I was just editing the performance version of a score and putting in lots of expression controllers as MPCs (actually mod wheel controllers for Garritan GPO). Now when I want to do a cresc, for example, I first need to scroll back towards the beginning of the staff to see what control values my last MPC had so I can start with that value and then sweep up from there. BUT... suppose the MPC edit window, instead of defaulting to some arbitrary value, defaulted the first setting to whatever the most recent setting was on that staff.
In other words, suppose I want a chord to fade slightly as it is held. 20 measures back I put in a MPC with a value of 34. Now when I go to insert a new controller the dialog pops up with the value 34 as the default instead of 64. Now I don't have to scroll back 20 measures and edit the previous MPC to read its value. Wouldn't that be cool?
Here's a feature that would be really fantastic: The ability to draw controller values graphically instead of using MPC commands. There could be a pop-up window for the currently selected staff that looked like this:
That would make life SOOOO much easier when editing scores for performance on a synth.
It's just so hard to try to visualize what a series of MPC's are doing in a passage. The popup could show whichever controller was selected, pitch bend, mod, velocity, tempo, etc.... Then a pencil tool could be used to draw the contour freehand, or a line tool to draw point-to-point ramps for cresc, etc.
As a long-time Noteworthy Composer user new to Garritan Personal Orchestra (GPO), I'm discovering some handy hints and tricks that work well with GPO.
To begin with, to produce good performance dynamics requires a lot of manipulation of the mod wheel CC1 values. For various technical reasons which I don't understand, GPO uses note velocity to set only the attack strength of the note, and uses the mod wheel to control the sustained loudness and timbre of the instrument while the note is held. Working on the score to the first movement of Beethoven's Sixth symphony as my "training piece", I have discovered what I think might be the best way to insert detailed CC1 and velocity controls into the performance.
For each instrument create an extra staff placed immediately below the instrument staff, and assign this to the same Garritan Studio channel as the instrument staff. For example, immediately below the staff labeled "Violins I" I add a staff labeled "Violins I KS and CC". GPO uses Key Switch (KS) notes to control articulation in various instruments, such as up bow vs down bow on violins, etc. These are mapped to notes far below the normal instrument range. Even though the first violins are in the treble clef I put this extra staff in the bass clef and in the midi properties mark it as transposed -12. That way the KS note values map into the clef in easily readable positions. For example, "F" for Pizz maps to the high F of the bass clef in the transposed control staff, and is quickly Identifiable as "F", as opposed to having it extended way below the staff by some number of lines that have to be counted to figure out what the KS note is. (KS notes can also be annotated using the "edit Lyrics" command for the controller staff to add text like "UpBow" under the note itself.)
Next, fill the entire control staff with measures filled with short valued rests consistent with the note values of the piece. For example, in Beethoven 6 mv 1 (in 2/4) I fill the entire control staff with eighth rests.
Now I can place MPC controllers between any two rests. In some cases, where the controller value needs to be adjusted just slightly before the note is hit to avoid sudden "jumps" during the first few microseconds of the attack, you can split the 1/16th rest in the controller staff into two 1/32 rests and put the controller value 1/32 before the note is played.
A couple of advantages of this is method are 1) the mod wheel values stand out from the clutter of notes, 2) A controller measure can be copied and pasted into a later spot in the same staff or at a matching spot in another instrument's staff allowing the dynamic contour of a single measure or an entire passage to be duplicated into other measures even when those two measures have completely different sequences of notes. Only the CC1 values are copy-pasted. So when the oboe takes the melody line from the strings, the oboe can be given a copy of the string's CC1 contours for the whole passage with a single copy and paste. 3) If at some later date you wish to "enrich" the string section, for example, by adding a couple layered solo instruments you can copy-paste the entire controller staff from the section instrument staff into the solo instrument staff so that the newly added solo instrument follows the same performance dynamics of the section staff.
Place your dynamic (velocity) notations between the note staff and the controller staff for maximum visibility. Vertical position -8 works well. Here's an example from Beethoven's 6th mv 1, first violins:
I've been using NWC for 10 years and I'm very happy with it. I'm making the switch from my hardware synth to the Garritan Personal Orchestra (GPO). People on the GPO forums are telling me I should get Finale or Sibelius, and my first thought is WHY? I've got NWC and it does everything I want.
My question is this: has anybody used NWC with Garritan? How do I set it up so NWC sends the midi messages to a software synth? I'm new to this whole software synth thing, so in this area I'm a complete newbie. (on edit: I'm using NWC version 1.75a)
