Originally posted by Diki:
[B]There's a LOT you can do with just those basic voice controls, certainly enough to rival wind controllers (although maybe not exceed them) if you are doing wind emulation.
A lot can be accomplished on the keys, but quite simply you can't come close to what a Wind Controller can do on a keyboard without having to sequence tons of controller data separately.
Thrilling notes, tonguing, lip pressure, bite, breath control, live attack, volume, expression, the sheer natural element to playing a wind controller. All these things are recorded in real-time without the player having to even give them a second thought. That's what puts the wind controller in a class of it's own.
First thing is, DON'T use the LFO vibrato. Even with some subtle programming (mod depth to LFO speed is one of my favorites), it quickly becomes obvious it isn't real.
To compare to a wind controller you would have to have access to the modulation values Depth and Speed in real time. Even at that your faking the wrong effect because vibrato effects volume more than anything else on a real instrument. Think of who you modulate the sound on the real flute. It's a variation in breath which controls volume firstly. Pitch only alters because of note stability.
Second thing is, you have to be anal about your legato fingering. Nothing gives away a keyboard performance more than note overlap. SA does a great job of helping this out. But for all of us that don't have SA, or you are trying to use a sound that SA doesn't cover, you STILL have to work really hard to keep your fingering clean.
So basically your performance will sound like each and every note was tongued. Nobody plays like that.
The right way to do this would be to edit your sound and actually use the Legato mode of the sound engine. Look at your Triton for example for the OSC's. You have Ploy, Mono and Legato modes you can assign to your sounds.
My secret weapon in the battle for the best emulation is the ribbon controller. I have a Triton, a Kurzweil, and an old KX5 controller/keytar (my favorite) all with pitch strips. Use any of these, and you have a MUCH better chance of a realistic performance. For starters, forget mod wheel vibrato. Place your finger on the center spot of the ribbon and rock it around like a cello or guitar string, and presto! Natural, non periodic vibrato...
Just look at how your sounds on your Triton are constructed and you will see that the Z+ and Z- directions on your joystick and be programmed to do this far better and far more realistically.
You can apply speed and depth of pitch to control vibrato to the Z+ direction and then flip things right around and use the actual LFO running things like Trills on the Z- axis. Use the different waveforum shapes you have on your Triton.
For example the Guitar waveshape actually produces a totally realistic Trumpet Trill that you can control in both speed and depth in real-time.
I don't care how fast your finger is, there's no way you can pull off the effects anyway accurately each time by using the ribbon compared to actually doing the programming and setting up your sounds right in the first place. Just like your not using the Legato mode.
A trill effect is somthing totally different to a vibrto. The shape is not even close.
Next is the ability to jump pitch rather than bending to it. Trills, hammer-ons, hammer-offs, all of these are things impossible with a wheel. But the strip makes these a snap. Plus, because of the nature of the strip, hitting EXACTLY the perfect intonation of the jump note is impossible, it makes it more realistic, as no wind instrument (or any acoustic instrument that you finger, to be honest) ever hits the note perfectly.
Not true of any KORG keyboard as I've just mentioned above.
I also bet every workstation can do this too. Not sure about arrangers though (except KORG), but then again I don't know of any arrange with a ribbon so you won't be doing any of this on one anyway.
Regards
James
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