Articulations
External MIDI Instruments, AU / CLAP / VST plugins and the Multi Instrument can be multitimbral (have multiple sounds). You can set up articulations to switch between sounds. The Articulations feature is intended for using multiple articulations of an instrument, like bowed and pizzicato violin, in a single track.MultitrackStudio Articulations
There are two ways to control articulations:
- You can use a Controller to switch between articulations. The track editor's controller editor can then be used to switch sounds using the "Articulation" controller. By default, controller 89 is used.
- Per-note articulations can be selected in the Note Editor or the Multi Note Editor. This option uses the MIDI 2.0 note attributes.
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The instrument window's 'hamburger' button provides access to the 'Articulations' feature. You can define up to 16 articulations.
Four switch types are available:
- Program Change messages.
- MIDI Channel.
- Keyswitch (note messages).
- Orchestral Articulation (see below).
Note: MultitrackStudio Articulations only work in MultitrackStudio. If you plan on exporting the MIDI tracks to a .mid file you probably should use separate tracks instead.
Under the hood
The MIDI 2.0 note-on attribute is used for the articulation setting in the Note Editor / Multi Note Editor.
The note-on attribute is stored in the MIDI (1.0) file as an NRPN value.
99.99% of the 3rd party MIDI effect plugins don't support MIDI 2.0 yet, which means the per-note articulation values will be lost if you use such a MIDI effect plugin in your track. MultitrackStudio tries to work around this problem, but there may be cases where it doesn't work as expected.
Orchestral Articulations
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Orchestral Articulations can be selected in the Note Editor or Multi Note Editor. Articulations and Variations can be selected. The profile allows for up to 16 variations of a particular articulation. In addition there's an Options box which provides access to playing direction, string number and 'reset round robin' options as defined by the profile.
Orchestral Articulations currently work with CLAP plugins which support the MIDI 2.0 Note On Orchestral Articulation profile. Orchestral Articulations will work automatically if the plugin supports it and no Program Change, MIDI Channel or Keyswitch articulations are defined in the Articulations window.
The Orchestral Articulations can be integrated in the MultitrackStudio articulation system, similar to the other switch types (see above). Articulations and Variations can be selected in the Articulations window. In addition to the MultitrackStudio articulations all Orchestral Articulations supported by the instrument will be available in the Note Editor or Multi Note Editor.
The profile also defines Orchestral Mute Type and Orchestral Mute Amount RPN controllers, and a Playing Position per-note controller. You can find them in a track's controller editor.
Tip: The Orchestral Mute Amount controller is an RPN. If you'd like to use a hardware knob that sends regular controller messages you can use the Keyboard Mapper to convert the regular controller to the Orchestral Mute Amount RPN.
Playing articulations live
The Keyboard Mapper allows for using some of your keyboard's keys for articulation switching. This feature generates per-note articulations, so they appear in the Note Editor / Multi Note Editor. Both MultitrackStudio Articulations and Orchestral Articulations are available.The articulation keys can be latching, so an articulation is used until you press another articulation key, or non-latching, in this case an articulation is used until you release the articulation key.
You can right-click the list for options to move all keys one octave up/down, or to delete all keys.