I looked through what I have and I can't find a GOOD harpsichord anywhere. Anybody know of a virtual synth that has one? Also like to find a hurdy gurdy sound without actually buying one and learning how to play it. Any suggestions?

I'd also REALLY love to own a harmonium. My birthday is in June.....

This looks like a decent one if you have Kontakt.

http://vis.versilstudios.net/harpsichord.html

The on in the Cakewalk TSS is okay, but just okay. I don't have Kontakt.

My other thing is that the virtual instruments are WAY too quiet, even with the volume set to full 127. I figured out (actually remembered) how to use MIDI though I don't know how much I'll use it. Some oohs and aahs here and there, some orchestral instruments there... Things that are specific parts and can't be generated.

Understood that “good” is relative to user and use but

-Halion 6/Halion sonic 3

-UVI:

https://www.uvi.net/orchestral-suite.html

-Sonivox singles $19

https://sonivoxmi.com/products/details/harpsichord

-Sampletank 2 and 3 (if you don't have ST then try the free custom shop and try one)

- Miroslav 1 & 2,

-AIR Structure (currently on sale for $49)

(EDIT in looking at this surprisingly AIR Music's Xpand!2 does not one)

http://store.dontcrack.com/?manufacturers_id=119

-Garritan GPO (personal orch.) 4 and 5

-Kontakt factory (but you don't have Kontakt so - but I think their freebie might?)

Plus others

Larry


EDIT you might have Dimension Pro? its in factory lib

Eddie,

Another option would be to use Sforzando and load a harpsichord soundfont into it (either sf2 or sfz). There are some good free soundfonts around the web. Unfortunately, I haven't collected harpsichords.

This download below is for an sf2 soundfont file that has a number of harpsichord sounds in it. Information on the harpischord (from 1720) that the font was sampled from and modelled on is below...

http://sonimusicae.free.fr/blanchet1-en.html


Download links are below (....around 220 MB)

• Soundfont
• Documentation

On the harpsichord page, above, there's also a free file for the Kontakt player (which is free also).

Regards,
Noel

Thanks. I will look into those tomorrow. Right now it's time for 'ockey, eh?

<< My other thing is that the virtual instruments are WAY too quiet, even with the volume set to full 127 >>

Use the PGMusic compressor plug in to bring your volume up.

This thread for DSK Sounds has a couple harpsicords in it. Only $25 for all kinds of instruments.

http://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=475346&gonew=1#UNREAD

The best one of heard is the Dutch Harpsichord at realsamples. Check it out

http://www.realsamples.de/

Hockey has taken up a lot of my free time also. So are you a Golden Knights or a Caps fan?

<< My other thing is that the virtual instruments are WAY too quiet, even with the volume set to full 127 >>

127 is full MIDI volume but all virtual instrument players have an audio volume that is used in conjunction with MIDI volume. Those players include stand-a-lone players and DAWs. So if you MIDI volume is 127 but your player volume is zero you will get no sound.

I hope this helps.

another consideration to the MIDI volume topic:

Once you convert the MIDI to an audio track, you can use the tools in Real Band or Audacity to boost the volume

Vegas, bay-bee!!! To see an expansion team win the cup in their first year would be remarkable! A bunch of players deemed not good enough to be protected by their former teams wins the cup? That's The Mighty Ducks stuff right there!




Do you mean the little mixer looking screen where I can assign the instruments to channels? If you need the visual I will take a pic when I go up there next.

I also want to set it up where I have the different instruments I use assigned to that "mixer", which puts them all on different channels, and be able to just switch channel on the controller. As it sits right now, I have to go to the track, select which MIDI channel the track uses, and then I get that instrument. Is there a setting in the track to make the track see all the channels and make the sound dependent on the MIDI channel selected on the controller? I DO notice that there is an option for channel 0. Does RB use 0-15 to be hexidecimally (did I just make up a word) correct for channels 1-16 or does selecting 0 make it be in "omni mode"? I will try that when I go up to work on music later but thought I'd ask.

There were a lot of factors in this draft. One the teams could only protect a few players, two the salary cap came into play and three there was only one expansion team. I like Vegas but I want to see The Big O get on the Stanley Cup so I'm routing for the Caps.






