Unexplained volume change
 

Sherry

The attached piece has been created from a MIDI file created by a choir colleague using another (much inferior!) software product: it just helps me to share out the load of keying in choir pieces.

The process normally works fine but in this piece I have some unexplained and disconcerting volume changes as follows -

1. Measures 85 to 87: Soprano stave increases volume
2. Measure 87: Alto stave increases volume
3. Measures 135-147: Baritone and Bass staves increase volume.

I normally have the volume set to a constant value for choir pieces, so it is a bit offputting when a part suddenly increases volume without any warning.

I cannot see anything to indicate a volume change and I have tried resetting the volume for the misbehaving measures - but with no luck.

Can you suggest any other remedial actions please. Many thanks.
Tim

Re: Unexplained volume change
 

Hi Tim,

Using the Note Velocity tab, it shows that the notes in the locations you've mentioned all have note velocities of 96. All the other notes in the piece as far as I can see have a Note Velocity of 30, which explains the sudden change in perceived volume.

If you want to set all notes in staff (or other region, such as the entire file) to the same Note Velocity level, you can do the following:

1. Select the notes you want to edit. For large groups of notes, the easiest way is to use the Region select method.

2. After selecting the Region, click on Region/Convert region to selection of notes. This will turn all the notes blue, indicating their ready to edit :)

3. Now click on Note Velocity tab.

4. Click the "96" button in the palette toolbar, and enter whatever value you want for the loudness (eg. 60), and click "Ok".

All the selected notes will now have that value for the Note Velocity (loudness).

ttfn,
Sherry

Re: Unexplained volume change
 

Sherry

Thank you very much for the rapid reply. That solves my problem and shows that I hadn't really understood "note velocity".

I just remain a little puzzled about the interaction between "note velocity" and "volume". I know I can set the relative volume of staves through the stave setup and that I can vary the volume of the piece as a whole using Graph over Notes.

So does "note velocity" act as a sort of fine tuning for individual notes in addition to the "volume" setting?

Thanks
Tim

Re: Unexplained volume change
 

Hi Tim,

Good question, and answer! It can act as fine-tuning for individual notes both in terms of volume (all MIDI devices) as well as timbre (for some MIDI devices.) The timbre of a note gives us as listeners a clue as to not only what instrument is playing the note (eg. flute vs. piano), but also whether the note is being played gently or with a biting attack, even if the volume level remains the same. This is why even in this day of highly compressed recordings of music which stays at approximately the same volume level, we can still typically discern whether a note is played softly or with "punch".

While it's not as obvious for the default GS Wavetable device, with other sound libraries or sound fonts, the Note Velocity can give a different, more life-like, timbre to a note. If you play a particular instrument, think of how that instrument sounds if you play softly (eg. a light touch on a piano, a lightly plucked string, a soft drum stroke or a softly-blown wind instrument). Now think of how the sound - for the same note - differs if you really attack the note (eg. hit a piano key hard, really pluck a string, direct hit on a drum, or punch a wind instrument note). That quality (not just the volume) of the sound is part of the timbre. Using the MIDI "Note Velocity" allows you to add that component to a song file (.mid or .not, using Notation Composer), which in turn allows you to do some pretty good sound tracks if you're using a good instrument library or soundfont.

Hope this helps :)
Sherry

Side note: During my last semester as an undergraduate I needed a psychology elective to round out my transcript. I chose "Perception", which was for all the senses. I really enjoyed it, and it was there that I was first introduced to auditory processing (hearing, and how we perceive sound). That and the entire range of "perception" was fascinating. Little did I realize at that point how important a lot of that "fun" class was going to be in my future career as a researcher (biochemistry of the ear) as well as my "second career" as a musician and Notation Software employee :)