Hi, as I don't want to fiddle with separate controllers, I have vibrato assigned to key velocity, and I quite like it. The only disadvantage is that I can't alter the vibrato depth during a note. I'm interested in how you approach vibrato. Is aftertouch a good option? Looking forward to your feedback.
If you're recording, you can always make another pass to deal with vibrato. Get the notes down then do the vibrato second.
Modwheel , because here I have 100% control over it. You know, you can add a happy or a sadly vibrato .... .
You may got used to use vibrato on velocities but it would be better to have it assigned to any CC that you can continuously control and leave velocity for dynamics on short notes.
As a string player I can tell you that very few libraries provide the right parameters for vibrato. When you learn string instruments you are taught the 2 dimensions of vibrato: depth (pitch impact) and speed/rate (time impact)... as Vardaro was mentioning. Variations of both are what gives a sense of interpretation to a line. Most libraries use CC21 as a cross fade between non-vib and one type of vib. So yeah use CC21 but also explore which library is doing what... and use a second custom CC to control that 2nd parameters.
I like having lots of parameters, sometimes even different vibrato types, like for sax vibrato will usually only go below the main pitch, but it's useful to also be able to stay centered, and vibrato can also affect volume, and on quiet notes when the volume dips down, the breath noise gets louder. And I'm a string player, never touched a sax in my life. But as far as actually using the stuff, one depth parameter is modwheel, everything else gets set beforehand to set the vibrato flavor, and/or automated afterwards.
On libraries that support it (maybe only sample modeling?) it’s fun to play both depth and rate. I have them on two faders and I usually do a seperate pass for that. Usually you can ride the two together and it sounds pretty great.
Does any solo string library have an option where you can just wiggle one fader with one finger, sort of like a real violinist?
I think VSO vibrato (Embertone, KH Spotlight, legacy Chris Hein,) is OK when it is fairly rapid (e.g. 6 or 7 cps) and shallow; the problem is that it modulates not only the pitch but also the violin's own formants, as if the the violin's dimensions were modulated too..
I'm not aware of any library that can do this natively, but I've had some success applying external scripting to Audio Modeling instruments (which have separate rate and depth controls) to simulate it. The easiest way is a script that will read the rate and velocity (or position) of a gesture — I have a Lemur project that reads screen tap rate and interprets tap position as depth — but it's also possible to read a sine-like stream of CC values such as a fader moving up and down and generate the necessary data based on the value range and how quickly the rate of change reverses.
Personally, I have quite given up on controlling vibrato as I find it very fake sounding most of the time. I rather use different libs with different performances baked in. Faster to use and more natural sounding, to my ears at least.
