Articulation sets are a new feature in Logic 10.4 which allow you to program articulation changes easily. With a correctly configured articulation set you can select a note (or notes) in the Piano Roll editor and simply choose the desired articulation as pictured below:
There are many methods of selecting articulations in Spitfire instruments and the best method for Logic's Articulation Set is UACC KS. As an example of how to best configure an articulation set we will create an Articulation Set for the f - Ensembles.nki patch of Spitfire Chamber Strings. First create an instrument track and load the patch in Kontakt, then choose New from the Articulation Set dropdown menu in the track settings as pictured below:
This will open the Articulation Set editor pictured below, we will add as many articulations as need by clicking on the + button.
The Chamber strings Ensemble patch includes 15 articulations so we add these with the + button and rename these to the names of our articulations. Once complete the list should look something like this:
Next we will choose the output behaviour for each articulation (the method of selecting the articulations). Click on Output at the top of the window and for each articulation set the Type to Note on and the Selector to C-2. The list should look like this:
As mentioned above, the best articulation switching method for an Articulation Set is UACC KS (Universal Articulation Control Change - Key Switches). This sounds complex but is in fact very simple, articulations are selected by setting a single key switch to the velocity value associated with it. These velocity values correspond to to the UACC standard explained here.
Our next step is to lock the Spitfire Chamber strings to UACC KS. First click on the spanner in the red square below, then click the padlock circled in red. The option we need to select is Locked to UACC KS.
Please note if you are using an older library the UACC key might not be on C-2 and should be transposed with the keyboard shimmier.
With this selected you can see the velocity value for each articulation by simply clicking on the articulation as pictured below, for example the selected Long articulation is selected with a velocity of 1:
For each articulation in our list we should now enter the corresponding velocity value into the Value column as pictured below:
The Articulation set is now complete! don't forget to save it with a memorable name, this one was saved as SCS Ensemble for example, and is attached at the bottom of this article. For further information on Articulations in Logic please see here and if you need further assistance please contact support.
Comments
23 comments
Thanks for sharing the .plist file too! So I would use the "switches" tab to map those key switches onto buttons on my keyboard, right?
Hi Anders,
You can certainly use the switches with these Articulation sets. By default our libraries have their own key switches enabled in the lowest octave which require no configuration in Logic but if you wanted to make all of your 3rd party libraries consistent in the way key switches are assigned then this would be a great way to do it.
If you need any further guidance on this please reach out to us with a support ticket at spitfireaudio.com/support
Thanks for this article, could you please explain the reasons behind: "the best method for Logic's Articulation Set is UACC KS"? What are the benefits over "UACC"? Thanks
Hi Hans,
Good question! The reason UACC KS is preferable to UACC is that it allows you to select multiple articulations, with UACC the articulation is selected by setting CC#32 to a specific value and MIDI controls can only hold one value at a time so only one articulation can be selected at any point in time.
Using UACC KS means that a MIDI note on message (on C-2 in this case) can select an articulation with a specific velocity. Whilst a note can only have one velocity at a time, Logic (and many other DAW/Sequencers) can sequence several note on messages at once with different velocity values on the same note.
What this means practically is that you could, for example, easily sequence a chord where some notes are regular Longs and some are Long CS (or tremolo, etc) using articulation sets.
I'm trying to create my articulation set for Spitfire Symphonic Strings. I'm following the tutorial, but I always have problems. For exemple, I have a 1st violin multi (Kontakt) with, legato performance, extended tech and decorative tech. Both three on channel 1 and UACC KS locked. When I play a pizzicato, the three instruments play together.
How can I resolve that problem?
Thanks
I am trying to create custom articulations in Logic Pro X using my Spitfire Woodwind and Brass using your method explained above. However, I am not able to enter a value in the value column. On mine, it says 0 and it won't allow me to change it. What am doing wrong?
Victor, I'm having a similar problem. I want to use multiple instances of Spitfire inside a single Kontakt instance, with key switching determining which instance plays. Specifically, I'm trying to use Violins 1 (8) as one instance of spitfire, plus half step trills and whole step trills as two other instances of spitfire, all on channel 1, in the same instance of Kontakt. But all three spitfire instances play all the time, despite my having selected different key switches for each articulation. It's as if spitfire instances with only one articulation ALWAYS play, even if you've assigned a unique key switch to that single articulation. Help, anybody?
Victor and Phil I am in the same boat. Have you found a solution for this?
Victor, Phil, Grant, if I understand you correctly and you're all using Logic; in order to use multiple Spitfire Libs inside the one Kontakt instance, you need to set up a Multi-Instrument midi item in Logic.
Go to the Environment where the channel strip holding Kontakt is shown. Click "New" top left, click "Multi-Instrument". Route the cable from the multi instrument into the Kontakt channel strip. Now you need to create a Track in your main window for each of the channels of the Midi Multi Instrument, and then assign those channels in Kontakt for each of the Spitfire Libraries.
