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## Babaghanoush (Dec 18, 2015)

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## rgames (Dec 18, 2015)

It depends on the kinds of music you write. If you use a lot of artics and/or use a score editor to some extent then combining them on a single track is a no-brainer. If you don't use a lot of artics or don't use a score editor then spreading them across many tracks might be fine (though I still find it hard to believe...).

Re: #3, you don't necessarily have to use separate MIDI channels to combine artics on one track (PLAY libraries are the only ones where I must use channels). There are lots of ways to combine artics on a single track - controllers, keyswitches, expression maps (which just duplicate controllers/keyswitches/channels), etc.

The best thing to do is just try out different techniques and see what you like.

I like my projects to look like a traditional score so I combine as much as possible on single tracks (using expression maps). Expression maps are nice, too, because they allow you think musically (staccato, legato, fp, etc) and not technically (C-2, CC21, Ch5, etc). Plus, with expression maps, stacc is always stacc, not CC21 in one library and Ch5 in another, so it's much easier to drag-and-drop MIDI data across instruments and libraries.

rgames


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## scarred bunny (Dec 18, 2015)

Depends a bit on what player and library you're using. Some libraries allow polyphonic keyswitching to stack and/or crossfade between articulations, which can cover a good number of situations. In VSL's player you can have numerous samples triggered in the same cell, but you need to set them up in advance. 

With expression maps, I guess it also depends. Using them to trigger a polyphonic keyswitch or such should be no problem. I couldn't find a way to get them to send to multiple midi channels at once though. When I used expression maps to send notes to different channels, I'd usually just end up doubling the midi track so every instrument would get as many midi tracks as it needs simultaneous layers. Usually two, very occasionally three. 

(If you use attributes to switch channels, you _can_ layer two notes with different attributes on top of each other, but it's a little fiddly. If I recall, I basically needed to copy the original note to get a duplicate, drag it out of the way to make it selectable, assign a different attribute, then drag it back on top of the original. And even then sometimes notes and/or attributes would disappear, and I could never get it to send CC data separately to each channel.) 

I also find layering is an essential technique with many libraries in many situations, and this is the main reason why I usually use separate midi tracks for every articulation. Layering is easy and straightforward, and you can also easily cover situations where every layer needs to have different timing, velocity or CC data. It's a lot of tracks though. I've tried other strategies, but I keep coming back to this. In part because it's powerful and flexible, but I also like being able to see right in the arrangement view what's available and what's playing at any given time. 

I'd find something like VSL awkward to use in this way, because the articulation set is so extensive. It'd be way too many tracks even for me. But with the vast articulation set I also find there's less need for layering tricks. When I do need it, I just double the instrument track (as in your #1), so I have two keyswitched multiarticulation instruments where needed. This may be a good strategy for other instruments as well if you find the track count gets out of control with one track per articulation. 

#3 is a good idea in theory. In practice I found it pretty awkward in most DAW:s. Reaper has per-channel view filters that handle it pretty well. But Cubase for example can color notes by channel, which gives some indication of what's what - but it doesn't do that with controller data, so if you need overlapping CC curves on different channels you're kind of screwed. Although maybe note expression could work around that, now that I think of it. 

But for me personally... one articulation per track, more often than not. With clutter comes great power. 

(Sorry for the incoherent rambling post. It's late here and I'm half asleep already. )


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## tack (Dec 18, 2015)

Babaghanoush said:


> 3) Use different MIDI channels on one track. Each channel can be a different articulation or a different multi-articulation instrument. My template now has a minimum number of tracks but controller editing just got way more complicated.


As a variation on this option, you can use a keyswitch router to handle the layering for you.

I wrote a Kontakt multiscript called FlexRouter that supports this. You just press multiple keyswitches at the same time and thereafter MIDI events on your (configurable) source channel will get routed to all the keyswitch-triggered target channels within Kontakt, allowing you to layer articulations. This way also lets you address patches on Ports B-D.

Here's a video discussing that use-case.

It does obviously only work with Kontakt instruments though.


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## rgames (Dec 18, 2015)

Babaghanoush said:


> I use expression maps now to switch articulations in my multi-articulation instruments. I find them to be mostly helpful but I was unaware that they could allow me to "layer" two different articulations on the same instrument, same pitch at the same time. Have I really overlooked this?


There are lots of options that are dependent upon the library - for example, in Kontakt, it's easy to assign multiple artics to the same MIDI channel. You can then activate that combination via an expression map setup. When you play on that port/channel, then, both artics will play. The VI Pro player can also be set up similarly. PLAY is the only one I can think of where it might be tough to do.

So there are lots of options that are dependent upon which libraries you're using.

rgames


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## tack (Dec 20, 2015)

Babaghanoush said:


> Now, what to do with the libraries that don't support this.


My suggestion will work for libraries that don't support it, assuming you put the different articulations on different MIDI channels. But it will only work with Kontakt. And it won't do crossfading, though that's an interesting feature idea.


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## scarred bunny (Dec 20, 2015)

Yep, the polyphonic keyswitching in the new Berlin stuff is great. It's enough to cover most layering situations, I find. If you haven't already, also try the new legato-between-any-long-note feature - it can be very cool and useful. 

I'm a little bummed that you can't do ad-hoc blending on the fly with VSL (as far as I could tell anyway). But if you have some particular layering trick that you use a lot, it's worth setting up its own cell for it. 

For libraries that don't have any such feature... well, there's Kontakt multiscripts and other third-party tools I guess. Check out tack's suggestion above. There's Orange Tree's Mind Control, although I'm not sure if it supports layering. There's Transmidifier, which I'm pretty sure does. Probably others as well. 

I haven't really dabbled with those myself though. I try to keep things simple with as few middle layers as possible.

If you need to put articulations on separate channels but don't want separate tracks for everything, expression maps can be helpful to cut down on track clutter. Although I kept running into problems, mainly with CC data not chasing properly across channel changes, so I gave that up... for now at least. But others have had better luck, so I think it's worth a try.


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## geoffreyvernon (Jan 6, 2016)

I go the long way and have a seperate track for every single articulation. which ends up being a s*** ton of tracks because I not only layer articulations, I also layer libraries. That's the key in getting realistic sounding mockups. each library is sampled different and when mixed together they react like real musicians. feel. emotion. mistakes. beautiful things happen. my film score template is 500+ tracks because of the way I work. but i use VEPro on a separate machine and all my samples stay loaded at all times. I find that for me, each articulation on it's own track per library is the most efficient way to work. that's for me anyways! 

however, after saying all of this i will say just do what works best for you. there are no rules to music. do what sounds right to your ear, and you've got it. do what's easiest and fits your workflow the best!


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