I need to know how to switch between smart articulations.

[cos-overclock]

Hello.

I recently purchased the BBC Symphonic Orchestra from Spitfire Audio and have been creating orchestral templates for Bitwig Studio.
So, I am wondering how to switch articulations.

The BBC Symphonic Orchestra offers many ways to switch articulations.
Specifically, Keyswitch, MIDI CC Range, Velocity Range, MIDI Channel, Speed, and MIDI Program Change.

The way I find the best way to switch articulations in Bitwig is to use a single automation.
This way, you can display the information about switching between piano rolls and articulations on one screen in EditView.
Also, the piano roll display is not compressed like a keyswitch, and there is no need to search for switching notes.

To make writing automation more intuitive, we want it to snap at each switching point.
(e.g., as in Polysynth's OSC Blend Mode automation).

Snipping Tool 2022-03-29 11.11.37.png

I tried various methods of selecting articulations for the BBC Symphonic Orchestra and modulators in Bitwig Studio, but I just couldn't achieve it.

Do you have any good ideas for switching articulations like this?
I would also like to know if there is a smarter way to switch articulations.

[cos-overclock]

After writing the above, I came up with the idea of using the BBC Symphonic Orchestra in Instruments Selector for as many articulations as I want to use.
This way, if I automate the Index, it will snap to each articulation.

However, it may be load sensitive since it launches as many plug-ins as the number of articulations……
Is there any better way to do this: ......

[pierb]

Honestly Bitwig is not a good DAW for writing orchestral stuff.

Cubase, Studio One, or Logic have much better articulation support.

[Alma Mare]

By no means I am a heavy-duty composer or arranger with orchestral instruments. I do however like to dabble with the BBC SO Discover and I was happy with putting every articulation of a given naipe in the instrument layer and automating the index.

[carlca]

It might be worth getting in touch with Mattias Holmgren (@MorningdewMedia on Twitter). I believe that he has done quite a bit of orchestral stuff. He certainly knows a lot about Bitwig!

[Hez]

I have two suggestions, both using MIDI Channel mode in Spitfire

- Change the channel of your source notes depending on which articulation you want to use. This is as easy as selecting all the notes for which you want to use a different articulation and changing the channel in the inspector. Bitwig has good support for visualising different MIDI channels in the piano roll (right click piano roll, note colors -> channel), and you can also do layered channel editing within a single clip using layered editing.

I prefer this method as it doesn't require any automation, and when you're visualising your notes using different colours per channel, it's very clear which articulation is going to be applied to a given section of music.

- If you'd prefer to use automation, use channel 1 for all your note data, and then add a Channel Map device and automate the channel 1 mapping. Because this is a native Bitwig parameter, it does indeed snap at switching points.

[cos-overclock]

I have two suggestions, both using MIDI Channel mode in Spitfire

- Change the channel of your source notes depending on which articulation you want to use. This is as easy as selecting all the notes for which you want to use a different articulation and changing the channel in the inspector. Bitwig has good support for visualising different MIDI channels in the piano roll (right click piano roll, note colors -> channel), and you can also do layered channel editing within a single clip using layered editing.

I prefer this method as it doesn't require any automation, and when you're visualising your notes using different colours per channel, it's very clear which articulation is going to be applied to a given section of music.

- If you'd prefer to use automation, use channel 1 for all your note data, and then add a Channel Map device and automate the channel 1 mapping. Because this is a native Bitwig parameter, it does indeed snap at switching points.

Thank you for your suggestion.

Certainly the method of separating articulations by MIDI channel is very good, as it seems visually colorful and easy to edit.
Channel Map is also a great way to create Automation to snap to!

However, it is a little difficult to know to which MIDI channel the articulations are assigned.
I need to either open the plug-in and check, or actually place a note on each channel and check the preview.
But that may be something I get used to if you keep working with the same template for a long time.
If I could name the MIDI Channel or automation snap values arbitrarily, it would all be solved. ......

Thank you for your valuable information.
I will try to create a template using the method you suggested.

[Tj Shredder]

If it is just to visualize the keyswitches, I would simply place them on a separate track and send them via not receiver to the Orchestra…

[Hez]

Thank you for your suggestion.

Certainly the method of separating articulations by MIDI channel is very good, as it seems visually colorful and easy to edit.
Channel Map is also a great way to create Automation to snap to!

However, it is a little difficult to know to which MIDI channel the articulations are assigned.
I need to either open the plug-in and check, or actually place a note on each channel and check the preview.
But that may be something I get used to if you keep working with the same template for a long time.
If I could name the MIDI Channel or automation snap values arbitrarily, it would all be solved. ......

Thank you for your valuable information.
I will try to create a template using the method you suggested.

No worries!

Regarding visualising articulations, TJ's idea is a good one - program each channel (articulation) on a separate track, and then collect them all on one track to be fed to the plugin using note receivers.

I also just had another idea that might work for your use case.

Instead of automating a Channel Map device, use a Note FX Selector and put several layers in there, with a different fixed Channel Map on each layer. E.g. layer 1 has Channel Map 1->1, layer 2 has Channel Map 1->2, etc. You can rename these layers to help you remember which channel is which articulation.

