Thanks! In general, plug mini + main into your machine, set DAW up so that tracks get input from both (for Cubase, part of "All MIDI Inputs"), then hit transpose/shift octave buttons so that mini keyboard is as low as goes (which is where the catch about some models not transposing that low comes in). Not an endorsement, but FWIW I've since switched to Arturia's MiniLab 3 for this purpose, and in its case I can also program the pad buttons to play those lowest MIDI range notes rather than using the piano keyboard keys. Specifics on how to do that kind of setup depend on which mini keyboard model you have, though.

@@barndollarmusic thanks for the explanation appreciate it. I have mini lab 3 as well

Thanks! I personally don't use any latency "fixes" other than negative track delays (for short articulations only), but I am planning a deeper dive into Cinematic Studio libraries sometime soon, so I'll probably talk about a few ways to approach that including other scripts.

@@barndollarmusic Thank you very much for your answer. The css series is also new to me. But seeing and hearing what results it still gives after so many years I decided to take Strings and solo strings. They are indeed fantastic. Unfortunately their biggest drawback is these latency problems (I work in cubase) I know that the CSS Control panel can help but unfortunately I don't really know how to configure it properly. I think that once I get over this problem , I will immediately pick up the rest of the CS series without hesitation.

Awesome, glad this was useful!

Splitting articulations into separate Kontakt instruments (within the same Kontakt multi plug-in instance) certainly uses more RAM and CPU than one Kontakt instrument with multiple articulations, if that's what you mean? Or if you meant splitting those separated articulations across more Kontakt multis (plugin instances) rather than one, then I definitely don't do that -- across a full orchestral template, there are plenty of separated plugin instances to divide load across CPU threads, so I'd be surprised if there was any performance benefit to more instance splitting per instrument.

Thanks, David! Hope this was useful

Thanks, Eric, appreciate that! I've been pretty happy with the P1, yeah. I mainly like the 8 buttons I can map to keyswitch notes along with multiple quick to program MIDI CC faders. There are fancier controllers for either feature out there, but I think the P1 is a pretty good all rounder for what it costs. (I do also use a motorized Faderport for mixing fader rides and an expression foot pedal + breath controller depending on the instrument).

So sorry I somehow missed this, Peter -- I haven't hit that myself, wondering if you ever figured out what was happening? If you have more details like particular error messages or how you configured, when the error shows up, etc. I'm happy to try and help figure out. (I also have an email contact on my website, if that's easier than YT comments). And appreciate the kind words!

I guess mainly I've just got in the habit of hitting the remote keyswitches whenever MIDI recording. The other thing I like to do is put sustain as the first long and some kind of staccato/spiccato as the first short, that way each track with expression maps has a reasonable default.

@@barndollarmusic sounds like a reasonable workaround Thanks for taking time

Hi Andy, MIDI channel controls should all be there (within Kontakt Player and in both of the scripts). How do you control the instruments separately, 1st Violins on channel 1, 2nd Violins on channel 2, etc.? If yes, then that's the channel assignment piece in Kontakt Player. (If not or you don't see channel assignment there, click on the "i" button next to the camera to show channel controls for each instrument). Then if you have Basses on channel 5 for example, you would also select channel 5 within the Transpose Range script in the rightmost "Channel(s)" dropdown menu. Let me know if any of that doesn't work (and tell me a little more about how you have the instruments set up). Glad to hear the keyswitch workflow has been helpful!

In my Reaper project for CSS the channel selection box appears in your second script but not the first (Transform). Yes I have each instrument on a separate channel. The single instance Kontakt template I use is from the Reaper Blog, So I only have the instruments on separate channels, not the individual articulations (YET!). Somehow I need to be able to select the channel to which I need to apply your script so your channel box is what I need to make this work. Alternatively I could separate those instruments that demand octave adjustment and give them their own tracks and script. I can't see any selection option in the rightmost box. In fact only the word "empty" appears and when I click to find a dropdown option nothing appears. Related to the second script, am I right in assuming that the button of say Con Sordino won't physically move. It's only the effect/sound that will change?

@@andyhyner9467 Many months late, but I finally realized I had uploaded an older version of the script to GitHub that was completely missing the Channels dropdown! Sorry for the confusion. Corrected version is now on GitHub here: github.com/barndollarmusic/kontakt-tools/blob/main/transpose-range/README.md

Sure thing, hope you find them useful too!

Hey thanks! Appreciate it

Thanks, Rickard, really appreciate that!

Thanks! And sure, I understand why -- if you're writing for studio/stage players, you have to make sure parts are notation + player practical. Hopefully you don't need quite as much "realism" from the virtual orchestra demo in those cases, so that might be the right tradeoff for you.

