changing volume

andrushkiwt

Well-known member
I've only used MIDI for 2 things - Superior Drummer and vst/stock synths. When using my DAW's MIDI grid for Superior Drummer, changing the velocity of a note does what it should, it raises or lowers it's volume and intensity. However, when I use this same MIDI grid for synths, the notes are always at the same volume, no matter which direction I click the velocity meter. 100 sounds exactly the same as 40. This makes programming synth sounds difficult. It is the DAW's MIDI map for both SD and synths, not via some other means. Any ideas?
 
I've only used MIDI for 2 things - Superior Drummer and vst/stock synths. When using my DAW's MIDI grid for Superior Drummer, changing the velocity of a note does what it should, it raises or lowers it's volume and intensity. However, when I use this same MIDI grid for synths, the notes are always at the same volume, no matter which direction I click the velocity meter. 100 sounds exactly the same as 40. This makes programming synth sounds difficult. It is the DAW's MIDI map for both SD and synths, not via some other means. Any ideas?
Velocity response is completely the responsibility of the synth itself, and if it doesn't implement it, there's nothing your DAW can do to really force it to do so. A lot of old analog synths - and the plugins that emulate them - don't respond to velocity. The key is either on or off, and you control the volume by other means. That's probably going to mean "automating" the synth's Volume control.

Most of the time that will be CC#7. In most DAWs you can bring up a CC lane under the piano roll and draw those moves in. The velocity pane looks a lot like the CC pane, but there's an important difference.

Velocity is a property of a note event. It's stuck to that one note. CCs are events of their own that actually "look" a lot like notes. So, they won't be stuck to or tied to an individual note. You can have several while a note is holding, but you can't really have several at the same time the way each note in a chord could have a different velocity.

Anyhow, I've found that most of the VSTis which should be velocity sensitive (because they emulate real instruments) usually are, and those that shouldn't don't.
 
yeah i just want to be able to make certain notes/noises louder at times...thought i'd be able to do that like I can in Superior Drummer, by changing its velocity.

automating for the entire track...what a pain. ok, that's probably my best (only?) bet though. thanks for explaining. that helps a lot, and makes a lot of sense.
 
Use CCs if they're implemented in your synth. If that doesn't work, then go to your DAWs actual automation thing.
 
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