Midi Playback Timbre/Octave

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Midi Playback Timbre/Octave

2006-10-01 01:22 am

Hi,
I'm working on writing out a band piece (and developing it at the same time) in NWC 2. I usually use the playback as a tool to double check for typos and chord spelling errors. The piece is still in the stage that all lines are in the same key. Transposition is the last step and therefore not an issue yet.

I have 27 staves, threee of which will never have music on them- they are just there for the visual effect of the orchestral bar lines (so all the winds, brass, etc. will be connected). Right now I just have the intro of the piece, which is all brass, so the top several staves are not in use yet- but they will be. Anyhow, when I play it back all together, the timbre of the instruments is all messed up. The top 4 brass staves sound fine, but each staff below it sounds like a xylophone. I experimented with several MIDI voices to use but no matter what it is they still sounds like that. The problem is that it changes the octave of the low brass notes and it's driving me crazy!! I'd like to fix it if possible- my ears are more reliable than my eyes.

My guess- perhaps someone could confirm this or suggest something else- is that there are simply not enough MIDI channels in either the program or my sound card to handle the number of staves. If that is the case and it's the program, how many staves do I have?

Thanks!
Lindsay

Re: Midi Playback Timbre/Octave

Reply #1 – 2006-10-01 01:51 am

Check your midi settings for each staff (make the staff active, then press F2 for staff properties, and select the midi tab).

You have 16 channels. Channel 10 is reserved for percussion, leaving 15 channels which should be enough for electric bass, tuba, trombone, french horn, trumpet, each size sax, bassoon, bass clarinet, clarinet, oboe, flute, and piccolo.

Use the same channel for all the staffs that have instruments of the same kind. You can, in a pinch, combine similar instruments into one channel, even though they're on separate staffs.

Euphonium, baritone b.c., and baritone t.c. can share the channel used for tuba or trombone, I think.

Re: Midi Playback Timbre/Octave

Reply #2 – 2006-10-01 11:57 am

Guess I was thinking that if they all had the same instrument they were in the same channel already- now I know better. Can you tell I rarely use the playback on a large scale? I was messing around with using brass timbres for the brass and woodwind for the winds for kicks but didn't realize it would be so complicated with the channels.

Anyhow, the problem is fixed now. Thank you!

Re: Midi Playback Timbre/Octave

Reply #3 – 2006-10-01 12:39 pm

G'day Lindsay,
just to add to David's reply, and to contradict him just a little...

As timbre is something you're trying to manage, I wouldn't use the same MIDI channel for all my brass. Trombones are a different sound to trumpets and different again to the saxhorn family, and yet again to the Horns.

So the groupings I would use are:
All Trombones can share a channel
All Trumpets can share a channel
All Saxhorns can share a channel
All (French) Horns can share a channel

NB a Saxhorn is:
A tuba, a euphonium, a baritone (Bb - smaller bore than a eupho'), a tenor horn (Eb - I think Americans call this an alto horn), a cornet or a Flugel horn. I think I got 'em all. Basically, a trumpet has a predominantly straight bore and a saxhorn has a predominantly conical bore. Hence the difference in timbre. Thus trumpets are "brighter" and saxhorns are "mellower". Trombones fit the trumpet category but sound sufficiently different that I wouldn't share channels. I'm not sure where Horns stand - they're not really trumpets, but they're not really saxhorns either... They're just horns...

Another point to note - when multiple staves are using the same channel then some MIDI commands will affect all staves using that channel. I don't recall which ones and I'm too tired to track 'em down right now - had a long day and it's "beddy byes" time