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Sonokinetic libraries without a controller / or just a 25 key.

styledelk

Senior Member
Anyone have any experience composing with Sonokinetic libraries when you don’t have a controller (or just a small controller)around? Any tips?

I figure I could setup a midi track with chords.
A separate midi track feeding to that one with the phrases (in the case of Indie/Noir)
A separate midi track for harmonic shifts.

I can imagine a world where setting this up right in Logic or Studio 1 can make it very quickly adaptable, but for the harmonic shifts not being very transposable.

Even better might be setting this up with automations in Live’s session view.

Either way, it seems impossible to play Indie, and probably Largo, on a small controller.

I mainly ask because I’m traveling, and sometimes inspiration hits, but the mechanics don’t support it.
 
Anyone have any experience composing with Sonokinetic libraries when you don’t have a controller (or just a small controller)around? Any tips?

I figure I could setup a midi track with chords.
A separate midi track feeding to that one with the phrases (in the case of Indie/Noir)
A separate midi track for harmonic shifts.

I can imagine a world where setting this up right in Logic or Studio 1 can make it very quickly adaptable, but for the harmonic shifts not being very transposable.

Even better might be setting this up with automations in Live’s session view.

Either way, it seems impossible to play Indie, and probably Largo, on a small controller.

I mainly ask because I’m traveling, and sometimes inspiration hits, but the mechanics don’t support it.
That is a challenge.

Rather than separate MIDI tracks, you could draw it all into the MIDI editor, almost like a notation exercise, of sorts. Even when entering the SK libraries with a larger keyboard, I will edit the various key-note entries in the MIDI editor.

With Noir and Indie, your chords/chord changes don’t need to be sustained, just short entries. The same with harmonic shift in the upper octaves: just on beat or prior to the beat. That leaves the instrument note entry you could play from your controller, or draw in, including the desired durations, while controlling dynamics from the mod wheel (which I tend to draw in to fine tune phrase libraries).

Alternately, if you have a tablet, and feel like fooling around with installing Lemur, I have a template to trigger all the above with the touch of fingers (including the chords/triads). I’d be happy to share that, though if you are not familiar with setting up Lemur, there might be a learning curve.

PNG image.png
 
Maybe this makes more sense. It’s actually even more expressive (for me) having fingers to perform more tasks, with fluid control. The chords at the bottom are scripted, and sends the three note values into my DAW. It’s a long story why I created these...

upload_2019-4-9_20-8-31.jpeg
 
I’d love to have that. I’m fairly sure I have and bought Lemur. Looks fantastic!
 
The first one I attempted a few years back was for Minimal. What has changed since for me is having the Light Guide on a Komplete Keyboard to refer to, though as styldeck has already pointed out, anything less than 88 keys could be a disadvantage for some. With 61 keys, I still have to bank an octave in either direction to reference everything. But it made my Lemur approach somewhat obsolete.

Anyway, for fun, here is my early interface for Minimal. The purple calls up five different scenes. The initial keyboard i created had to be toggled for major and minor, hence moving toward the twenty-four pad option in later prototypes.

upload_2019-4-11_5-51-53.jpeg
 

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As an alternative to Greg's great templates, if you have an NI keyboard, you can put that into "chord mode" and have it generate chords from a single key.

And in another d'oh moment, I just realized that (for diatonic harmony) the harmonic shift is a nice one-key chord solution. Prior, I only thought of it as a way to have a pedal bass....
 
incredible design there is possibility to share it I would like it very much !!
 

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The first one I attempted a few years back was for Minimal. What has changed since for me is having the Light Guide on a Komplete Keyboard to refer to, though as styldeck has already pointed out, anything less than 88 keys could be a disadvantage for some. With 61 keys, I still have to bank an octave in either direction to reference everything. But it made my Lemur approach somewhat obsolete.

Anyway, for fun, here is my early interface for Minimal. The purple calls up five different scenes. The initial keyboard i created had to be toggled for major and minor, hence moving toward the twenty-four pad option in later prototypes.

upload_2019-4-11_5-51-53.jpeg
incredible design there is possibility to share it I would like it very much !!
 
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