I’m look for some suggestion how to handle transposing on the fly.
I am currently using Zynthian with a 3 octave Xylosynth. The Xylosynth, by default, sends the notes on par with a Vibraphone, F3-F6. However, You can change this to either F4-F7, F2-F5, or F1-F4 on the instrument using a rather inconvenient hold down a button and tap which note you want to be F4 combination that doesn’t really work well in a live performance.
I used to my Mainstage 3 on my MacBook Pro, but switched to Zynthian because of size and cost (a MacBookPro is a tempting theft, but the Zynthian just looks like a black box).
For Vibraphone, Tubular Bells and usually Marimba, there is no problem, but for Xylophone and Glockenspiel, I need to be able to switch to their respective ranges automatically. For Glockenspiel, that’s two octaves up (F5-C8) (not even possible on the instrument); and for Xylophone, that’s one or two octaves up (F4-C8). In Mainstage, I can set this transposition easily for each instrument (patches is what is called in Mainstage).
In Pianoteq (what I mainly use in Zynthian), octave transposition is in MIDI settings. It is not per instrument, so I can’t simply create presets in Pianoteq for each preference. So not good for a live performance.
In Zynthian directly, the layer can be modified by bold tapping, but again, it is not per instrument. So not good for a live performance.
You can also change A 440 hz to either A 220 hz or A 880 hz (it won’t go higher), and this can be done in a preset, but when I tried this, it made each note sound very off, bent, and no longer realistic.
I also use an SF2 for Crotales, as Pianoteq doesn’t provide this mallet percussion instrument.
Subsnapshots can be assigned to my foot switches as program changes. What I would really like to do is be able to have subsnapshots include the transpositions (rather than on the entire layer), but this is not the case. Currently, I have to use full snapshots for each instrument, but the load times are long and I don’t know how to set full snapshot loads to foot switches (program changes).
I use this set up in theatre orchestra pit, so changing from one instrument to another in the SAME measure isn’t uncommon, and these load times aren’t fast enough. I’d have to continue to use my MacBook Pro at the moment.
Use cases… and this is how I have had it set up in Mainstage 3, but can’t figure out how in Zynthian/Pianoteq…
Vibraphone: As default
Tubular Bells: As default
Glockenspiel: F3 from the instrument should play as F5.
Xylophone: F3 from the instrument should play as F4.
Piccolo Xylophone: F3 from the instrument should play as F5.
Marimba: As default
High Marimba: F3 from the instrument should play as F4.
Low Marimba: F3 from the instrument should play as F1.
Crotales: F3 from the instrument should play as F5.
Irrespective of your issue, I’d love to see a photo of your stage rig!
You are aware of the transpose control in the layer menus? Display the layers list and bold press on the layer you wish to modify. You will find the transpose function there.
I’d love to show you a picture, but COVID has my office/storage area really cluttered. All my instruments normally at rehearsal areas are all stacked up here.
I know about the transpose function in the layer menu, but I don’t know how to save those settings to subsnapshots.
I don’t know much about this area and need to look into it more. When I tried adding effects to Pianoteq, it didn’t work at first, so I gave up. Thanks.
Yes there are several newish features that haven’t made it to the docs yet. We might need a whole new set of simple “how do I?” pages for this sort of thing, but as you probably know writing this sort of stuff can be involved as it’s important you get the details just right.
Hi @bigmalletman !
Why not setting every instrument on a separate layer and configuring the transposing for every layer? If you use a single keyboard, you can use “Stage mode” & Program Change (ZS3) for changing the active layer very fast, with smooth transitions for pressed notes & pedals.
If your setup have several keyboards, then you have to use the "multi-timbral mod"e and change the keyboard’s MIDI channel for playing the different layers.
Yes, this is what I need to learn how to do. Currently, I’ve been putting everything on one layer and switching Pianoteq instruments with subsnapshots. It seems this is not how I should be doing it.
My setup is currently just the 3 octave Xylosynth and USB Foot Switches (Logidy UMI3). I’ve considered adding a small keyboard to my setup, but I never learned any real piano technique. I am a percussionist.
I will play around with it more.
If you use Pianoteq for multiple instruments then you will notice it can only be instantiated once but you can work around this by using the Pianoteq LV2 plugin. This can be done by:
Hey @bigmalletman ! I’m a percussionist too, brother. Tambor me llaman …
Having several LV2 instances of Pianoteq is something quite new on zynthian, so i’m not totally sure of the result. Please, send feedback about your experiments.
Anyway, i’m thinking of including the key-range (transposing/split) info into the ZS3s (subsnapshots), so you can run your setup with a single layer of Pianoteq. Please, could you open a feature request with this on the Issue tracker?
Regarding performance with multiple LV2 Pianoteq instances, it isn’t bad. If you disable GUI (VNC) it will be better and if you avoid playing more than one at a time also will improve performance. Pianoteq is a modelling synth so uses very little CPU or memory when idle which is good in this scenario.
Okay, I figured out how to make a good snapshot with all my instruments with transpose included.
It took me a while to figure out that I needed to bold press the existing synth layer and add chromatic-transpose midi-fx to that. I kept screwing up because I was trying to create a synth layer and a second midi-fx layer on its own channel.
And I’ll add that feature request to include transposing/splitting on the layer to the zs3 in a bit. Thanks.
I do have that option, but the transpose layer doesn’t save in the subsnapshot. The midi-fx settings do.
I have the latest zynthian. I re-imaged and updated when I was trying to debug that last bug you fixed for me.
