Unexplained volume change

[Sherry C]

Hi Tim,

Originally Posted by Tim Mariott

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?

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