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Miroslav Philharmonik Rules and Presets

Share Custom Rules for NOTION3 and NOTIONSLE

Miroslav Philharmonik Rules and Presets

Postby elerouxx » Mon Nov 14, 2011 5:53 am

MIROSLAV PHILHARMONIK CUSTOM RULES

EDITED 2012.08.18


After some time of tuning and tweaking the Miroslav library, I decided to put together a set of rules and presets for Miro. Changes are not so drastic, but the important thing is the implementation of more techniques and effects like glissandos and fluttertongue even in instruments that didn't had that particular recorded sample. For that matter, it wasn't enough just to code the rules, and most of the presets needed to be edited. So, I managed to fix the missing Bass Clarinet, all wind instruments have fluttertongue -either by a recorded sample or a tremolo effect if no sample existed-. Strings and some winds (clarinet, brass) are able to do portamento-style glissandos, with or without tremolo / flutter. All strings have sordino and sul ponticello sounds. Articulation is more precise: staccatos under a slur aren't played as staccatos but as detaché / mezzo-staccato, end of slurs are slightly shorter and softer, and non-slur notes are slightly detaché, to improve phrasing, and dynamics were fine tuned.

Please, all comments are welcome, specially if you have questions, or think that something could be improved.

To use the rules, it's necessary to replace the content of the folder:
(programs)/notion 3/support/PlugInData/PLK
with the PLK folder in the .rar file.

Download
Miro_Rules_and_presets_2012_08_18.rar
Miroslav Rules and Presets
(868.44 KiB) Downloaded 1545 times



Please, backup your current rules and presets before using these.
Also, thanks to pcartwright, dgriffee and Erufalion for their contribution to these forums . I'd be lost if it wasn't for their work on Rules.

USAGE:
The rules are pretty automatic. Only the Glissandos/portamento effects need some tweaking to work properly.

HOW TO CREATE REALISTIC GLISSANDOS/SLIDES:
With these rules, instruments in Miroslav can play seamless glissandi (portamento) between two or more notes and at 3 different speeds. But In order to work, the following conditions are required:
-The notes must be linked by the Slide up or Slide Down lines, from the palette (shortcut "\")
-At least the LAST note has to have one of these techniques attached to it (of course the attachments can be hidden):
'slide' for quick slides.
'gliss. up' or 'gliss. down' for normal portamento
'gliss. up slow' or 'gliss. down slow' for slow portamento.
-The notes must overlap for portamento to work, so it's necessary to edit their durations by dragging the gray lines in the Sequencer Overlay. Actually, a realistic glide is achieved by antecipating the second note, otherwise the glissandi starts too late.

Here you can see how to write the glissandi so they work:

glissando.jpg
glissando.jpg (22.71 KiB) Viewed 24679 times


NEW: SOLFEGE CHOIR
A split M/F choir that spells NOTE NAMES!

I edited the MIXED CHOIR preset and created rules so the Choir now sings note names! I want to believe I thought about an educational tool and also a choir that sounds more realistic and dramatic by spelling different sylabes thru the melodies. And also as a better alternative to 'Vocal' for song writing. But the truth is that I did this for FUN!

To tell the choir to say the notes, you have to place a 'custom sounds 1' technique marking (done by typing Apostrophe then S and 1). Otherwise the Choir just sings 'Ah' as usual. You can use the 'normale' technique to 'turn off' note names anytime.

This is how it sounds:
solfege_choir.mp3
Choir Singing Note Names
(419.49 KiB) Downloaded 1120 times








DETAILED LOG:
Here I provide detailed information on what was done with the original rules and presets.

BASS CLARINET FIXED :
-Fixed the absent Bass Clarinet problem by "hacking" a byte in the Bass Clarinet preset file!
[Note: previously, there was no Bass Clarinet, and there were 2 Clarinet presets in the Miroslav instrument list in Notion, because the instrument-id inside the file was set to 12004 (clarinet) instead of 12051. I didn't know how to fix it by other means .]

