Session Ukulele - Simple strumming

Vittin
Vittin Member Posts: 5 Newcomer
edited October 2024 in Kontakt

I might be a bit dumb but I can't figure out how to trigger simple strumming with Session Ukulele. I just bought it and read the manual, so it might be me missing something. It only will allow me to trigger patterns. These are nice, but I need more granular control and having up/downstrokes as keswitches feels like an essential feature in a strumming machine. Has anyone figured out if this is an accesible feature of the patch?

Comments

  • reffahcs
    reffahcs Member Posts: 848 Guru
    edited November 2023

    @Vittin I'm not sure if it goes so far as to have control over up and downstrokes, but I think what you're looking for can be achieved by loading the melody versions.


  • Vittin
    Vittin Member Posts: 5 Newcomer
    edited November 2023

    Thanks @reffahcs for the quick answer. That's the one I'm using but so far failing to find a way so far. I might be expecting something the instrument isn't designed to do but if I can't find a way of strumming single strokes whilst the instrument sets up the correct voicing for me there isn't much use to me on this one, unfortunately.

  • reffahcs
    reffahcs Member Posts: 848 Guru

    I reread your original post and I think I get what you're asking now. The melody just plays a single note like a pick, but you're wanting to sound like strumming a chord but without using the preset patterns in the non-melody version? Does that sound right? So like, fingers on the G chord and then strum all the strings?

    I get what you're saying, yeah seems like that's something you should be able to do... I don't have an answer for you though. I just picked up Ukulele myself, but there's several other session guitars, surely this isn't the first time someone has asked about this. Hopefully someone with more knowledge of the session instruments will share some knowledge.

    Now I'm curious though. I'll be sure to post something if I find out.

  • reffahcs
    reffahcs Member Posts: 848 Guru

    I got excited for a minute because I thought I figured out a way to edit the strum pattern, but it looks fixed.


  • Vittin
    Vittin Member Posts: 5 Newcomer

    That's exactly it. Sorry if it wasn't clear at the start :-D

    Yeah, it sounds pretty basic, so I'm sure it'll be hidden somewhere, so fingers crossed. Thanks for looking into it, if I find a way I'll report back.

  • Vittin
    Vittin Member Posts: 5 Newcomer

    I still haven't found a way to do this after trying up and down. I'll wait to see if anyone from NI or other users can shed some light but now I'm getting worried this feature might just not exist, which is shocking. If this is the case and they are not planning on adding that I think I can't recommend this insrument even if the sound is good and the patterns are nice. I might need to grab UKU from Acoustic Samples or something like that to fill the gap, unfortunately. Fingerss crossed that's not the case.

  • reffahcs
    reffahcs Member Posts: 848 Guru


    I've been messing around with it for the past few days and this is the best I could come up with.

    Use the non-melodic version and change the voicing to OFF (or as played). To me that sounds about as close as I could find to a basic strum. And you can strum your own chords this way as well.

    This one is basically a hack to work around not being able to edit rhythm patterns. But you pick a pattern rhythm that is close to what you want, and then you shift the end to cut out what you don't want. Not really ideal, but I suppose if someone spent enough time looking at the different rhythms this could be a viable option.

    Last option I saw, but didn't seem to work that well. It could definitely just be me though and the fact that I have no idea what I'm doing. But I found the pattern browser earlier today and you're supposed to be able to essentially make a pattern and it will show you what is close to the pattern you want. Your mileage will vary.

    Anyways, that's what I came up with. Hopefully this will give you a little more flexibility with the library.

    On a semi related note, Wondering Folk apparently used to be called What The Folk 🤣 but I guess corporate decided that was to risque LOL. But somehow it was fine for YouTube?


    Cheers

  • Vittin
    Vittin Member Posts: 5 Newcomer

    Thanks so much for this! Such an in depth investigation and super useful comments. I'll see if I can find a pattern from which I can isolate one single strum.

    Your proposal of using the non-melody version is good, but still the chorrect voicing of the chord is kind of essential for me for the authentic sound in ukulele chords. But definetly somehting to use to bridge the gap for now. I'll keep poking at it and maybe the devs will expose that feature for us in a future update.

    What the Folk, lol

  • reffahcs
    reffahcs Member Posts: 848 Guru

    Yeah I agree it's definitely missing the very basics imo. For all the effort they put into the multiple microphones and everything else I'm really at a loss as to why there's not a simple strum?

    I will say that the Drunken Master B, seemed to be the most basic no nonsense strum, so I would start there. Good luck and curious to hear what you come up with.

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