Hi Michael

I tried applying these to a piece for string orchestra and found only some of the switching worked. I've struggled to get any of the Spitfire libraries to work properly and don't understand why. I always ensure that the library is locked to UACC. There must be something I'm missing!

This set is modified for the Studio Strings library. I've posted another general ruleset for other Spitfire libraries.

Trying to wrack my brains to think what might be missing but I can't think of anything off the top of my head...

When you select UACC make sure you select the UACC option, not the UACC Keyswitching.

I had them all set to UACC and not UACC KS but I realised I had loaded patches from the Advanced folder. For example, a - Violins 1 (8) - Core techniques. So, I loaded the main a - Violins 1 (8) instead and got better results. I tried writing in both flautando and your abbreviation, flut in the score but no flautando sound was triggered. How are all the other articulations meant to be recognised? There's a lot of them, judging by your rules code: spiccato, harmonic, marcato, Bartok and others.

Also, I don't know how one is supposed to load the other a - Violins 1 (8) - Decorative techniques patch which contains such articulations as trill. I know how to do this in Cubase by assigning separate MIDI channels but can Notion handle that? I find nowhere within Notion to be able to specify MIDI channels for Kontakt instances.

By the way, I noticed that you had flautando set at 58. That should be 8 according to the Spitfire GUI. I changed it but it made no difference!

Lots to discover!

Some articulations are triggered by duration: Spicatto is one, there's a rule called Auto-Spicatto and you play with the note length to get it to function. Although it is also triggered by using the staccatissimo mark.

Others you have to play other tricks with. Flautando, for instance, I would trigger by using a special note head (diamond or x) and then modifying that rule. Or pick an unused technique in the Notion palette (hammer on, maybe) and use that to trigger certain articulations.

Some are triggered by slurs (legato techniques, you have to add the legato instruments to the Kontakt Player for them to function).

I'll post a file with a number of variations and you can test it out.

By the way, you can add as many instruments as you want to one Kontakt player with the UACC switching and the switches will find the right instrument. Set them all to MIDI channel 1. Don't know how it works, but it does.

So I usually have 3 or 4 instruments per section, one for Core Techniques, one for Decorative Techniques, one for Performance Legato and sometimes an additional one for Solo String 1st Player.

Gary, here's a file that you might find helpful. It's a public domain work, with divisi sections and plenty of articulations. It should load the instruments for you, although you may have to remap them to the location on your system,.

Let me know if you have questions.

Enjoy!

Many thanks, Michael.

That's bizarre about the switching working with multiple instruments on the same MIDI channel. You'd think that they would overlap and trigger two or more sounds simultaneously.

The file you mentioned sounds like a very helpful thing for me to study. It's a shame you forgot to include it! 😉

Odd, I thought I had posted it...