Hi @tsolight
Maybe the reason why there aren't a whole lot of ressources on setting up SWAM instruments with a BBC2 is because most people who own one are already pretty familiar with MIDI instruments. Everyone has a unique set-up and different preferences in terms of controllers and playing style so it's overall a pretty solitary journey I would say...but I can understand it can be a bit overwhelming when first starting out. Here I'll share a little bit about my set-up and preferences for controlling SWAM instruments (and pretty much any instrument in general, as I like to keep it as consistent as possible from one instrument to another).
First, concerning which CC to assign to the BBC2, it's simply a matter of personal preference. There are however a few CC values that are standard within the industry and so by default many instruments will respond to these in a specific way (ie: pretty much all instruments will respond to CC64 as a sustain pedal, and you can't change that...). Here's the official list of CC mappings . Note however that for most of them you will have the option to change the mapping to your liking inside the instrument, so don't worry too much about using CC numbers which are reserved for some standard function. I personally use CC2 for breath (it can save you a few seconds of tweaking for instruments which support breath control...
) and CC3, 4 and 5 for bite, tilt and nod, so it's easier to remember as they are grouped together.
Concerning the mappings, I bought a BBC2 along with all SWAM instruments about a year ago, and I would say to this point my set-up is pretty much well integrated and will most likely remain more or less the same for many years. Here are my personal preferences as well as a few notes about why I chose them :
Breath : Volume/Pressure/Expression (however you like to call it)
This one is pretty straight-forward right? The breath is the most precise and intuitive controller of your instruments you can get. It changes everything once you start using it. I also configured all of my sample-based instruments so I can use it for any patch with sustain.
Bite : Vibrato depth/amount
This one is probably the most underrated control IMO (not that it's very often "rated", but...). Like @mschnell, I started out using the bite for distorsion effects such as growl or flutter, which makes sense considering the physical gesture you're making. However, after a few months of playing with the BBC2, I realized just how precise, intuitive and "unobstructive" it is :
Precise : if you bite at the very edge of the mouth piece, you'll find that it's harder to reach the higher values than if you bite further down. This way, you can place your teeth more at the edge if you're looking for a more subtle vibrato or place them further down if you want more obvious vibrato. I also find you can very smoothly fade in and out the vibrato, much more than with aftertouch.
Intuitive : the gesture is so easy to make, it was physically integrated into my playing in a matter of days after I changed its mapping for vibrato.
"Unobstructive" : what I mean by that is that the gesture doesn't restrain any other gesture in any way. As virtual instruments become more and more complex and playable, the number of physical gestures you need to make in order to really get the best out of them also increases, and the less these gestures interfere with one another, the better. The bite gives my fingers even more freedom to play the way they want to.
Tilt : Vibrato rate/speed
The tilt is very useful for bipolar parameters, meaning parameters which default state would be in the middle, rather than the bottom or top (ie : pitch bend). This is perfect for vibrato speed as you want to find a default speed which you'll use most of the time and have the possibility to decrease it or increase it easily. Just like the two previous gestures, it's also very "unobstructive" and can be quite precise.
For fun, try experimenting using the tilt as a pitch bend. You can get pretty interesting effects out of it. Not very practical for standard playing but pretty cool for interesting effects.
Nod : Transition time
The nod's main weak point is that it's pretty obstructive because you need to take your eyes away from the keys. I first started using it as vibrato depth because I thought it made sense to use both tilt and nod as vibrato control, but I ended up not using vibrato all that much because I had to stop looking at the keys to do it and it's also a tiring motion to do with your head. I now find that it can be useful for portamentos because they're pretty infrequent and they slow down the playing so I have time to stop looking at the keys, and the physical gesture kind of naturally reflects the musical motion too.
Aftertouch : Growl
I never was able to get much precision out of aftertouch, so for me this is almost like an on/off control. I don't like to use it all that much so I keep it for more infrequent controls. Therefore, with SWAM instruments I use it for growl. The motion of pressing even harder down on the keys also naturally reflects some sort of saturating/forceful motion.
Expression pedal : Flutter
Pedals can be pretty useful once you get used to playing with them. I personally use it for various controls depending on the instrument. Like with SWAM Strings I use it for bow pressure and with all wind instruments I use for flutter effect.