FRENCH HORN:
-A FF horn sample was set in channels 15 and 16, triggered by high velocities only, as a layer to brighten horn sounds in forte to fortissimo dynamics.

CLARINET TRILLS:
[Note: the Clarinet is the only Miroslav instrument that has both 1/2 and 1 step trills samples. All the other instruments have to do played trills]
-Added trill samples to channels 15 and 16 of the clarinet preset file. Had to Tune up the whole trill using the Miroslav interface tuning, because the starting note was 75 cents lowert a quarter tone lower. Maybe it has been expanded digitally.
-Added a rule to play the sampled trills (only on the clarinet).

TREMOLO / FLUTTERTONGUE
-Added channel 11 with digital tremolo effect to simulate tremolo/fluttertongue/roll to the following instrument presets: clarinet, bass clarinet, trombone, bass trombone, trombones, trumpet, trumpets, oboe, oboes, bassoon, english horn, bassoons. [*An LFO could be used in the future for more precise control of this tremolo]
-added channel 11 with Flute fluttertongue sound to the Piccolo preset.
-Added a rule to also play tremolo (switch to channel 11) when 'fluttertongue' technique is written on the score.

GLISSANDOS:
-Added channels 4 and 5 with Miroslav "legato" mode (for portamento), and mapped Portamento (Gliss) control to CC20 in those channels, to the following instrument presets: clarinet, bass clarinet, trombone, bass trombone, violin, viola, violas, violoncello, cellos, contrabass, double basses, clarinets, trombones, trumpet, tuba, fr. horn, trumpets
-Channel 5 was created in most instruments for tremolo/flutter glissando. Again, added a digital tremolo effect to the channel if no tremolo/flutter sample was available.
-Added rules to play portamento (for clarinet, strings and brass glissandos and timpani glides). Rules may work with any instrument that can do slides as far as the channels 4 and 5 are set up in the presets.

PHRASING / ARTICULATION:
Added rule to shorten and soften notes at the end of slur. This works fine to separate phrases, breaths and bows. (Thanks dgriffee for his work on the general phrasing rules).
Added rules to play staccato under slur as detaché/mezzo-staccato. [note: in most instruments, slurred staccato means mezzo-staccato. In bowed strings it means detaché notes using a single bow stroke. This rule works fine in all cases]
Added rules to play non-slurred note as detaché, reducing its duration a little.

MORE STRING TECHNIQUES:
Added channels 12 (mute) and 13 (mute staccato) with the best possible sounds to all string instruments.
Added channels 14 (sul ponte) and 15 (sul ponte tremolo) with the best possible sounds to the strings.
**If no mute or ponticello sample existed, a normal sound was equalized to simulate these techniques.

FURTHER NOTES AND MIROSLAV LIMITATIONS:
Octave transposition in instruments like Piccolo, Double Bass, Tuba, etc. isn't working right away, even with the original rules and presets. The octave transposition is set correctly in the Staff Settings dialog, but it only takes effect is the user opens and closes the dialog. I don't know how to fix it.
Viola doesn't have a looped tremolo but a sound was created using an effect. Timpani doesn't have a looped roll, only crescendo short rolls, and the tremolo effect doesn't work in this case.

-Emilio Le Roux
Last edited by elerouxx on Sat Aug 18, 2012 1:38 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Miroslav Philharmonik Rules and Presets

Postby catshsh » Mon Nov 14, 2011 8:59 am

Wowww seems to be a hard work done !

Thanks a lot. I'll try these setting as soon as possible.

Just one thought, though. My own work on these prules and preset for "my" miro... is it a waste of time ? :D
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Re: Miroslav Philharmonik Rules and Presets

Postby ulrik » Mon Nov 14, 2011 6:33 pm

Fantastic lot of work you have made on these, thank you very much sharing them with us all! It's much appreciated!
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Re: Miroslav Philharmonik Rules and Presets

Postby elerouxx » Mon Nov 14, 2011 9:02 pm

catshsh wrote:Wowww seems to be a hard work done !

Thanks a lot. I'll try these setting as soon as possible.

Just one thought, though. My own work on these prules and preset for "my" miro... is it a waste of time ? :D


You're welcome! I hope you enjoy the playback.

Well, I think there's always room for improvement and discussion. I hold no author-vanity for the rules, I just put some ideas together because I really needed better sound and more techniques implemented, so I could just spend my time composing freely, using glissandi in strings, clarinet and trombones, all mutes and sul ponticello sounds, etc. Oh, and I needed the bass clarinet.


ulrik wrote:Fantastic lot of work you have made on these, thank you very much sharing them with us all! It's much appreciated!


Thanks! Have you tried them already? I'd appreciate your opinions.
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Re: Miroslav Philharmonik Rules and Presets

Postby ulrik » Tue Nov 15, 2011 2:30 am

I have only tried the solo violin, viola, violoncello so far and it sounds good I think, the only thing I have to do is to pan the sounds in the miro interface so the instruments different technics come from the same place in the room.
I will try these setting out more when time permits.
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Re: Miroslav Philharmonik Rules and Presets

Postby bcarwell » Wed Nov 16, 2011 4:54 pm

Emilio, many thanks for sharing this.
As a Newb I had a few questions:
1) I assume this works for Miroslav Notion SLE and not just Notion 3 ?
2) I also gather I can't break anything permanently by just replacing the PLK file, e.g. if things crash or cause something and I want to revert to the way I was I just have to put the original PLK back, correct ?
3) Do any/most/all of the new features now appear for the first time as new additions to the Entry Palette or do you simply try to use existing articulation markings in the Palette and they either work or not (I understand the additional stuff you have to do for glissando, etc.). Similarly, does a new addition such as Bass Clarinet or anything else now appear for the first time in the Miroslav choice of instruments that used to not have one ? Otherwise how do you invoke Bass Clarinet for example ?
4) As a newb I'm still not clear after I bring up the Miroslav interface and see various sample articulations assigned to different channels which ones/how many I have to thereafter assign to staffs. I noticed you've added channels 4,5, 11 to various things. Do I assume there is no channel assigning I need to do for this stuff ?

And lastly, a few comments. I was suspicious and then found out and became disappointed to see how much Miroslav capability was left out of Notion SLE for Miroslav compared to the Vienna SLE version. So again, many thanks for your hard work. I'm just wondering now if Notion would have any plans in a next version of enriching the
Entry Palette of available Miroslav stuff, starting with your work (for which I would hope they would find some way to compensate you of course !).

Thanks again and keep it comin' (at least until I can afford Vienna !).

Regards,

Bob
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Re: Miroslav Philharmonik Rules and Presets

Postby elerouxx » Wed Nov 16, 2011 6:28 pm

I'll try to answer your questions as far as I am able to:

1) I can't confirm that, but in theory, yes, notion3 and sle should work just the same with the Miroslav library

2) Yes, if you backup the PLK folder you can just put the original files back. On this, i want to elaborate that the presets files I included (the notion instrument files inside PLK) are almost identical to the originals and should work fine with either the old or new rules (the original files in the Rules folder). But the old presets won't be able to do glissandi and some tremolos implemented in the new rules.

3) You just write your music and the new articulation rules take effect. For instance, you'll notice that staccato notes under a slur are not longer played as staccato but as mezzo staccato. You will notice that slurred phrases are legato and non slurred notes are detaché - more noticeable in long notes, from quarter to whole, than in quick notes. To use techniques like With mute/Con sordino, or Sul ponticello, or go back to Normale, you just use the techniques that already exist in the palette.

The exception is Glissando, if you want to use that portamento effect, as illustrated in the original post. You have to follow the guidelines for that to work. If you use just the Gliss. lines, the glissandi will be sent note by note by the Notion engine to the Miroslav VST, and no portamento will be used. To note 'gliss. up' or 'slide' etc, you use the express shortcuts from the manual: apostrophe+GLUP for gliss. up, apostrophe+SLID = slide, etc.

As for the bass clarinet, yes, it now appears in the instrument list under Miroslav for first time, due to a wrong byte in the original file that was corrected.

4) In normal use of Miroslav instruments (with all sounds and articulation), each instrument has its own instance of Miroslav, and channels are configured for the different sounds: staccato, pizzicato, legato, sordino. With new rules, some unused channels were configured for additional effects. But in any case you don't have to worry about channels - the rules take care of the channel switching in a transparent way. You can see that if you write music with different articulations and open the miro interface - sound will come from different channels.


Thanks for your supporting comments. I don't blame the Notion team - it took me about 2 weeks to fine-tune and implement these improvements, and that was using the original Miroslav rules as starting point, so I can't but imagine the marathonic work of creating rule sets and presets for 4 libraries starting from zero, and in time to release them with the rest of the app. The Vienna instruments are by far the most complete and huge of all them, while Miroslav and GPO are small, personal libraries (I'd say Miroslav is 'almost outdated') - so I understand there were priorities, or at least it should be easier to configure Vienna sounds.

Anyway, I thank them for this wonderful piece of software, which came to my hands in the moment of my life I decided to take my musical career again, deeply studying orchestration among other things. So, timing couldn't be better. I understand they are a small team, so in retribution I'll do what I can to help them, or at least to take the most from the software. Of course I'll feel proud if they included some of this in next releases, so we can use Miroslav more freely and deeply.
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Re: Miroslav Philharmonik Rules and Presets

Postby bcarwell » Wed Nov 16, 2011 10:40 pm

Emilio, again my gratitude for your contribution, prompt and clear reply. Am anxious to start playing wih your improvements.
And I did not mean to denigrate the terrific Notion team and the wonderful leap forward they have made, after having diddled (struggled ?) with Finale and GPO. I am certainly pulling for their continued success, and cannot believe the incredibly low entry level price point for Notion SLE and upgrade path. I understand completely their problem with limited resources, prioritizing for the sweet spots with EWQL, Vienna, etc. and agree its amazing what they have accomplished. I too was thrilled when I discovered a notation program specifically mapped to Miroslav, paricularly as a newb just getting into preset tweaking, etc. As soon as I can afford Vienna I will certainly be upgrading to Notion 3. And I too have taken up music again at the late age of 64 and am immersed in score studies/orchestration..
Best wishes for your future musical endeavors...

Regards,

Bob
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Re: Miroslav Philharmonik Rules and Presets

Postby elerouxx » Thu Nov 17, 2011 12:33 am

I was also surprised. I was looking for a notation software for my studies, and went thru all the demos - sibelius, finale, even the less 'pro' ones like Magiscore, NoteWorthy... the online www.noteflight.com. I ended up using MuseScore, the open source project, (which I dare to say is even better than the paid ones) and I still use it when I really need more control on the notation.

But then comes Notion with its wonderful interpretation of the score. And so painless to work with, I started transcribing fragments of great classics just to study them. The standard London Symphonic sounds were enough to surprise me, and then I started completing it with some VST instruments and libraries.

I think Vienna sounds are awesome, but huge and very expensive. I almost felt out of the chair when I saw this 'all VSL instruments in a single box' for some 16.000 euros or something. Of course, if you want the most realism you can get, you should go for it!

But still, I think you should consider upgrading to Notion 3, even without VSL. Notion allows to mix up instruments at will, some of the included notion instruments are really great, and you will find a huge collection of VST instruments around, from ethnic percussion to vintage, nice saxes and strings, guitars and guitar modelers, exotic or alternative instruments, many of them free, so it's just like you will be adding a whole world to your setup.

I retribute your best wishes on music learning and realizations,

Emilio
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Re: Miroslav Philharmonik Rules and Presets

Postby catshsh » Thu Nov 17, 2011 8:50 am

regarding this quote:
elerouxx wrote:I'll try to answer your questions as far as I am able to:

1) I can't confirm that, but in theory, yes, notion3 and sle should work just the same with the Miroslav library


Yes, definitly, Notion SLE miro is notion 3 without things. It works. (I've got the two installed at home, and tried first on SLE).

By the way, can I join Bob for congratulating Emilio ?
Dom.
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