Yes that is it on BiaB.



I don't use BiaB or RB for anything but generating backing tracks. I use Studio One Pro for all of this kind of work. I would think the your Pro Tools would be a better for your work: I think you have Pro Tools. Others will know more about RB.

As for your MIDI channel approach for different different sounds I would think that an Instrument bank is a better approach. In an instrument bank you assign a MIDI sound to bank 0 or 1 depending on your DAW starting number. Assign a different MIDI sound on the next bank, another on the next etc. You can have up to 128 different sounds assigned, depending on your DAW and computer resources, i.e. ram. The bank is assigned to one DAW track and you change sounds in that track via program changes (PG). I use to do this back in the day with Sonar but with computers so powerful now I just assign a different MIDI sound to individual tracks.

For sound volume from MIDI, there are more layers of control that can affect volume.
You can control the overall volume of the synth that produces the sound by boosting it to 127 (on the synth volume itself and in the DAW) as mentioned.

The next layer down is the 'Velocity' of the events sent to the synth itself. If the keyboard used to record the MIDI was played/recorded with low velocity, the volume may still be sub-par even with the synth turned up .. because the synth isn't being told to play that particular note loud in the first place.

In RB, increasing the velocity is a pretty easy option in the edit area.

Note that 'velocity' can actually also affect timbre; some synths can sound a note differently if you hit the key hard vs. playing lightly. Even better synths may actually allow changing the whole patch/sound depending on the velocity of the MIDI event.

Next up: aftertouch and polyphonic atertouch
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_expression

You can change the sound with keyboard pressure even after the initial velocity.
MIDI is cool!

I use my ESQ-1 as my controller, and the velocity sensitivity is off. Even with everything set maxed out at 127 the MIDI tracks are too quiet.

The next thing to learn is something Pat said abut converting the MIDI tracks to audio and having volume available there.

Remember my use of MIDI in this context is quite limited. I had MIDI all over my live stage rig, running everything through an MX-8 MIDI patching system to give me my choice of controllers and mating them with up to 6 sound sources, but this application of MIDI is new to me.

Just trying to help. Many times when I just wanted more volume I've converted to audio as mentioned and simply put PGPeakLimit effect on the resulting audio track to boost the volume. Very low CPU and simple to use.

Caveat; you have to be careful not to do this too much because you can cause it to become a compression type effect and start boosting the volume but putting a ceiling on it (IOW compression) to keep from clipping.

Edit:
If your velocity sensitivity is indeed turned off there is a good possibility that every event has a '64' velocity as opposed to 127, so the synth isn't being told to play loud to begin with.
You can see the velocity in the Event List for that track (the large 'E' icon in RB).

I rarely prefer this setting to be off on a synth/controller. Turning it on as a test may reveal added performance features once you tinker with it.

Harv, how do I do that "convert to audio" step? Is there text that simple somewhere on the GUI? I have to see if turning the sensitivity off locked that value at 64. I wish I had a manual for that 30 year old synth that said so.

Right now there is no actual song to play with. I just set up a template song with the Cakewalk TSS synth to play with it and have 32 bars of chords entered. That generated 32 bars is WAY louder than the MIDI stuff. Like WAY louder. I'll play with it some more tomorrow. You gave me a place to look though.

Right click the track and look closely
Come to think of it there is another spot in RB for MIDI - check the Expression dial on the mixer (second image). This can limit volume also.

Between those two that should hook me up.

So it's NOT rharv's fault....

Between those two that should hook me up.

So it's NOT rharv's fault....

Cakewalk's TTS-1 actually has four Harpsichord patches. You have to load the higher banks to reach the others. The one at the "default" bank (ie bank 0) is the 2nd best, IMO. The one found at bank 1 is better. The other two -- at higher banks -- sound like the sort of pianos that were around when Mozart was hot stuff. IOW, too "heavy" for most harpsichord sounds.

Oh, and if you're looking for a Harmonium patch -- rgc Audio's Square 1 has one. (See the message here about sfz+ -- Square 1 is listed along with it.)