Mod wheel : Breath Noise
I don't like the mod wheel all that much because I don't find it intuitive to control. Some keyboard musicians managed to integrate the gesture quite well in their playing, but imo that's because they didn't have any better solutions such as the BBC2. In my case, I keep it for parameters which you'll generally want to tweak according to the passage you're playing (in other words, something which will slightly alter the timbre of the instrument). You could assign this to Formant, Harmonic Structure, Key Noise or Breath Noise for example...I find that I like to play with the breath noise once in a while depending on the character of the passage I'm playing.
As for other SWAM-specific parameters, I would definitely recommend setting the Attack Sensitivity to Expression rather than velocity. I first started out using Velocity but the more I got used to using the breath (I never played any wind instruments before) the more I realized that it's the most precise control there is and that's what should be controlling the attack. Therefore I also assign Expression Trigger Mode to Fast so that the breath can trigger and stop notes. Here you can download the preset I use for SWAM Saxophones so you can have a look at other settings too.
BBC2 - The Classical.swam
Lastly, here's how I tweak the settings of my BBC2:
Breath : I leave it as is. It gives you the widest possible range of expression. If you find your muscles get tired, just practice more and develop those muscles!
Bite : slight down-curve to have more precision in the lower range
Nod : I like the minimum value to start when my head is parallel to the ground so I don't worry about values going up and down when I'm playing
Tilt : notice that the curve gets finer in the middle and coarser at both extremes. This way I can achieve higher precision in the middle range of vibrato depth while also being able to reach more extreme values at both ends.
The best advice I can give you, however, is to play the instruments in as much musical contexts as you can and see how the instrument responds and how your body responds too. Create a selection of songs/pieces you like to jam with and play a little bit every night just for fun and you'll start to figure out which parameters you naturally like to play with and which ones you end up not really using. That's all very personal preferences. It's good to have some sort of logical thinking behind the mappings, but the physical experimentation will probably guide your decisions even more. And that will most likely take quite a bit of time to really end up with something stable and integrated. Hopefully, some of my advices will have shorten that time a little bit.
Have fun playing!
Hi @tsolight
Maybe the reason why there aren't a whole lot of ressources on setting up SWAM instruments with a BBC2 is because most people who own one are already pretty familiar with MIDI instruments. Everyone has a unique set-up and different preferences in terms of controllers and playing style so it's overall a pretty solitary journey I would say...but I can understand it can be a bit overwhelming when first starting out. Here I'll share a little bit about my set-up and preferences for controlling SWAM instruments (and pretty much any instrument in general, as I like to keep it as consistent as possible from one instrument to another).
First, concerning which CC to assign to the BBC2, it's simply a matter of personal preference. There are however a few CC values that are standard within the industry and so by default many instruments will respond to these in a specific way (ie: pretty much all instruments will respond to CC64 as a sustain pedal, and you can't change that...). [Here's the official list of CC mappings](https://professionalcomposers.com/midi-cc-list/) . Note however that for most of them you will have the option to change the mapping to your liking inside the instrument, so don't worry too much about using CC numbers which are reserved for some standard function. I personally use CC2 for breath (it can save you a few seconds of tweaking for instruments which support breath control...;) ) and CC3, 4 and 5 for bite, tilt and nod, so it's easier to remember as they are grouped together.
Concerning the mappings, I bought a BBC2 along with all SWAM instruments about a year ago, and I would say to this point my set-up is pretty much well integrated and will most likely remain more or less the same for many years. Here are my personal preferences as well as a few notes about why I chose them :
- Breath : Volume/Pressure/Expression (however you like to call it)
This one is pretty straight-forward right? The breath is the most precise and intuitive controller of your instruments you can get. It changes everything once you start using it. I also configured all of my sample-based instruments so I can use it for any patch with sustain.
- Bite : Vibrato depth/amount
This one is probably the most underrated control IMO (not that it's very often "rated", but...). Like @mschnell, I started out using the bite for distorsion effects such as growl or flutter, which makes sense considering the physical gesture you're making. However, after a few months of playing with the BBC2, I realized just how precise, intuitive and "unobstructive" it is :
Precise : if you bite at the very edge of the mouth piece, you'll find that it's harder to reach the higher values than if you bite further down. This way, you can place your teeth more at the edge if you're looking for a more subtle vibrato or place them further down if you want more obvious vibrato. I also find you can very smoothly fade in and out the vibrato, much more than with aftertouch.