Of course, if they are all assigned to Channel 1 and inside the same instance of Kontakt they will all play at the same time :) Using the Multi Instrument midi item in Logic is the way to play a number of channels into a single channel strip, set the channel strip itself to "All" ...Hope this gives some help...
Hi Victor, Grant and Phil
We have a handy guide here on how to set up multi channel Kontakt instances: https://spitfireaudio.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360021674613-Setting-up-multi-channel-Kontakt-in-Logic-Pro-X-
If you're loading multiple patches for the same instrument (such as core and decorative patches) these ought to be on the same MIDI channel, if you configure UACC KS as described in the article above it should only trigger one instance at a time.
If all three are triggering, make sure that the UACC KS note in your articulation set is the one used by the patches and if you still have issues please reach out with a support case attaching the articulation set so we can look into it with you.
Thanks
Sandy
@Jonathan
Rather frustratingly you can't enter values with the keyboard for the "value" column, you must click and drag on the field to add the value.
Thanks
Sandy
this article is great!
"Using UACC KS means that a MIDI note on message (on C-2 in this case) can select an articulation with a specific velocity. Whilst a note can only have one velocity at a time, Logic (and many other DAW/Sequencers) can sequence several note on messages at once with different velocity values on the same note.
What this means practically is that you could, for example, easily sequence a chord where some notes are regular Longs and some are Long CS (or tremolo, etc) using articulation sets."
For some reason it does not work on the same note. No way to choose both articulations at the same to. I am talking about UACC KS. How to do this?
Is there any chance at some future point that the articulation sets .plist file could be provided by Spitfire as a part of each library, as an optional download on the product page?
Come on guys, spending lots of money on your products. Takes ages to receive emails. There's no customer support on the phone. I've tried the above, it doesn't seem to work.
Alternative Solo Strings doesn't have key-switches so if I create KS as triggers and create articulation sets using logic then it works. However what I'd like to be able to do to save some time is Lock UASS or Lock UASS KS.
> I've opened instance of Kontakt.
> Locked UASS as I don't need to layer sounds.
> Opened New Articulation sets.
> Alternative Solo Strings for Violin has 12 articulations. I therefore created 12 articulations, named them, left the articulation ID in numeric order.
> On the output tab I have attempted to change 'type' to note on so that I may change the note in 'selector.' However as not using KS, tried to change 'type' to controller so that 'selector' maybe changed to a numeric value.
> Attempted to change the selector numeric value to 32.
> No matter what the selector is, for some reason if I try and double click or tight click on output value to change the number, it doesn't work. It always remains at 0. Essentially I'm trying to change the number specified by Spitfire, for example Long as the number 1.
If you guys are able to help that would be awesome.
Thanks.
How do I configure the "Locked to UACC KS" option in the Spitfire Audio App instead of Kontakt? I'm trying to utilize articulation sets with the BBC Symphony library, but there are elements in the Kontakt UI that the Spitfire Audio App doesn't seem to have (or at least I'm having trouble finding them).
Do I need to run BBC Symphony via Kontakt instead?
"How do I configure the "Locked to UACC KS" option in the Spitfire Audio App instead of Kontakt? I'm trying to utilize articulation sets with the BBC Symphony library, but there are elements in the Kontakt UI that the Spitfire Audio App doesn't seem to have (or at least I'm having trouble finding them)."
I have exactely the same question! Please Supprt, can you answer this?
I had to message them directly to get an answer on this, and they responded instructing me to create separate tracks for each articulation that I want to use for a particular instrument, FWIW.
Scott thank you for the reply!!, but :
how can we switch the articulations in a melody in one track where some notes have to be played legato and some notes staccato for example?
Using Logic instruments in the piano roll we can decide witch articulation every note is taking, but when the articulations are on separate tracks that is very difficult to manage many changes in the articulations for one part... Or I am missing something? Thank you.
Spitfire recommended dedicating each track to one articulation so that you don’t ever have to change it. I got it working by creating a track for each articulation, recording a passage in one track, copying it to the others, and muting/deleting the notes I don’t want in each copy of the track.
They clearly designed their spitfire app to authorize these libraries and left some important functionality out in the process. Getting this stuff to work has required lots of workarounds.
Great Article, but I do have a question:
How can I set this up for the BBC Symphonic Orchestra? It doesn't seem to work in the dedicated plugin and when I load it up into Kontakt it doesn't work either + I cannot even seem to find out how to lock it into UACC....
Please Help!!!
Thanks !
So how do I lock to UAAC KS with the BBCSO plugin?
UACC is only relevant to Kontakt, it does not apply to Spitfire’s own plug-in. BBC SO does not run in Kontakt.
By far the best way to manage articulations with BBC SO is to use Logic articulation sets, as described in the instructions at the top of this thread, except with the Spitfire plugin it’s even easier because you don’t have to mess about with UACC.
If you don’t have time to make your own articulation sets there are companies who sell them such as https://www.babylonwaves.com/ who cover all libraries by all major developers for both Logic and Cubase.
Please sign in to leave a comment.