Tip/troubleshooting: Controlling articulation

Spitfire instruments
Spitfire instruments internally have a definition saying that "Middle C = C3" while the plugin by default have "Middle C = C4". Both sides must have the same configuration for Middle C in order to have the same view on what e.g. C-1 is.

Since the Stream Deck buttons by default are set to C4 as middle C, this must be changed in order to get the same note names in the dropdown as are configured in the Spitfire articulation setup.

Change the plugin Middle C to C3 and adjust the key dropdown so it again show the note name you want (this will be changed when you change middle C).

Other instruments
Of course the description above might be valid for other instruments as well. If articulation control doesn't work, try the various Middle C settings in the plugin (and adjust the key dropdown so it again show the note name you want) and see if any of them works. If not, you may have a note delivery problem - see next section.

Note delivery
In addition to this, you might need to adjust the midi port assignment for the Stream Deck buttons that are used for articulation control, especially if you are using Cubase/Nuendo and has followed my recommendations for configuring midi ports with loopMIDI.

In my doc (for Cubase/Nuendo) I recommend that the port StreamDeck2Daw in Cubendo should not be a part of "All Midi In". If you have configured it that way and the track is listening to "All Midi In", you will get nothing to the track.
One solution is to configure the track to listen explicitly to StreamDeck2Daw but that is a rather limiting solution.
Instead I recommend creating a third port in loopMidi called StreamDeck2DawTrack, configure this port to be in "All Midi In", configure the Stream Deck button to use that Midi out port and have the track listening to "All Midi In":



This way, you have a Midi port dedicated to articulation and other messages that are intended to go to the track rather than to the Generic Remote device (as is the primary target for the StreamDeck2Daw port). And having this configuration makes it possible for Spitfire to receive messages from both Stream Deck and your (musical) keyboard in parallel.

Brilliant. So simple. Thank you. I have been trying to work this out for some time.
I have successfully set up recording articulations from buttons on my StreamDeck while Cubase is recording (in midi merge). I am using Spitfire Chamber Strings in Kontakt. I have successfully set up doing this using both the Spitfire UACC specification and UACC KS specification.  Both are useful but UACC KS has the disadvantage of being a midi note in the recorded track, with the vulnerability to being upset by Transposing the track. I had to not use Expression Maps (set to No Map) to get the UACC KS Spitfire specification to work. At the moment i will be continuing on using the UACC spec.

Cool, thanks for the feedback

Since you're into articulation - have you seen the new feature where you can have real articulation names in the Key dropdown in the Note action? If so - is it something you find useful or is it just to complex to set up?

Hi Admin. Yes i did get into ArticulationOptions.xml

I created a Group "Spitfire UACC KS"  and selected "Articulation" and not C3 or C4 or C5

I added the below to the ArticulationOptions.xml file and located the file in my Documents folder as instructed.

  <optiongroup name="Spitfire UACC KS">
    <option value="1.Spitfire UACC KS" name="Long"></option>
    <option value="20.Spitfire UACC KS" name="Legato"></option>
    <option value="11.Spitfire UACC KS" name="Tremolo"></option>
    <option value="42.Spitfire UACC KS" name="Spiccato"></option>
    <option value="56.Spitfire UACC KS" name="Pizzicato"></option>
    <option value="70.Spitfire UACC KS" name="Trill m2"></option>
  </optiongroup>

The names of the articulations appeared in the dropdown selection as expected.

What i found though, the Spitfire Chamber Strings is expecting C-2 for Long (Midi Note 1 with Middle C reference set to C3)
But what is recieved in Cubase is Midi Note 1  which is being interpreted by the Spitfire Chamber Strings as   C-1.

I could not see where in your XML or elsewhere where to set the C3 middle C reference when "Articulation" is selected.

When I changed the Middle C: reference to "C3" instead of "Articulation" in StreamDeck and set the dropdown to [C-2] the midi note received by Cubase and Spitfire chamber Strings was C-2 which changed the Articulation of the VST to Long as desired.

I hope that explanation is detailed and clear enough for you to follow why i set the StreamDeck to the "C3" middle C reference instead of "Articulation".

I hope that helps. You are very patient. 
Is there something I missed to achieve the end goal of getting note C-2 from midi note 1?

Thanks again.

Hi,

When you use Middle C = C3 and select C-2, the midi value is 0, not 1:



The value in front of the note name is the one you should use in the xml file. I don't have Spitfire so I can't test how it behaves, but when I copy your settings and set 0 for the "Long" articulation, the plugin sends exactly the same value as when using C3/C-2.