Playing crescendi with a wind controller in QSynth or Swami?

[Petra-Sue]

Hello @all,

I'm not sure if my subject is sufficiently explanatory, but I couldn't find a better header - sorry!

What I am trying to say: I'm playing an EWI midi wind controller. When I start a note with a rather low midi velocity neither QSynth nor Swami will allow for pointedly higher velocities when blowing stronger while the note is still kept. (A slight increase relative to the initial is possible, but not much.) There is no difficulty in dynamically decreasing and increasing the velocity ad libitum *below* the initial velocity value by blowing more or less strongly into the EWI. But obviously I cannot really raise the loudness beyond that value.

So the final question is: Why can't I play a real crescendo? Or is there another application that would allow to do this?

Cheers,

Petra

[bluebell]

I am afraid the blowing after the initial note-on controls the volume, and there is no higher volume than 100%. So if you start a note with a low velocity then you can't do anything to increase velocity after this note-on (which contains velocity). And you can't increase the volume beyond 100%.

[Petra-Sue]

Hello Bluebell,

I am afraid the blowing after the initial note-on controls the volume, and there is no higher volume than 100%. So if you start a note with a low velocity then you can't do anything to increase velocity after this note-on (which contains velocity). And you can't increase the volume beyond 100%.

To be honest, I am a bit confused about this. In my first writing of the thread start I stated that there is *no* increase possible relative to the note's onset - as I thougt I would remember correctly. But I was wrong: There definitely *is* a slight increase in volume possible, even above the initial volume at the start of the note. (At least, if I take the audible volume at the start; I did not cross-check this finding by a digital readout, so my hearing may betray me.) Therefore I edited the thread starter slightly a bit later, but before you had responded.

But I stick to my notion that after a rather low-volumed start of a note it is definitely not possible to obtain a rather high signal (i.e. Midi velocity?) level for doing a crescendo afterwards. I'm not expressing the wish to go beyond a volume representing midi 127, if that is what you point to with your "100%". It is rather to start of with, say, velocity = 50, and then doing a crescendo to 120 while the note is still on.

But neither Swami nor QSynth will let me do this.

Cheers,

Petra

[bluebell]

Maybe your "default" volume is less then 127, then increasing it would be possible.

Some thoughts about a possible dirty hack:
Use a plugin that can boost the volume heavily, like CALF limiter or CALF stereo tools. They both have input and output volume knobs that can boost the volume a lot. Then try to control it with the MIDI controller that represents the blowing strength. Maybe it can be done with Qtractor.

[j_e_f_f_g]

If your wind controller allows you to set the midi message it uses, try using control change 7 (main volume) instead of 11 (expression)

[lem18]

This is sort of off-topic, but I figured posting here might be more visible... I've been looking at the Akai EWI-USB, but not sure how well it'll go under Linux, and whether I'll get sounds that I want. I'm aware it's just a MIDI controller, hence my following request: would any of the EWI players here be able to recommend (or share) some MIDI files recorded with an EWI that I can try playing through the various synths available for Linux, and would this be representative of live playing?