Change volume using CC in .SFZ

[ZenSoSo]

Been searching all day, and hacking away at an .sfz file, and still cannot find a decent solution.

You can skip the background and just scroll down to THE TECHNICAL ISSUE AT HAND.

Here's my problem (use case). I've been using SoundFonts (.sf2) in MuseScore, and I want to try using .sfz files instead. My goal is to have a "WYHIWYG" (What You Hear Is What You Get) setup, where I can hear the composition as it will sound in the final product, as I compose.

I currently have a workflow where I export each track (rendered by MuseScore's internal SoundFont rendering engine) to a separate .flac, import these into Ardour, then mix in Ardour. Works great. But its not "WYHIWYG". To hear the final product while composing, I need to generate live audio from the midi data coming from MuseScore, and mix that in Ardour, Carla, or some other mixer.

The problem is, MuseScore has a single audio output channel. I can parcel out the midi data to liquidsfz plugins, one per voice. I tried that. It renders perfectly, but to do symphonic stuff, I'd need about 60 tracks, with a separate instance of liquidsfz in each. Maybe its doable on a high-end machine, but not on my old laptop!

So what I'm envisioning, is scripting linuxsampler to so that I have maybe four or five channels, each handling up to 16 midi voices, and then route these groups to Ardour buses where I can apply effects.

THE TECHNICAL ISSUE AT HAND:

Getting notes to fade in/fade out. Having a string section build in volume, or a single flute fade into almost silence, then come back. So far, impossible with linuxsampler.

MuseScore by default uses CC02, repeatedly sending an integer value corresponding to a note's initial velocity, as the note fades in / out. The CC02 value is routed to the velocity parameter of the player engine (with a factor applied).

Experimenting with linuxsampler, it's becoming apparent that the initial velocity can never be "replaced" by a new value from an incoming CC message. That's the ideal.

Here's an excerpt from an .sfz from Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra (https://github.com/peastman/sso.git):

Code: Select all

<group>
amp_veltrack=0
volume=-30
gain_cc1=30

Well, according to https://www.linuxsampler.org/sfz/, "gain_cc" is not supported.

What do?

I tried:

Code: Select all

volume=-20
volume_oncc2=20
amp_veltrack=100

Not the effect I'm looking for. I can't get the normal initial volume to jibe with the volume I get after the CC02 messages are received.

Any suggestions?