Tweaking Prism for breath control (MIDI CC#2)

Prism is a beautiful synth! Many of the snapshots are inspiring to play with, and I'm going to spend some serious time creating many more for live use. Here's the thing: I've been going through Massive and Absynth tweaking and creating patches to be expressive with breath control, so I can have some really good leads played through my EWI. I'm not just attaching master volume or amp to the breath control channel, but having cutoffs, fx, etc ramp up as I blow harder. This is giving me some really nice expressive patches.

I'd like to know how to set up Prism so that breath control data controls the impulse, for starters. The Silverwood user library has done this with great success, but I think that Prism is a much more powerful synth.

If your answer is gonna be to RTFM, I'm in the process! Just trying to get answers quick! If I find out the answer to my question before someone posts, I'll update the thread in case someone else is curious. Thanks in advance for your help.

 

Go into the properties of what you want to control, and check activate MIDI in. Then, name CC#2 as the controller. Done.

ew

 

Thanks, man! I've been so spoiled by Massive and Absynth with the right-click MIDI learn option for any dial that even half an extra step took me by surprise. You rock!

 

Having trouble getting expressive response from breath control in Prism. So far, the closest I've gotten is to get the Vel>Level and Vel>Attack sliders in the Mod Envelope window and the Vel>Target (Exc:Noise) to respond to breath control.

I also stole the Air Pressure Macro from Silverwood V3 and fed the Raw output and a gate through a multiplier going into the bottom Order control in the Modal Bank. Does what I want, but though it's saying 15% of CPU is being used, I'm hearing a ton of clipping, and it's not from the output level. Any ideas?

Forgive me for being a total n00b! I know just enough to get into trouble. LOL.

P.S. I understand that this is a very specific question that would require somebody to basically undertake the same project, so I won't be surprised to get no responses.

 

I'd like to help because I'm a breath control fan, but I know nothing about Prism.

I don't remember the range of the 'raw' output from the silverwood macro (0 to 1 or 0 to 127?), and I don't have my audio computer with me to check it. I'd verify that range first, and make sure it's compatible with what Prism is expecting.

 

With the hours I've spent over the last few days, I'm amazed I didn't think to check this. Thanks for the idea. I'll try to make it work when I get home tonight.

 

Watching this thread for more good stuff as I am an EWI player too and am working with the modules that came with "Elements".

My problem is trying to figure out what to assign cc2 to. Cutoff is a good starting point, but it isn't giving me any dynamics. It seems there is more than one way to control volume. (i.e. volume swells etc.)

I'm also trying to use Steampipe 2 for weird stuff. Can anyone throw in some examples of what works?

 

One simple way to control dynamics similar to a wind instrument is to just multiply the ensemble's final output signal by the breath control MIDI input (setting it to range from 0 to 1). Putting a 1-pole lowpass filter between the MIDI input and the multiplier can get rid of grit. Multiplying the MIDI input by itself first will give it more of a decibel-like feel.

 

Aaaahahaha, you guys are awesome. Gonna try these ideas tonight.
---
No luck. Eh, I'm throwing in the towel on this one. I'd rather be practicing. Maybe someday a real synth guy will figure something out!

 

Hi Dan,

I've recently bought prism without owning reaktor, and have exactly the same idea, I think. Did you do it? I'm deciding between getting reason5/record and getting Reaktor to edit prism. This is my idea

make it monophonic with portamento
add legato and retrigg
connect breath to exciter with multipliers.

Please tell me you have already done this.

 

Tried and failed, dude. Let me know if you do better.

 

will do,

I haven't bought the full reaktor yet. I've been weighing up getting Reason5 ala Bernie Kenerson, or full Reaktor to edit prism first. I should get both. But reaktor is more tempting than reason5.
It'll be a month or so before I get it done methinks.

Have you checked out Silverwood?

 

Silverwood is cool. Not on a level with the Wallander stuff and not as exciting as the POTENTIAL for EWI awesomeness in Prism. One of the things I tried was copying parts of Silverwood into Prism to see if I could get it to work. Epic fail. Even when I got what seemed like a properly responsive sound, there was extreme clipping and it looked like one of my cores (in logic's meter) was maxed out. Dunno if it was too much processing, or as my buddy told me, a level issue somewhere internal to Prism. Some gifted designer type may take an interest and get this functionality working, but until then, I'm happy with Massive, Absynth, etc.

 

hey I'm figuring it out.

you know the breath curve and threshold parameters in the EWI 4000s synth; well I'm setting up connections with curve shapers on cc controllers and connecting them to MC1 and2. the connection works but I now have to read about connecting the curvature bit.

the main thing that will get a quick result, would be to midi learn the breath to the exciter impulse and noise dials, which is essentially the volume of the exciter. I'm going further by adding the option to bend the breath signals that you would then learn onto any parameters you want. ie setting up curve and threshold on any number of the dials.

pretty sure it's going to work!
Josh

 

The +and- curvature on cc connected to macro controls works. So does the threshold.
Now all parameters controlled by the macro can respond like the oscillators' inside the EWI 4000s.

I'm setting up a diff breath cc eg AT and BR on each of the 2 macros, with a threshold on one and a crossfader switching dynamically between them. Like on the EWI 4000s internal synth.
The next step is to attach a midi control with curve and threshold to the impulse and noise dials. That will give breath attack to the starts of the notes. THe overall volume regardless of tone can be easily controlled with a curve thres cc attached to something like the mixer sum.

Anyway, if it's possible to send it to you when it's finished it would be good if you could try it.

 

Josh,

what you did sounds awesome! I'm also a (beginning) EWI player and would be more than eager to see and try your Prism enhancement. and I would bet there are quite some others out there, too...

maybe you want to post your ensemble, here or in the user library?

 

Reaktor Prism can't be shared in any way because it is not included in reaktor 5 library. You can't upload a modified reaktor prism to user library. If you share the ensemble with others, then you are breaking the EULA and same goes for The Finger, The Mouth and Deep Freq.

 

thank you Jedinhopy.

i could not have said it better myself.

sowari

 

oh, I see...

anyway, I'm following this thread with great interest and would encourage anyone to post his/her findings pertaining to connecting the EWI to Reaktor synths.

thanks for your posts so far.

 

Hey Josh, it sounds like you're the man for this job! I'd LOVE the chance to mooch off your work and try your EWI-fied Prism. We might not be able to send a copy of the library online but I can copy a screenshot or 10. Lol.

NI should be interested in this, too. Maybe kick you a couple bucks per unit sold and sell a downloadable Reaktor pack with EWI functionality. A properly functioning, fully tweakable physical modeling synth will be the first major step forward from the VL-70 since the super expensive Wallander and Samplemodeling soft synths. I bet they'd make decent bank if they released a version for Reaktor Player.