legato sustain patch is very flexible and in some music can be used almost exclusively. In the solo strings, I don’t use sustain without legato at all except for chords but the situation might be a little different with a fuller string library, though I suspect it’s still overused. Only in really fast music is it obviously unsuitable. Although I’m a huge fan of the note length condition programming and use it in most other libraries, with CSS simply trying to get the right patch by speed doesn’t work in my view. Marcato F#0, 1 (anything from 1-64 but NOT 0 as in the manual) as I said is the marcato without overlay and the effect varies considerably. Try also staccatissimo and even spiccato in these situations to see what works best.
There is a discussion about the script on VI Control which is worth reading as it gives a number of tips
In this thread Problem with a transposing expression map entry, SampoKasurinen shows the correct settings for the script in his screenshots. All you need to do to use it is to copy the script into the relevant Kontakt scripts folder in your My Documents folder which on my PC is Native Instruments\Kontakt 5 (or 6)\Presets\multiscripts. One copy for each instrument using it, remembering to increment the channel as you go.
I guess this has rather been overtaken by events now as I mainly use the NotePerformer playback engine for Cinematic Studio. My Expression Maps previously worked OK but NP brings a new dimension in expressivity without most of the hassle.
I still find CS Solo Strings used with NPPE still feel behind the beat. The fade-in effect is great when using the strings as a pad, but when featuring the solo strings I find the lack of a clear attach to be disconcerting.
Looking at the CSSS outside NPPE, I see ways to give a clearer attack, so I hope Arne @Wallander can at some point (if he has not already) provide an option to access that in NPPE.
are you sure it’s not simply a matter of feeling because of the typically slow attack of CSSS? When slowing the music right down and trying a trio of mine which includes a VSL piano, everything is actually pretty accurate. Cinematic Studio solo strings are not suitable in quite a lot of contexts – I tend to only use them in works which are primarily lyrical
The timing is quite poor with NPPE 4.3.0 for CSSS. This will be greatly improved with 4.4.0.
Regarding attacks, I don’t think they’re faded in, but that high velocities in CSSS overlay the note with a short. We don’t use that since we want to manage the overlays dynamically in NPPE. If I’m wrong about this, not having the library in from of me, please correct me.
I noticed in a piano trio I was working on that there were a number of quite serious errors in timings with dotted notes – this has been intermittently noticeable from that start of NPPE. If this is improved in 4.4, I’ll be very happy! However, the general synchronisation with my VSL piano which was not using NPPE seemed mostly OK and of course I’d be the first to admit with the inbuilt delay in CS, it must be far from easy to get right – and in most situations, it actually is.