@@barndollarmusic Agreed. For cases where its not going to be recorded by live orchestra, this hybrid approach of keyswitches + one Art/track is excellent. ❤️

Hey thanks! I'm still pretty new at all this, so glad it was useful

@@barndollarmusic Keep going consistently and you will get there. You def have the quality!

Appreciate that, Dylan! Looks like you're doing some really interesting stuff on your channel, so I'll absolutely check more out + learn a few things

Tricky, but fun when it works! Always nicest when a library's mic positions already have the right space for us, but it can take a few tricks to simulate more when it doesn't.

Haha, not enough (he's... he's me)

Absolutely! Nothing here is sampler specific, so this type of setup works to manage articulations in any sample library. (The one detail that matters is whether a sample player lets you load articulations on separate MIDI channels within one plugin instance, a.k.a. is "multi-timbral". Im not 100% sure, but I think the free Kontakt player still supports multis?)

I think there's a ton of variation. Technically, they're the responsibility of the production company, but they can be prepared by music editors, music supervisors, composers--you name it. I think regardless, composers usually have a strong interest in making sure cue sheets are accurate, so I'd always encourage looping them in for questions like that.

Thanks, appreciate that!

Some kind of virtual MIDI software that lets you transpose MIDI input from the hardware controller and then output the transposed notes via a virtual MIDI device that you'd configure in the DAW would probably work. Maybe overkill for this use case alone, but I think you could do that in Divisimate. There's also free MIDI Patchbay software, but I don't know if it works on the most recent versions of macOS or Apple Silicon processors, depending on what you're running.

Appreciate that! Glad you found it useful

I think that notation -> DAW direction is harder than DAW -> notation, though both are still more painful than I hope they'll be in the not too distant future. But one workflow is to put all notes for an instrument onto the keyswitch track, start assigning articulations in the key editor (tip: I always use attributes, not directions with expression maps to make that easier), and then you can move down to individual articulation tracks as I show in this video whenever you need to layer multiple articulations simultaneously.

@@barndollarmusic This is why I appreciate your methodology as I'm increasingly finding the need to layer multiple articulations.

Thanks! With the breath controller, honestly I mostly just use breath alone.

@@barndollarmusic Okay thanks. I think I'll get the bbc1 then. Save myself $100. 🙂

Another option is the expression maps from Art Conductor.

Thanks, Bill, appreciate that :)

That's good to know, thanks Andrew!

@@barndollarmusic The other snag is that it seemingly ignores the channel information on CC data, merging it all together, as you've alluded to in the video. I have a suggestion for an alternative approach, which is to have e.g. the shorts loaded up on one VE Pro channel and the longs on another, and give each their own midi channel. You can still access them both from a single Cubase track when playing in, switching between the two midi channels as needed via the expression map; but then if you want to stack a long and a short together, you can just add a duplicate Cubase track and record one of the articulations into that, with the added bonus of separate expression data per stacked articulation (i.e. track/channel).

@@andrewventham ah, if controllers aren't separated then I don't feel as bad about having picked on the Spitfire player :). I like your idea on splitting longs + shorts that way, since that should cover most of the common layering and get most of the benefits of full separation.

@@barndollarmusic I've discovered that running a "fully articulated" BBC SO instrument on two duplicate VE Pro channels doesn't require any more resources than splitting those articulations between those channels (at least within the same VE Pro instance). I'm setting up my template with these duplicate channels disabled by default, to save on CPU, but other than that it pretty much makes the BBC SO instruments multi-timbral, similarly to a Kontakt multi.

It starts off with a drum hit, if that's what you mean?

Appreciate that! Hope the approach helps in your composing workflow

Right on! And congrats on multiple levels, then 🙂

@@barndollarmusic one thing I would comment on the document is the ability to copy paste directly TCs from your daw. Using nuendo copy/pastes I do are 00:00:00:00and I guess all other softs are like this. And that would be suuuper convinient to be able to paste them directly in the cells rather then type in 8 digits. But I guess all is not possible with excel.

@@moreausylvain My timecode functions work with either format, plain text "01:23:45:67" or integer 1234567 (which the custom number format renders with the colons). So you should be able to paste HH:MM:SS:FF format values from your DAW (I just tried this in the Google Sheets version). It's possible the Excel version would require you to convert those columns to Plain text format first and then paste in. BUT... the catch is I don't know of any clean way to get the best of both worlds: once you paste in plain text values like that, you can't do the type in 8 numbers thing, since the custom number format is lost. (You could use separate columns of each type and then a formula to choose whichever value is entered, but then things get less compact and clean to work with).

@@barndollarmusic oh ! wonderful I don't know what I did wrong. Thanks

Hey Andy, thanks for the kind words! On (1) undo, there's nothing I'm aware of that could affect undo, so no idea why it wouldn't work the same as any Google Sheet -- try refreshing your browser though, which can sometimes help if formula calculation gets "stuck", which maybe also affects undo? (2) There is an automatically computed Duration column in the Tracker tab, is that not working for you or are you looking for something else? Again, the only known issue is that sometimes Google Sheets gets "stuck" loading the custom functions and you have to refresh your browser for them to work.

