Re: dynamic and midi velocity

[peter]

>>>>> "Bertalan" == Bertalan Fodor (LilyPondTool) <address@hidden> writes:

 Tim Reeves wrote: Peter Chubb wrote:

             Lilypond uses a separate volume channel, rather
              than velocity, to  control MIDI dynamics.  There's a perl script
              `ConvertToVeolcity.perl' that can convert the midi output
               and add velocity info to each note.

Bertalan> That's a bug then. Musically \p means velocity
Bertalan> change and not volume.

Tim>     Bert,
    
Tim>     I'm curious what you mean by this comment. \p does not
Tim> mean low volume but low velocity?  Do you mean you use (when
Tim> you play an instrument) a low velocity (air velocity,
Tim> velocity of striking a key or drum, velocity of bowing,
Tim> etc.) in order to create a low volume (sound level) and so
Tim> it's the velocity that you have to control?

Bertalan> I definitely talk about playing a keyboard instrument. It is
Bertalan> quite easy to feel the difference between volume and
Bertalan> velocity if you think about that:

Bertalan> When you see p in the score, you play with less force on the
Bertalan> keys, with lower velocity.  When you see ff in the score,
Bertalan> you play with much force on the keys, with high velocity.

That depends on the keyboard.  On the organ I've sometimes played, how
hard you press the notes does asolutely nothing; to control volume you
use the swell pedal (and it works only on some stops).  There's also
several milliseconds delay between playing a note and hearing it,
which is `interesting' to say the least.

I thnk the MIDI designers were mostly thinking about pianos when they
designed the protocols; CC11 for expression feels like an
afterthought.

Peter C