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Vienna 2.3
The samples we created in the previous chapter are
pretty useless by themselves. They need to be looped, tweaked, and molded into
something useful, and Vienna 2.3 is the tool we use to do this. When you first load up Vienna, you are confronted with the
screen in Figure 2.1.
Figure 2.1
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First impressions are a little daunting with so
many different areas and parameters on the screen. What do we do first?
Let's start with a quick overview of the 8 main sections of the screen (ignoring
menu and icon options), to give you an idea
of what is accomplished in each of these. Each section has been highlighted with
a red number from 1 to 8 in Figure 2.1.
Section 1 - The SoundFont® Bank Tree Window
This is the tree view of your entire SoundFont® Bank - your navigational area
and your main focal point. This is your first stop when dragging
and dropping samples, importing samples, constructing instruments, and building presets.
All your oscillator (sample) groundwork is done in this area.
- Sample Section
The Sample Section contains a listing of all samples loaded into the
SoundFont® Bank.
User Sample Pool
This is your palette of samples used in
creating instruments. You import your raw samples into this area.
ROM Sample Pool
As of Vienna 2.3, this is no longer applicable. This area was
reserved for the import of
ROM-based samples.
- Instrument Pool
This area is where you gather different samples from your Sample Section, and compile them into an instrument. You can layer different samples, and generally
create a host of base instruments to work off. Whereas the Sample Section was
your palette of samples, this is your palette of instruments. You can create a
fully working preset in this section and simply insert it into the Preset
Section as a final preset, or you can create a template instrument
which you can pull into the Preset Section and tweak from there.
- Preset Section
The Preset Section is where it all comes together - where a
SoundFont® Bank stores your final
presets. You can layer one or more instruments from the Instrument Pool
together, and tweak their parameters in the same manner as you would under
the Instrument Pool. This is the area
which sequencers use to pick up the patches available
in your SoundFont® Bank. The Melodic and Percussive Pool's are simply a division of the
Preset Section, with the Melodic Pool being reserved for melodic instruments
assignable to any midi channel (except 10), and the Percussive Pool which is
assigned to midi channel 10, and usually contains drum kits and other
percussion. Both are identical, except that the Percussive Pool is
assigned exclusively to midi channel 10, while the Melodic Pool can be
assigned to all midi channels except channel 10.
Section 2 - Key/Velocity Range Window
For the purposes of simplicity we will ignore the Velocity View, and
concentrate on this section as being the Key Range View for samples and
instruments. This area gives a graphical representation of how your samples and
instruments are laid out across the keyboard. You can see and set where your root key
is, and where your upper and lower boundaries are for a sample ... etc. This is
where you stretch samples across the keyboard, do keyboard splits,
set the root key, and generally ensure that your multi-samples are positioned
correctly across the keyboard.
Section 3 - Tuning Window
If you decide to detune an instrument, sample, or preset, or perhaps
you feel a sample-loop is a little out of tune, you can use this area to (de)tune
and correct pitches.
Section 4 - Effects Window
Here's where you can add some reverb and chorus, or set the left and
right panning of instruments, samples, or presets. You can also set initial
global defaults for your Filter Resonance (Filter Q) and Filter Cutoff
Frequency.
Section 5 - Volume Envelope Window
Every instrument or sound has a changing volume which eventually fades away over time. How quickly this is
achieved is controlled
by the Volume, or Amplitude Envelope.
Section 6 - Modulation Envelope Window
This is where you choose your Pitch or Filter Cutoff Envelope. You
can only choose Pitch or Filter Cutoff, but not both. If you select Pitch, the settings will affect how the pitch of your instrument, sample, or preset
changes. If you select Filter Cutoff, this will affect the brightness of your
output.
Section 7 - Modulation LFO Window
This is where you choose your LFO settings for Pitch (Vibrato), Filter
Cutoff (Wah-Wah), or Amplitude (Tremolo). All 3 settings can be set to various
depths, but they will all modulate at the selected Frequency. You cannot set
different frequencies for each.
Section 8 - Vibrato LFO Window
This works in exactly the same manner as the Modulation LFO, except that
it is hardwired to Pitch (Vibrato) only.
That's it ... a simple and concise description of the main
areas of the Vienna Editor. For our purposes we will ignore the dropdown-menu
and icon area, since it's pretty much standard Windows stuff. For what we need
to learn from this tutorial, it is all based on right-clicking within the Tree
Window -probably the fastest way of getting results in Vienna. The first of
these right-click options is the importing of samples ...
  
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