Velo Sens in Lead Patches?

[Drusillus]

Hey guys,

What's the consensus on having velocity sensitivity on in lead patches? I'm not the greatest player, and I find with velo sens on, if I only half hit a key or something in a fast run then it's gonna sound bad if it triggers a lower velocity sample... do most pros turn this off for fast leads? For slower more expressive solos I can see it though.

[synthguy]

Velocity can be tricky with leads, but for most people it just takes a little practice. If you understand how to program your synth, you can go in and fine tune the response to make it easier to make your leads do what you want. One of my instruments is a Roland JP8000, and I'm still learning how to program its odd modulation matrix, so if I want to program a quick lead using velocity to modulate volume or the filter I go to another synth. If you can practice and learn to control your touch, velocity can give you a great resource to play expressively.

[ImaX]

Sometimes I just need to know that there's velocity sensing - I don't hear it, but I have a better feeling then, don't ask why :-)

[Drusillus]

Hey synthguy, I'm a JP-8000 user too (note the avatar). Using the JP was actually what got me thinking about turning velo on or off. Since it's so easy to turn it off on the fly (one button at the left side if the keyboard right by the pitch bender) I've been experimenting lately.

[Over The Edge]

The Triton has an example of a velocity lead in the Combi section under bass/splits. I don't mind having this feature on at all. It adds a very natural lead electric guitar feel. However, you may not need it at all especially if you are doing burning leads against an actual guitar where difficulty and unevennessin phrasing may occur.


FL
www.franklucas.net

[Tusker]

Some interesting thoughts on the subject here ...

I use velocity sensitive more on some leads than others. Generally I link velocity more to plucked string (guitarish) or struck (percussionish) leads. And less to brass, wind, types of leads.

This gives two positive results:

- You don't accidentaly find yourself sustaining a note for a long period of time ... whose volume (or brightness) is inappropriate.
- SInce a lot of the information/interest is at the beginning of the note, you can use variation in velocity to say something musical (1 note, repetitive patterns for example).

Cheers,

Jerry