To see this working, head to your live site.

Thanks!!! And a question re: PERC

Thanks so much for Orchestools, just downloaded and installed to Ableton a couple hours ago, and love it!

I'm a little confused on how to use the KEYRANGE part of the UI though - there isn't a reference manual is there?

Specifically, what I wanted to do was to map three timpanis and a bass drum to four separate keys, so I thought what I had to do was lower the volume on every other key than the desired key for that instrument. But it doesn't seem to work that way?

Then I noticed the presets, so I loaded Triple Timpani - and it seems to assign ranges on the keyboard to the three timpanis, but I don't see anything on the UI that indicates what those ranges are?

5 comments

5 Comments

Brad Horstkotte

May 24, 2022

Thank you so much for taking the time to explain it clearly for me. I somehow missed the fact that those bars are sliders - and because there are per note volume sliders below the keys, I misinterpreted the HIGH and LOW as being volume limits, not pitch ranges. :)

Now back to day two of amateur orchestral music making, again thanks to you!

musictop69

May 25, 2022

Replying to

It is my pleasure Brad. Have fun in music making and please share your creations! Regards,

Brad Horstkotte

May 25, 2022

Replying to

@musictop69 Thanks, I will once I get the hang of things!

Brad Horstkotte

May 23, 2022

Oh, I also don't understand what XPRESS, or LIMIT LOW or LIMIT HIGH are supposed to do - and the values for LOW / HIGH disappear when they aren't clicked?

musictop69

May 24, 2022

Replying to

Hi Brad. Thrilled that you like and use OrchesTools instruments. There is still no reference manual I'm afraid, it is still on the to-do list but it takes time and i have to find some :) - I am working on short video tutorials explaining UI and functions - will be released in June. In terms of Key range you can use LIMIT HIGH and LIMIT LOW to set the range of the layer - meaning - you can click and drag on the areas below and above keyboard to set which parts of the keyboard are on/off. So if you want the layer to sound only on C2 key click and drag on the the LIMIT LOW slider to move it to the position underneath that key and then click and drag the LIMIT HIGH down to the same key - the dark areas are key ranges that are off while the light areas are on. Use CTRL while dragging for more precision (works on all sliders of the instrument as well). You can also click on the slider area to type the key numbers - in this case it is number 24.

(*next update will introduce a more precise, more intuitive and a nicer/clearer looking UI elements of this section)

XPRESS button activates expression controller (default cc number 11) which allows you to control volume/expression of the layer using MIDI pedal or MIDI controller. You can set it to react to any other MIDI CC by changing the CC number on the drop box next to it. Here are some presets I made for you to demonstrate the above explained. You can import them by clicking on 'more' on the preset browser. Click on "import presets from the collection: and point to the downloaded preset file >

There are 6 presets in the collection. The first one is a 4 key configuration you need, the second demonstrates the keyrange set to 4 zones, and the nest 4 are the same presets with XPRESS controller activated and set to Expression CC11 or Modulation Wheel CC01 to control the volume.

Hope this is helpful. Have fun with OrchesTools instruments :)