lovel / hivel

If a note with velocity value equal to or higher than lovel AND equal to or lower than hivel is played, the region will play.

This is obviously useful for instruments with dynamic layers controlled by velocity. Though dynamic layers can also be controlled by CC, especially for sustained instruments, lovel and hivel are the standard way of controlling dynamics for instruments such as drums and pianos. It is also possible to use lovel / hivel to control other things instead, such as articulations - for example, a guitar could have palm-muted samples on low velocities, and pinch harmonics on velocity 127.

These opcodes will often need to be used with amp_velcurve_N, unless amp_veltrack is set to 0. The reason for this is that with default velocity tracking behavior and non-normalized samples (and there are many reasons why normalizing samples should be avoided), the quiet velocity layers will be too quiet.

Velocity 0 is a note-off message, so 1 is the lowest usable value with hivel/lovel.

Example #

lovel=64 hivel=95

An instrument with four velocity-controlled dynamic layers might use lovel and hivel like this:

<region>hivel=31 amp_velcurve_31=1 sample=kick_vl1.wav
<region>lovel=32 hivel=63 amp_velcurve_63=1 sample=kick_vl2.wav
<region>lovel=64 hivel=95 amp_velcurve_95=1 sample=kick_vl3.wav
<region>lovel=96 sample=kick_vl4.wav

The way this would work is the kick_vl1.wav region will play at velocities up to 31, with volume going gradually from 0 at velocity 0 (so, no sound) to full volume at velocity 31. The kick_vl2.wav region will play at velocties 32 to 63, with volume being full at velocity 63 and lower volume (but not zero) at 32. The kick_vl3 wav region will play at velocites 64 to 95, with full volume at velocity 95. Finally, the kick_vl4 layer plays at velocities 96 to 127, with no amp_velcurve_N set meaning it will have full volume at velocity 127.

Category: Region Logic, Key Mapping