Eric thanks for such a quick response. I should have clarified that I'm using the Excel version at the moment. As for the automatically computed column in the tracker tab for duration, I'm only seeing the one for mm:ss, not something that with frames. Just something I'd prefer to be able to have for full cross referencing with my DAW. I will keep testing to see if "undo" is actually consistently behaving strangely. I might try out the Google version too. If you have intel on the ability coach me on how to port the formula to display duration with frames, that would be amazing. Thx Andy

@@01amilne ah, okay, what format exactly do you want to see cue durations in? The custom timecode functions are documented on the GitHub page github.com/barndollarmusic/excel-timecode (see also the tutorial spreadsheet that walks through using some of them). The Music Log spreadsheet has hidden columns that compute cue duration in total # of frames, so you can unhide them to see how that works. Displaying duration in timecode like HH:MM:SS:FF is a little more subtle (to deal with drop and non-drop frame rates, i.e. you have to be more precise about exactly what the "MM:SS" portion means in each case), so my preference is to use either the human readable "wall time" like 02m 45s or an exact total # of frames (say if you're computing tempos for a section and need to hit an exact frame number).

@@barndollarmusic I would ideally like the addition of a column with HH:MM:SS:FF for whatever FPS I happen to be working in. (just next to the Wall Time column). Mainly so I'm confident that I can maintain consistency with what I'm seeing in my DAW. I have unhidden the frames you created to help in computing cue duration but its perhaps gonna take some studying for me to figure out how to translate/convert to a HH:MM:SS:FF from total frames. Also, I was mistaken when I wrote about the undo function. It was actually "redo". After I undo something I've typed, in, I'm unable to redo the entry. Still haven't had a chance to try the Google version but hope to next week when things slow down. Thank you again for doing this and for sharing, (and for taking the time to respond to my inquiries.) Cheers. Andy

@@01amilne Guess I mainly want to say be careful. I'm not a fan of expressing *durations* in HH:MM:SS:FF timecode because of the non-obvious subtleties of what exactly that duration means. To be honest, I don't know what logic different video editors + DAWs that display durations this way even use (and I wouldn't be surprised if different programs implement this differently). For example, let's say you have a cue that starts at 01:20:00:00 and ends at 01:21:00:04. In 29.97 drop, frames 01:21:00:00 and 01:21:00:01 are dropped, so this cue is 1802 frames long (60.1267... secs of wall time). Should the duration be 00:01:00:02 or 00:01:00:04? In 29.97 non-drop, the cue is 1804 frames long (60.1934... secs of wall time). In the non-drop case, 00:01:00:04 is more clearly the correct way to display the duration as a timecode -- but you just have to remember that a duration written as 1 hour of timecode 01:00:00:00 is actually 1 hour 3.6 seconds of wall time. For cue sheets, wall time is how we get paid, so that's why the duration calculations I use in the Music Log (and the cue sheet tab) are based on wall time and not timecode durations. By the way, I also realized the hidden column doesn't actually show you the # of frames. The way to do that calculation with my custom functions would be with TIMECODE.TC_TO_FRAMEIDX(), so you'd subtract the frame index of the starting timecode from the frame index of the ending timecode to get a number like 1802 frames. I don't have any functions for converting that into an HH:MM:SS:FF duration because of the ambiguity I tried to describe above. Hope that all makes sense!

Thanks, Phillip! Always good to hear when it's helping other composers. Questions + ideas both welcome.

Hey, thanks Luis!

Always glad to hear!

Same here!

Of course, glad it's helpful!

Thanks, hope it is!

@@barndollarmusic May I ask a quick question? Is there a way that, moving this Google Shhet file to a Dropbox folder. I am using Dropbox. As you know, Dropbox has Google Docs, Sheets support, but I couldn't find a wy to move this sheet to the Dropbox.

@@KemalGorey that I'm not familiar with. You'd probably need to make your own copy using Google Sheets first and then sync it over. But I'd also watch out to make sure the custom functions still work in Dropbox. Possible help: support.google.com/drive/answer/9191990?hl=en#zippy=

@@barndollarmusic Thank you so much Eric! I think sticking with Google Drive might simpler and smoother :). You have already made something really great! Like they say: 'if it's not broken, don't fix it :)'

Right on, thanks! Curious who you hand that EDL off to next and if/when the composer gets looped back in to verify anything? Also want to note that this Music Log isn't just about the cue sheet export at the end -- it's really aimed at day-to-day workflow (like tracking director approvals and "how much music do I have left to write?").