When you automate the note FX selector index it will snap, and will also show the name of the layer in the automation lane. The automation will also scale according to the number of layers you have, so you can use the full depth of the automation lane, which is nice. Just save a different version of this note FX selector for each library that you use.

You could potentially use this for other libraries that have different approaches for keyswitching - CC would be quite trivial for example (add a different MIDI CC device with a fixed CC value on each layer).

[cos-overclock]

Thank you for your suggestion.

Certainly the method of separating articulations by MIDI channel is very good, as it seems visually colorful and easy to edit.
Channel Map is also a great way to create Automation to snap to!

However, it is a little difficult to know to which MIDI channel the articulations are assigned.
I need to either open the plug-in and check, or actually place a note on each channel and check the preview.
But that may be something I get used to if you keep working with the same template for a long time.
If I could name the MIDI Channel or automation snap values arbitrarily, it would all be solved. ......

Thank you for your valuable information.
I will try to create a template using the method you suggested.

No worries!

Regarding visualising articulations, TJ's idea is a good one - program each channel (articulation) on a separate track, and then collect them all on one track to be fed to the plugin using note receivers.

I also just had another idea that might work for your use case.

Instead of automating a Channel Map device, use a Note FX Selector and put several layers in there, with a different fixed Channel Map on each layer. E.g. layer 1 has Channel Map 1->1, layer 2 has Channel Map 1->2, etc. You can rename these layers to help you remember which channel is which articulation.

When you automate the note FX selector index it will snap, and will also show the name of the layer in the automation lane. The automation will also scale according to the number of layers you have, so you can use the full depth of the automation lane, which is nice. Just save a different version of this note FX selector for each library that you use.

You could potentially use this for other libraries that have different approaches for keyswitching - CC would be quite trivial for example (add a different MIDI CC device with a fixed CC value on each layer).

Thank you very much.
The idea is a great one that solves all my problems.

By making a template in that way, I will be able to concentrate on composing very comfortably.

[Enrize]

Thank you for your suggestion.

Certainly the method of separating articulations by MIDI channel is very good, as it seems visually colorful and easy to edit.
Channel Map is also a great way to create Automation to snap to!

However, it is a little difficult to know to which MIDI channel the articulations are assigned.
I need to either open the plug-in and check, or actually place a note on each channel and check the preview.
But that may be something I get used to if you keep working with the same template for a long time.
If I could name the MIDI Channel or automation snap values arbitrarily, it would all be solved. ......

Thank you for your valuable information.
I will try to create a template using the method you suggested.

No worries!

Regarding visualising articulations, TJ's idea is a good one - program each channel (articulation) on a separate track, and then collect them all on one track to be fed to the plugin using note receivers.

I also just had another idea that might work for your use case.

Instead of automating a Channel Map device, use a Note FX Selector and put several layers in there, with a different fixed Channel Map on each layer. E.g. layer 1 has Channel Map 1->1, layer 2 has Channel Map 1->2, etc. You can rename these layers to help you remember which channel is which articulation.

When you automate the note FX selector index it will snap, and will also show the name of the layer in the automation lane. The automation will also scale according to the number of layers you have, so you can use the full depth of the automation lane, which is nice. Just save a different version of this note FX selector for each library that you use.

You could potentially use this for other libraries that have different approaches for keyswitching - CC would be quite trivial for example (add a different MIDI CC device with a fixed CC value on each layer).

This method will not work unfortunately, because Note FX Selector will randomly skip the first note after you switch a layer. If anybody know a workaround or better method please share

[pikey]

One thing to add to Hez's good suggestion is that the note layers in note fx selector have channel maps built in to them, so you don't need a channel map device but instead set the output channel per layer in the inspector.

I haven't encountered that note fx selector first note skipping behaviour before, but maybe doing the channel selection on the layer rather than the device changes the reliability? Worth a shot.

[Enrize]

One thing to add to Hez's good suggestion is that the note layers in note fx selector have channel maps built in to them, so you don't need a channel map device but instead set the output channel per layer in the inspector.

I haven't encountered that note fx selector first note skipping behaviour before, but maybe doing the channel selection on the layer rather than the device changes the reliability? Worth a shot.

Yeah i thought its a bug maybe, but then i found this thread https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitwig/comment ... r_problem/

And it seems its by design and there is no workaround

[Enrize]

One thing to add to Hez's good suggestion is that the note layers in note fx selector have channel maps built in to them, so you don't need a channel map device but instead set the output channel per layer in the inspector.

I haven't encountered that note fx selector first note skipping behaviour before, but maybe doing the channel selection on the layer rather than the device changes the reliability? Worth a shot.

This is what i mean : https://youtu.be/fHLy53ZWWD0

[pikey]

That's just the way that midi notes work. Would expect any key switch system to be the same, you need to know what mode to be on at the start of a note so that the proper articulation can be loaded in time. All kontakt instruments I'm familiar with work in this way, if you sound a note then press a keyswitch it'll only apply to subsequent notes.

Can you explain what behaviour you are looking for instead?

If you want things to change mid-way through a note are you sure that BBC Symphonic Orchestra is even able to respond to that change? You'd be best to look at using modulation/automation of parameters instead, as those can happen mid-way through a note.

EDIT: Never just seen your video that's something different to the reddit thread. Just looks like a bug to me, send it to bitwig and see what they say.