Adding velocity expression to samples

[Eddie Locrian]

Hi

I'm posting this because i've read a few comments about samples and thought it may be useful to some newbie users (and some oldie ones!)

Problem
You have a sample of an instrument and you want to make it expressively sound different according to how hard you play. Not just how soft/loud, but you want actual the timbre to change too.

Piano
The NS2 allows this to work brilliantly in the dedicated Piano section by means of multi-layered samples: each note has multiple samples which kick in according to how hard and fast you press the key. Currently you can't create multi-layered samples for the piano, so we have to make do with the ones Nord provide on their site.

Synth
So why not load my boogie woogie piano sample into the synth section? Great idea, but the synth section only supports single layered samples: the same sample is triggered regardless of how hard you hit the key.

A possible solution
We use the synth's filter section. For those of you scared of the synth features, don't be! I'll walk you through it:

1. Find an empty program (or one you don't mind butchering)
2. Turn OFF Organ, Piano, External etc. - we just want the Synth section.
3. Turn OFF Slot B so we are just using Slot A, and turn off any keyboard splits too while you're at it.
4. In the Synth section, set the Osc to SAMP and load up a suitable sample (some will work better than others). I'm using the Bolivian PanPipe for this example - (number 3 on my NS2, but that may not be factory default so maybe someone can comment)
5. Make sure Shape is set to "Skip Attack = OFF" (anti-clockwise)
6. Shape Mod should be 0 (middle) as we don't need it right now
7. Set the Filter to LP24 and turn the Resonance down to 0. Trust me on this.
8. Set Freq Mod 1 to 0. This is routed to the LFO, and we don't need it messing stuff up.
9. Set Freq Mod 2 to around 5. You can experiment with this later - think of it as your 'sensitivity' control - you don't want it too much or too little.
10. Set the Freq knob to around 79Hz - that's about 3 LEDs lit up. This sets the sound of the gentlest key press
11. Set KB-Track to ON (SHIFT + Filter TYPE button). Without this, you won't get a consistent effect across the full range of keys
12. Finally, set the MOD ENV VELOCITY to ON (SHIFT + VOICE MODE) and set the AMP ENV VELOCITY to OFF (SHIFT + UNISON)

Now play with different velocity and if you used the same panpipe sample as me, you'll get a breathy 'chiff' if you play hard, and a mellower sound if you play more gently, and everything in between.
Your mileage may vary if you used a different sample, so try this first and chnage the sample once you have your head around what's going on.
It would be nice to have more control over this feature, but we make do with what we have

For anyone who can't be bothered to go through this step by step, i've uploaded a patch. This is not the world's most useful sound (unless you play in shopping malls) but it's does demonstrate the feature well.

Good luck!

[Marlowes]

Hej Neo!

Great How-To! Thanks!

/Amicalement
Marlowes, with the NLA1 patches

[neolithic]

Hej Marlowes

I wasn't sure if this was directly applicable to any other Nords - (Wave maybe?) otherwise I would have posted in the general section. Do you have a Wave in your red collection? maybe someone can adapt it for those guys.
Pretty sure this is not possible on the new Electro5 (update: probably is possible, see Electromin's comment below)

[Eddie Locrian]

Nice One, thanks.

[elektromin]

This is possible on the NE4 too, but you need to program the velocity settings in the sample editor. On the keyboard you only have an on/off button for velocity..

[neolithic]

Thanks electromin, I'll update my post above as if it's possible on the NE4 it's safe to assume it is also possible on the new NE5

[okdk2015]

In the sample editor there are settings under velocity controlled dynamics for filter. The choices are none, 600hz and 150 hz. What does this do?

[neolithic]

I'm guessing that this is intended for instruments other than the NS2 (like the Electros?) where you have no variable control over the filter.
Assuming it's a low-pass filter, I would expect this to be the cutoff frequency. So if you set it to 150Hz you would get a duller sound when you play gently than 600Hz where you would get a brighter sound. If you hit the key with full velocity, you should get the unfiltered sound, so both these settings would sound the same when played hard.
A setting of 'None' would indicate no affect at all, so the timbre wouldn't change according to velocity, even if the Amplitude (volume) does.
Someone who uses this feature can hopefully confirm if I am correct and shed further light on it.