Pam Marshall's notes about composing music, teaching, improvising, music software, nature


Category: Software

Music-making tools, including creating demos with digital sounds (virtual instruments.

  • Mapping Editor Basics in Kontakt 3

    In the Mapping Editor you set up Zones for each sample that will be part of an Instrument. A Zone is a sample, plus its root MIDI note and the range of velocities that trigger it. The manual doesn’t say so, but it seems to me that the Zone also includes the range of notes…

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  • Hearing Your Kontakt Instruments

    There are various ways to hear an Instrument: Click notes on Kontakt’s on-screen keyboard. However, they will all be the same velocity, about 120. (Click the Keyboard icon in the Main Control Panel at the top of the rack to show or hide the On-Screen Keyboard panel.) Use a MIDI keyboard with Kontakt in standalone…

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  • Using Kontakt Standalone with Digital Performer

    I don’t know why these things are sometimes so not obvious to me, but it took me a while to figure out how to connect my MIDI tracks in MOTU Digital Performer to a Kontakt instrument, when Kontakt is running as a separate application (rather than as a plugin on a DP track). I didn’t…

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  • Playing a Virtual Orchestra

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    Although I seem to write mostly music notated on paper for live performers, I’ve always been interested in computer tools for composing and sound design. I started my recording business a few years ago because I wanted to put my audio tools to more use. Last year, I decided to invest in the sophisticated sampled…

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