Virtual Drumline Tip

VELOCITY VS. VOLUME

This is a geeky topic, but one that can help you understand how to better leverage your software tools to get more realistic playback from your Virtual Drumline instruments.
 

VELOCITY

Understanding how velocity (sometimes called key velocity) works is one of the most powerful skills you can hone. Think of velocity as how hard a note is being struck.

For example, let's imagine you're tapping on your MIDI keyboard with your finger. When you're striking the keys more softly, you're triggering lower velocities. Strike the keys harder and you'll be triggering higher velocities. As with all MIDI control data, velocity is measured in values from 1–127. The higher the number, the higher the velocity.

Each instrument in Virtual Drumline has been programmed to play back a variety of samples depending on which velocity is being activated. Each sound (i.e., a right-handed snare rimshot) was recorded at a variety of performance volumes. These recordings were then mapped to different velocities on the same pitch so that higher velocities trigger louder recorded samples and lower velocities trigger softer recorded samples.

As you might imagine, this is good for dynamic response. But more importantly, the timbre of the samples will change accordingly. Louder samples aren't just louder; the sound quality changes just as it would in the real world. This is powerful stuff that can make your playback more convincing, and it's all built into the programming of VDL.
 

Velocity in a notation program

If you're using a notation program like Sibelius or Finale along with a VDL template from The Write Score, entering dynamics (i.e., mezzo forte) into a staff will set that instrument's playback at a particular velocity level. Adding an accent to a note will increase its velocity by a certain percentage. Long story short, your notation program is designed to take advantage of the power of velocities. In other words, enter more dynamics into your music!

Quick tip: If you're entering your music note-by-note with a MIDI keyboard (rather than recording it in real time), it doesn't matter how hard or soft you strike the keyboard. In a notation environment, the playback velocities will be determined by the dynamics, articulations, and any manual velocity tweaks you've made in your score.

Spend some time learning how to manipulate velocities in your notation program on a per-note basis and you'll enter a new world of control. If you haven't tried this yet, a good place to start would be lowering the velocities of unaccented notes in your drumline battery parts to an approximate level of 66–70. That alone can bring some new life to your two-height drum parts. As with anything else, experimentation is your best friend. Use your ears!
 

VOLUME

Every instrument in Virtual Drumline has a Volume slider on the Kontakt Player interface. That's basically all it is—a volume knob. It'll raise or lower the audible output of each instrument. This is measured in decibels (dB), and by default, all VDL instruments are programmed to load at a value of 0 dB.

Each instrument in VDL has its own individual volume slider.

Raising the level on a specific instrument won't mean that the instrument will sound like it's playing at fortissimo. If you want to hear the instrument's timbre "open up" as it would in real life, see the preceding section about manipulating velocities. Tweaking the volume will simply just raise or lower how that instrument mixes against other instruments. 

If you wish to raise or lower an instrument's volume setting, one way to accomplish this is through automation. In the world of MIDI, volume control is set to continuous controller #7 (again with values of 1–127). In most cases, it's a good idea to limit this type of automation as it can sometimes affect playback behavior in unintended ways. This is entirely dependent on the software host you are using.

If you DO need to make volume changes on the fly (i.e., gradually turning down the output of a sustained snare roll to mimic a diminuendo), consider using Expression (CC #11) control instead. We went into more discussion about this topic in our December 2013 newsletter.
 

Volume in a notation program

If you're hosting VDL/Kontakt in a notation program, these volume sliders are tied to the volume sliders you'll find on the notation program's mixer. So here's a quick tip that'll hopefully save you some time: Don't worry about tweaking the volume sliders in the VDL instruments' interfaces. Work within your host's mixer and let it do the work for you. Less visits into the Kontakt Player plugin window will save you time.