Get More from StudioVerse Instruments: Advanced MIDI FX Techniques
Did you know that the true potential of StudioVerse Instruments lies not just in its powerful plugin chainer but in the powerful MIDI FX tools built right into its framework?
StudioVerse Instruments isn’t just a collection of virtual instruments and effects plugins by Waves; it’s way more than that. In fact, it’s a revolutionary instrument in itself that gives you a range of innovative ways to create, customize, and share unique performance chains. Beyond the familiar tools also found inside our StudioVerse Audio Effects mix platform, you’ll also find an arsenal of MIDI modifiers designed to help you expand your creative possibilities. All of these features together can provide you with fresh chord ideas, melodies, rhythms and more. In this guide, we’ll explore how the MIDI FX devices in StudioVerse Instruments work and how they can inspire fresh ideas when building song elements from scratch.
Basic Setup of a StudioVerse Instruments Patch
Let’s start with a blank StudioVerse Instruments setup, also known as a Full Reset. Click on the patch name within the top dark grey rectangle box to find this option within the drop down menu.
Next, we put an instrument on the fifth slot of our eight. This is important because MIDI modifiers can’t be loaded or even seen as an option later in a chain after virtual instrument inserts. To start, we’ve loaded up the Electric 88 keys instrument in there, to get some cool tones moving.
Chords
The first modifier we’ll add here is the Chords device. We then need to set the key of the song within this section to have the plugin perform properly.
When the Chords modifier is added, it can inherit the key you’ve selected for the patch using the Receive Key tickbox. This should be on by default. In our case, the Chords device now generates chords in F Chromatic to start off with.
For any MIDI modifier, Receive Key being activated means that it will inherit its Key from another Waves plugin that deals with Key, such as Key Detector.
Here’s the results of our chordified sound so far – compare it to the original for a sense of what we get straight out of the box.
Our MIDI is technically in a major key to start off with, thanks to a single A note, which would be Ab if in a minor key. But if we switch to a mode, we can actually arrive at a better, more interesting sequence of notes that still works – and maybe works better. Here it is with the Chords device set to the Lydian mode.
Using Fold mode (on the right) means that chords will be triggered in the same octave, regardless of the octave of an incoming note.
Using the right-hand dropdown box, you can select a voicing to add even more flavor to your chords. There’s a lot to choose from, and it’s all descriptively named. Below we’re showing off examples Even Flow 4V, Samson, Tropicana, and EDM 2.
Arpeggiator
Time to load another MIDI modifier into the second slot. The obvious choice is an arpeggiator. This takes all the notes of incoming chords and plays then one after the other in a certain pattern. Since we’ve got a Chords modifier active already, its output will go straight into the arpeggiator’s input, ready to generate some melodies from the chords.
Immediately, we mess with the Rate and Swing parameters, turning our arpeggios faster and offsetting the timing of every other note, as shown above and as heard below.
Like in a classic arpeggiator, you can use the arrow button to determine whether the notes are played up, down, up-then-down, or other combinations. The Octaves dropdown adds more octaves to the melody, not just capping it to the notes immediately above or below your starting note. Hear how it sounds below.
Finally, the Arpeggiator’s Gate parameter is like a release envelope control, making each note of the arpeggiator shorter or longer. If you’re rocking some very quick note sequences out of the arpeggiator, like Rates of 1/32 or 1/64, you may benefit from shortening the Gate. If you’ve got more space and time, try opening the Gate longer for a run of sustained notes.
Key and Scale
This device filters your input notes and takes anything in the wrong scale, tuning it back to the correct scale by the time it’s output.
This means that Key and Scale is a great companion for the Chords device, and we can replace the Arpeggiator from the previous example with it. Now we set up so that our chain goes Chords » Key and Scale » Electric88.
Inheriting its key from our StudioVerse container, Key and Scale takes out any bum notes passed along from the Chords device. That isn’t such a problem in this case, but if we go and tweak the Chords device so it’s playing a different scale to what it should inherit, the resulting notes will be changed but will still fit in our intended key.
MIDI Monitor
The MIDI Monitor device displays the MIDI coming through it, including note values, velocities and any CC messages that are active at the time.
