Velocity scaling

Virtual instruments HALion
1

Hello! I am not sure, but I guess this is a problem that would require some scripting.

I am looking for an easy way to scale velocity ranges. Example:

Incoming velocity 0-16 = Velocity 0-127
Incoming velocity 17-33 = Velocity 0-127
Incoming velocity 33-49 = Velocity 0-127

Any ideas? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

2

Did you try to use the normalized velocity option?

Normalized Velocity
Normalized Velocity802×540 108 KB

Maybe it will do what you need.

Sure, you can change the velocities by scripting but it also depends how your zones (layers) are mapped.

3

Thanks, misohoza! I must admit i wasn’t aware of the actual function of that option, so this is very useful.

To perform similarily on program level, i guess that would still require some scripting (along with a megatrig set to velocity limitations)?

4

Can you describe a bit more what are you trying to accomplish? Maybe a screenshot showing how are the samples mapped.

If you have a sample mapped to velocity 0 to 16 and you simply change the incoming velocity to cover the full range 0 to 127 it may trigger different sample than you intend.

1 Like
5

Thanks for following up on this! And sorry for providing no background in the first place.

So i am looking for a way to effortlessly switching between different ways of handling a sample mapped to the same key (regular playback, reverse, filtered, stretched and so on). Note that the way i make music is usually just plotting notes into a piano roll. Previous techniques for doing so (and the drawbacks of those techniques) have been

  • keyswitches (with and without keyswitch remote (which i find to be not so good for workflow, and i usually work with 128 samples per instrument, leaving no keys to use as switches))
  • having 8-16 different layers assigned to different velocity ranges that all represent one unique way of handling a sample (which works well, but is very time consuming in terms of mapping. Also i find it a bit difficult to keep an overview over such instruments, especially when individual layers have a few quick controls assigned to them).

I am trying to find a setup that is as modular as possible, and where the sample mapping in each Halion program is as simple as possible (1-127 ). I work in Reaper, so i can assign individual midi notes in the piano roll to different midi channels with a custom shortcut. I can also assign velocity ranges to several instances of the Halion vst on different tracks, but of course this is very cpu demanding.

So this is what i am trying to achieve (example):

  • 8 programs inside one instance of the Halion vst, all on the same midi channel.
  • in each program, all samples are mapped to velocity range 0-127
  • each program responds to notes in a unique velocity range (first program responds to notes with a velocity of 1-16, the second program responds to notes with a velocity of 17-33 and so on)
  • each program treats the incoming velocity range as 1-127 (scaling the velocity from for example 1-16 to 1-127). This is where i would need a script, i guess, along with an instance of megatrig to respond to the incoming velocity ranges.

I think a setup like this would be easier and more easily changable than having for example one single program with 8 layers responding to its assigned velocity range, but i might be wrong. I have a certain idea of how a script like that would look like after reading the documentation, but my Lua skills are pretty much none existent at this point.

I hope this makes sense!

6

You could try it like this:

layers = this.parent:findLayers()
layerVelocityRange = 127 / #layers
    

function onNote(e)
    local layerIndex, volume = math.modf(e.velocity / layerVelocityRange)
    layerIndex = layerIndex + 1
    if volume == 0 and e.velocity > 0 then
        volume = 1
        layerIndex = layerIndex - 1
    end
    local velocity = volume * 127
    print("Layer: ", layerIndex, " Original velocity: ", e.velocity, " Scaled velocity: ", velocity)
    playNote(e.note, velocity, -1, layers[layerIndex])
end

But this work for single program with several sublayers. The layers are mapped 0 to 127 but only one of them should play.

vs

Velocity Scale.vstpreset (8.8 KB)

1 Like
7

Wow, this is great! Thanks, misohoza! I guess this is as good as what i was trying to achieve, and pretty simple to deal with without having to spend much time mapping and remapping samples. Again, thanks a lot!