Glissando (or slide between notes if you like) in Studio One Midi Editor

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 02/03/2014 20:43:25

Anyone got any clever ways of doing a smooth Glissando in the Studio One Midi editor?

Basically a smooth slide between two notes.
Think say a bass guitar and you want to slide 7 or 8 notes for effect!
Or a Cello or Viola glissando etc..

Anyone help with this?

Unless you're using a scriptable sampler (Kontakt etc.), your best option is (and it's far from "best") to use Pitch-Shifting plugins such as Waves GTR Stomp 2 (Octaver), they have another one... forgot its name, dedicated to pitch shift... haha could be "pitch shifter" but I'm guessing.

Many vsti instruments like GPO 4 have a portamento control that you can automate to slide between two notes. A pitch shifting plugin can used but I find I get better results using the built in melodyne when the vsti doesn't have a built in portamento.

Hope this helps,
Roy

Assuming a 2 note slide, I extend a single note the length of the 2 notes then use a pitch bend midi envelope. This doesn't work with all VSTi's though. Some seem to have their bendable range limited. I do this with bass a lot.

Glissando is usually a funstion built into the synth on the other end rather than in the midi data itself.

But the closest thing to it might be to create a note the length of the gliss and then go back and add a pitch bend curve over the top.

You still have to tell the synth receiving it though what the pitch bend range might be eg a tone or an octave etc..

You could also extend a single note the length of the glissando and use a Midi envelope to pitch bend it.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 03/03/2014 09:57:39

That is exaclty what I said in my post before yours Bub. Do you read my posts carefully?

And I said the same thing you did in my post prior to yours.

You did too

Except that you mentioned two notes in your post. Are you suggesting an interval doing a slide. Or two notes, one going from one to the other. If you are the the pitch bend will have to jump back to zero just before the second note.

Either way I still think it tends to work better as a function of the synth receiving it. I am not sure about VST's and their ability to glide but all my hardware synths certainly do it for some reason. Maybe it is something hardware can easily do.

VST's will need to be firstly told to even receive and react to the pitch bend. Some default but some others don't always. It is not always a standard thing and the range is obviously important as well. Octave pitch bends should be possible. It is important too that any pitch bending is reset back to zero before anything eles happens otherwise the VST or hardware synth can stay there!

Well, I was a bit confused by the OP to be honest because he kind of used examples that didn't seem relative.

Kiwicomposer wrote:Basically a smooth slide between two notes.
Think say a bass guitar and you want to slide 7 or 8 notes for effect!

A smooth slide between 2 notes and a 7 ~ 8 note effect slide are quite different. I wouldn't think the 7 ~ 8 note scenario would even be possible. So I gave my example based on a smooth 2 note slide.

I used this extensively on Craig's free Gibson EB5 Bass pack for DimPro with excellent results. I lengthened a single note to occupy the time of two notes (iow length of Glissando), then used a midi envelope for pitch bend.

I wanted to use that same bass midi clip I created for the Bass, on a patch in Z3ta+ so I loaded Z3ta+ and copied the bass midi clip there and I discovered that it wouldn't allow the bend to go as far for that particular patch as Dim Pro did for the E5 bass patch. That's why I mentioned that I noticed it doesn't always work.

I've never tried this with hardware. Just in the box.

Screen Shot 2014-03-04 at 10.26.31 am.png

Not sure what is confusing.. I never said between 2 adjacent nodes I just said between 2 notes. Any two notes that are say 7 or 8 notes apart.
I also mentioned Glissando so that should have given a hint.

So to clarify...
What I was meant was sliding between 2 notes over a range say of 7 or 8 (or whatever) so, for example, say from C down to the D below
Basically a traditional Glissando.
So like putting your finger on a bass string, hitting the note and sliding the finger down the string a few notes to get a Glissando.

Maybe an image will clarify it! (the example os only that the reality it could be down 6 notes or 5 notes or whatever)

Does that make it clearer?

I guess you could still do it with pitch bend down over the duration of the first note only though.

Record the C note first for say 4 beats. Then record the second D note after that.

Draw the pitch bend down curve over the duration of the C note. (-10 semitones) You will have to set that instrument to respond to pitch bend and say over an octave.

The trick will be resetting the pitch bend curve very quickly back to zero between the end of the C note and the start of the D note. If you don't the D note will also be pitched down. The C note will have to stop even if it's for a fraction of a second so you don't hear the any part of the C note resetting. (nno release times eg instant stop)

If there is no time however from the end of the C note to the start of the D note then the following may work better.

Record two C notes in succession. During the duration of the first C note you create a pitch bend curve that takes that note down exactly 10 semitones to the D below it. So when the second middle C note sounds because the pitch bend is still down there it will sound the D below middle C.

Then when there is a suitable break between the D bass note (which is really middle C with -10 semitones of pitch bend still applied) and the next bass note (you will have to create the break) you reset that pitch bend back up to zero and like instantly. Then go back to using the correct notes.

Any instant changes in control codes like pitch bend or mod wheel etc (while notes are not sounding and that means no release times either) should not be heard usually.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 04/03/2014 15:43:29

There should be no problems with quick/instant pitch changes in Studio One. It doesn't use MIDI, it uses a proprietary function that allows you to make rapid automation changes. See P.17 of the manual.

I have no problem at all with the bass on this track, and I did this throughout the song. I've also done this with Strings and other instruments as well.

I zoom in and set my Snap settings to Adaptive and line up the Pitch envelope to the exact beginning of the next note and I've never had a problem doing that.

HTH.

Thanks,

Shane

Edit: "I zoom in and set my Snap settings to Adaptive". In the screenshot it shows 'Quantize'. For some reason the Editor screen always defaults to that no matter what I change it to. Also, I used the 'Parabolo' tool to draw that smooth curve. I didn't zoom in far enough, but everything is snapped to a 1/64 grid.

Here's all the edits to the entire track. It's just a short experimental piece I was tinkering with, about a minute long. This is just the bass track, there are 5 others.

As you can see there are a lot of very rapid envelope changes and so far I haven't had any problems doing that.

Good luck!

Shane

The process is really not that convoluted just add Portamento to the automation lane in the editor like this: