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Ewi and equator

Hi all, i am happy with my lightpad and seaboard block but i am also an ewi player and would like to customize equator presets for my ewi. Is there a way for instance to map cc02 (breath) to volume in equator it seems by default mapped to strike, but its not continuous so velocity is the same during the played time of a single note. Could you help me with that? Thanks

Best Answer

The short answer is yes! CC02 isn't mapped to anything by default, but you can select CC02 as a modulation input from the Macros section behind the RISE controls panel on the left. In the gif below I'm selecting CC02 as a modulation input and assigning it to the amp envelope's sustain level:

  1. Click the little arrows in the top-right of the RISE control panel to reveal the Macros
  2. Macros 1 to 5 are in use by the default for the RISE controls. Click Macros 6, 7 or 8 to set up a new Macro
  3. Select 'other controller' and enter the CC number you would like Equator to respond to.
  4. With Macro 6 still highlighted, apply modulation to any parameter as normal by click-dragging in the outer ring of the parameter. In the example, I've gone into the amp envelope to adjust the sustain level so that the CC02 input will increase the level of the amp envelope while a note is being held.



Something to consider here is that since Equator has been designed for the continuous expression of the Seaboard and Lightpad, you might need to think about modulation routings that wouldn't be immediately apparent. For example, since Strike is a one-time value at the start of the note, but Press and Slide update the value constantly throughout the note, you'll often find that they're assigned to stages of the amp envelope for the most musically pleasing effect.


This is why in the example above, I'm modulating the sustain stage of the amp envelope, and when you route an external controller you might want to do something similar so that you get nice smooth modulation in sync with other modulations that occur/occurred during the note.


Take a look at 'Big Warm Pad' 


Press modulates the amp envelope's main level:

Press is selected. It modulates the Amp Envelop's level

Strike also modulates the amp envelope's level, while also modulating the Attack stage, so that a harder Strike gives a sharper attack. Nice.

Amp Envelope modulates the levels of the oscillators. 

By modulating the amp envelope, your CC02 input will be combined with the modulation already instigated by Strike, Press, and whatever else is going on.


I hope that helps!


Thank you very much! 

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Nice to meet another wind controller player in these parts.

Been playing WX11 for a while and been experimenting with the Eigenharp Pico. Turns out, it works really well with Equator.

Since getting my original Lightpad, been tweaking some Equator patches to respond to CC#2. 


My main technique revolves around assigning it to the cutoff frequency of a lowpass filter. That way, blowing softly closes the filter, making the sound very soft and smooth, while blowing hard opens up the filter to create brighter and even harsher sounds. This is part of the technique Mkirino01 has used to produced patch libraries for a few iOS synths.


Of course, Dave makes some very good points about envelopes and velocity. My usual technique is to basically bypass velocity tracking and the envelope (set attack and release to zero, sustain to full). But there can be a lot of fun with playing with different attacks, especially with legato sounds. Might explore that more.

Some breath-focused sound designers tend to send breath to aftertouch/Press. The logic is there, as those are articulations happen after the attack, providing actual “continuous control”. The interplay between those articulations and the overall shape of each note isn’t that obvious. The ROLI approach to sound design (including Rafael Szaban’s work, with ROLI and FXpansion) probably has a lot to do with fine-tuning these interactions in musically appropriate ways.

It’d be really neat if ROLI could release a device adding some form of breath control to their Blocks lineup (mentioned in another Feature Request). In this case, a factory library of breath-controlled patches would make a whole lot of sense.

Answer

The short answer is yes! CC02 isn't mapped to anything by default, but you can select CC02 as a modulation input from the Macros section behind the RISE controls panel on the left. In the gif below I'm selecting CC02 as a modulation input and assigning it to the amp envelope's sustain level:

  1. Click the little arrows in the top-right of the RISE control panel to reveal the Macros
  2. Macros 1 to 5 are in use by the default for the RISE controls. Click Macros 6, 7 or 8 to set up a new Macro
  3. Select 'other controller' and enter the CC number you would like Equator to respond to.
  4. With Macro 6 still highlighted, apply modulation to any parameter as normal by click-dragging in the outer ring of the parameter. In the example, I've gone into the amp envelope to adjust the sustain level so that the CC02 input will increase the level of the amp envelope while a note is being held.



Something to consider here is that since Equator has been designed for the continuous expression of the Seaboard and Lightpad, you might need to think about modulation routings that wouldn't be immediately apparent. For example, since Strike is a one-time value at the start of the note, but Press and Slide update the value constantly throughout the note, you'll often find that they're assigned to stages of the amp envelope for the most musically pleasing effect.


This is why in the example above, I'm modulating the sustain stage of the amp envelope, and when you route an external controller you might want to do something similar so that you get nice smooth modulation in sync with other modulations that occur/occurred during the note.


Take a look at 'Big Warm Pad' 


Press modulates the amp envelope's main level:

Press is selected. It modulates the Amp Envelop's level

Strike also modulates the amp envelope's level, while also modulating the Attack stage, so that a harder Strike gives a sharper attack. Nice.

Amp Envelope modulates the levels of the oscillators. 

By modulating the amp envelope, your CC02 input will be combined with the modulation already instigated by Strike, Press, and whatever else is going on.


I hope that helps!

I use the TEC Breath and Bite controller to control pitch-bend via the bite sensor for vibrato.

Using breath mapped to Aftertouch as I want it to be global.   I need to explore the macro idea but I didn't have luck on my first attempt.

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