Sound Variations support for Studio One

Hi

It would be great to implement the Sound Variation API so that we can enjoy automatic key switches discovery...

That would make our lifes so much simpler and we could focus on composing instead of setting up DAWs and figuring out KS

Thanks for considering this feature!!

Cheers
Christian

 

Unfortunately I don't think NI will spend valuable dev time on a feature that only a single DAW offers. S1 should've implemented VST3 Note Expressions properly, and NI should then support that. At least more than one DAW supports note expressions...

 

You are probably right.

But I am now using this Sound Variation all the time as I don't have to fiddle through KS all the time, and I would so much enjoy this with Kontakt...

 

He's not right.

You probably don't mean VST3 Note Expression. Note Expression addresses controller data / automation for individual notes (in comparison to channel messages like Pitchbend, Modulation as MIDI provides).

Sound Variations are not about automation but about articulation switching and reporting articulations that are available in the instrument to the host (including the current instrument name - another feature Kontakt users would benefit enormously from in my opinion).

So Note Expression won't help here. Maybe you actually meant the VST3 IKeyswitchController interface?

If you take a look at the VST3 SDK docs, you will notice that this interface only supports keyswitches (with a title, shortTitle, min / max - the key range for that keyswitch and a remap key). Very limited, then.

Whereas Sound Variations support arbitrary MIDI events in any order and combination (Note On, Note Off, MIDI CC, Program Change, Bank Select) and provide metadata like color, a momentary flag and some other fields. Furthermore, nested folder structures are possible.

Let's hope that it won't stop at one DAW Other host can implement this as well. As already happened with ARA, for example.

 

Note expressions can definitely be used for articulation switching. iKeyswitchController interface is way more limited.

 

The feature request was to implement Sound Variations so instruments can report articulations to the DAW and let the DAW recall these articulations. Please elaborate on how note expressions should solve that problem.

 

Evil Dragon is king. However when Studio One implements proper video and more score abilities which I believe it will in Version 6, I think it will probably be the best DAW for media composers. Therefore for us who thrive on performance articulations I would love if Kontakt would at least consider it because every single media composer must use Kontakt. Spitfire and VSL are way up there so it's not just the future but the only way going forward.

 

Undoubtedly and I have the utmost respect for his expertise. Nevertheless, his posting suggests VST3 Note Expressions would be a solution to the problem which is wrong. It's not even comparable to the Sound Variations API because completely different purpose. But I'm happy to be convinced otherwise, but then with an appropriate explanation.

 

I will apologize since I mixed the Steiny terminology up. What I really meant was expression maps, not note expression.

 

You've nothing to apologise for EvilDragon. You do enough around here.

 

Yeah, I see. But Expression Maps is a Cubase internal feature and has nothing to do with VST. This is not a mechanism to exchange articulation data between instrument and host (the DAW).

That's what the Sound Variations API does.

So I think it is a great feature request for Kontakt. If Kontakt supported this API (and if there was a way to get this data from the sample library), we would never again need to create these maps for all our sample libraries in the DAW manually which would be awesome. Of course, that's assuming other DAWs start incorporating the API then, too

 

Yeah, so I think first Presonus would need to "sell" this feature to other DAWs. And I bet Steiny would have none of it. So you get fragmentation across DAWs. Besides, people are doing expression maps for Cubase manually anyways, so I don't think the burden here should be on Kontakt team necessarily. At least not until there's just one DAW that has this feature.

Untortunately, this is one of those chicken-and-egg problems.

 

They don't need to sell anything... the API is public (https://www.presonussoftware.com/en_US/developer) and can be used by anyone for free, no matter if virtual instrument or DAW. It's very well thought out, flexible and it is expandable. So I think it's just a matter of time that more software developers will implement it.

"Even" Steiny added ARA to Cubase and Nuendo two years ago

Yes, totally.

 

Another strong vote for Kontakt to support the Sound Variation API.

Yes, other DAWs are cooking their own soup. But none of them that I know offer an API that can read out the articulations directly from the library.
Also, let's be honest, compared to Studio One, the articulation switching systems that are in place now with Logic or Cubase are ridiculously bad solutions.

With this API Presonus is offering a hand and reaching out to build a better future for articulation switching.
Think about it... All this drama with those expression maps... getting them, or creating them, converting them, keeping up with them as external files, troubleshooting them... What an unnecessary nuisance! VSL did the right thing to support it.

 

I ordered a new Mac Max1 64gb. My days of articulation switching are over. Just load a new instrument/articulation.