Intuitive : the gesture is so easy to make, it was physically integrated into my playing in a matter of days after I changed its mapping for vibrato.
"Unobstructive" : what I mean by that is that the gesture doesn't restrain any other gesture in any way. As virtual instruments become more and more complex and playable, the number of physical gestures you need to make in order to really get the best out of them also increases, and the less these gestures interfere with one another, the better. The bite gives my fingers even more freedom to play the way they want to.
- Tilt : Vibrato rate/speed
The tilt is very useful for bipolar parameters, meaning parameters which default state would be in the middle, rather than the bottom or top (ie : pitch bend). This is perfect for vibrato speed as you want to find a default speed which you'll use most of the time and have the possibility to decrease it or increase it easily. Just like the two previous gestures, it's also very "unobstructive" and can be quite precise.
For fun, try experimenting using the tilt as a pitch bend. You can get pretty interesting effects out of it. Not very practical for standard playing but pretty cool for interesting effects.
- Nod : Transition time
The nod's main weak point is that it's pretty obstructive because you need to take your eyes away from the keys. I first started using it as vibrato depth because I thought it made sense to use both tilt and nod as vibrato control, but I ended up not using vibrato all that much because I had to stop looking at the keys to do it and it's also a tiring motion to do with your head. I now find that it can be useful for portamentos because they're pretty infrequent and they slow down the playing so I have time to stop looking at the keys, and the physical gesture kind of naturally reflects the musical motion too.
- Aftertouch : Growl
I never was able to get much precision out of aftertouch, so for me this is almost like an on/off control. I don't like to use it all that much so I keep it for more infrequent controls. Therefore, with SWAM instruments I use it for growl. The motion of pressing even harder down on the keys also naturally reflects some sort of saturating/forceful motion.
- Expression pedal : Flutter
Pedals can be pretty useful once you get used to playing with them. I personally use it for various controls depending on the instrument. Like with SWAM Strings I use it for bow pressure and with all wind instruments I use for flutter effect.
- Mod wheel : Breath Noise
I don't like the mod wheel all that much because I don't find it intuitive to control. Some keyboard musicians managed to integrate the gesture quite well in their playing, but imo that's because they didn't have any better solutions such as the BBC2. In my case, I keep it for parameters which you'll generally want to tweak according to the passage you're playing (in other words, something which will slightly alter the timbre of the instrument). You could assign this to Formant, Harmonic Structure, Key Noise or Breath Noise for example...I find that I like to play with the breath noise once in a while depending on the character of the passage I'm playing.
As for other SWAM-specific parameters, I would definitely recommend setting the Attack Sensitivity to Expression rather than velocity. I first started out using Velocity but the more I got used to using the breath (I never played any wind instruments before) the more I realized that it's the most precise control there is and that's what should be controlling the attack. Therefore I also assign Expression Trigger Mode to Fast so that the breath can trigger and stop notes. Here you can download the preset I use for SWAM Saxophones so you can have a look at other settings too.
[BBC2 - The Classical.swam](serve/attachment&path=6060a1eeb76b6)
Lastly, here's how I tweak the settings of my BBC2:
- Breath : I leave it as is. It gives you the widest possible range of expression. If you find your muscles get tired, just practice more and develop those muscles!
- Bite : slight down-curve to have more precision in the lower range
- Nod : I like the minimum value to start when my head is parallel to the ground so I don't worry about values going up and down when I'm playing
- Tilt : notice that the curve gets finer in the middle and coarser at both extremes. This way I can achieve higher precision in the middle range of vibrato depth while also being able to reach more extreme values at both ends.
The best advice I can give you, however, is to play the instruments in as much musical contexts as you can and see how the instrument responds and how your body responds too. Create a selection of songs/pieces you like to jam with and play a little bit every night just for fun and you'll start to figure out which parameters you naturally like to play with and which ones you end up not really using. That's all very personal preferences. It's good to have some sort of logical thinking behind the mappings, but the physical experimentation will probably guide your decisions even more. And that will most likely take quite a bit of time to really end up with something stable and integrated. Hopefully, some of my advices will have shorten that time a little bit.
Have fun playing!