Note Sequencer
Turning to the Note Sequencer device, and now removing other existing devices from the chain and swapping our electric piano for a Codex patch, we can build an entire MIDI note sequence from scratch here.
Note Sequencer has to be triggered by a MIDI note, and this MIDI note activates the pattern, with the note representing 0 (zero) and other notes being possible up to +24 semitones or -24 semitones away from it. Here’s the device programmed with an eight-note sequence, which is then driven by two one-bar MIDI notes.
Going further with the Note Sequencer, we have the same Rate and Swing controls as witnessed in the Arpeggiator – in the above example, the sequence will be played faster, twice per note, if the rate is doubled.
We can increase or decrease the size of the note lane, firing off more notes, as you can hear in the admittedly cheesy example below.
The Gate parameter sets each note to play either quickly (low) or for longer (high), and the settings are about how the device will respond to a change in notes.
With ReTrigger set, if you play a new note, it will always trigger the sequence to start again. If you’re on Legato, playing a new note without releasing the old one means the new note will continue the sequence that had already started. Synced will synchronize the note sequencer with your DAW’s timeline and so follows only that.
Range
This device lets you filter out certain notes. Like the Key and Scale device does for notes that are out of the intended scale, Range lets you decide which notes won’t make it through, but this time based on their being too low, too high, or too quiet or loud.
On the left, you get to select the note numbers below which and above which you want to keep notes :ie. where you want to leave the input unchanged. On the right, you select the range of velocities that you find acceptable, which by default is set to 0 to 127 being the full range of strength velocities available in MIDI.
With both of these choices, you can choose to Filter the notes in which to completely remove any input notes that fall outside the parameters you’ve set. You can Clip the notes, bringing anything under the threshold to the threshold (at the bottom), and anything over the threshold down to the threshold (at the top). thus keeping the notes but changing them into acceptable types.
For note value filtering, you also get to Fold the note, which will bring it up or down by octaves until it fits into the range. This can be used to ensure your notes are playing in the same octave despite some variable or randomly generated input.
Transpose
You can think of this MIDI device as a way to add or subtract pitch (note number) or velocity to a note. Using Pitch, dial in a specific value to add or subtract to the note, or use the +12 or -12 buttons to instantly add or subtract an octave to or from your current Pitch value.
As an example, using Velocity, dial in an amount to add or subtract to or from incoming note velocities, increasing or decreasing the strength of the notes. Remember, Velocity will always have an upper ceiling of 127, so a value of 127 here means all notes will come out at full scale.
Velocity
Like in the Range controller, you can use Velocity to set a minimum and maximum value for each possible velocity (this won’t delete notes but rather change their velocities to conform). You can also add Random variation (positive or negative) to humanize a MIDI performance, or to take the edge off one programmed at a constant velocity.
The Shape control scales the velocity as a curve. Scaling velocity is common across different MIDI controllers and instruments. You may have an input controller or recording that has resulted in a lot of notes in a certain velocity range, for example 100 to 127. With the Shape and its associated curve, you can re-scale this, making the lower notes of that range (100 to 120) spread out across more values (such as 20 to 100), and keeping the high notes high. This approach can take a varied and nuanced performance and.
Voicing
The Voicing device in StudioVerse Instruments is a way to reduce the number of notes being played at any one time, and to manage these voices without needing to set up a response in any given instrument plugin. Reducing the number of voices by a value of 1 would result in a monophonic output, and any more up to 16 would limit the number of notes accepted at once to the specified number.
If you activate Stealing, it means that any new note played above the maximum number of voices would be accepted, switching off the note that had been held for the longest at that point. Retrigger means that any note that has been ‘a victim of stealing’ is able to come back if the number of voices reduces below the maximum again.
Discover StudioVerse Instruments
StudioVerse Instruments is a versatile and creative platform for creating and discovering instruments by combining effects, VI’s and MIDI modifiers to push your music productions and creativity to new heights. By exploring its MIDI tools like Chords, Arpeggiators, Key and Scale, Note Sequencers, and more, you can unlock endless possibilities for shaping your musical ideas. Whether you're looking for complexity or inspiration in crafting dynamic melodies, or you want to adapt any of the chains made by other artists, these MIDI FX devices empower you to get the results you need effortlessly.
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