How do you make smooth slides in Picked Nylon?

Balarila
Balarila Member Posts: 15 Member

On a real guitar, I can pluck a note with my left hand’s finger firmly on a fret, then slide my finger, say, two frets up, effectively raising the pitch one full step, without plucking the 2nd note.

I try to do this on Picked Nylon by having a sequence of two notes with a third “slide note” occurring a little after the beginning of the first note and ending before the end of the 2nd note. This “slide note” effectively bridges the two notes into a slide.

What I hear in Picked Nylon, however, are two notes, both plucked, though the 2nd note actually slides from a pitch of the first note.

how can I make the slide without having the plucking on the 2nd note?

Best Answer

  • Donkey Oaty
    Donkey Oaty Member Posts: 27 Member
    edited November 2022 Answer ✓

    If you are playing the melody version of the instrument, you can use the midi key switches on your keyboard (or add them using your DAWs editor).

    G#1 - to slide up

    A1 to slide down

    I know, because I had to look it up myself. Section 3.6 of the user manual. You'd need to revert to C1 (normal) or D#1 (tremolo), or whatever articulation you'd been using prior, after the slide. You need to leave a space (if manually editing) or pause (if playing) between the end of the note you're sliding up/down from and the beginning of the note you are sliding to. This determines the speed of the slide and the slide effect you hear. It works really well but requires a bit of experimenting at first use.

    To get the effect of sliding up and carrying the prior pluck's input you will need to adapt your velocity. If you get your spacings right there's no pluck sound on the destination note of the slide, so how it sounds will be down to the velocity of that second note. Obviously it should be lower than that of the initial note in the slide. I'd suggest that if you're playing it all in via your MIDI keyboard, you have a little play around with the second note velocity in your DAW editor. This will enable you to get the sound as you want it and enable you to work out how much velocity you should apply to the slide's destination note to get that sound.

Answers

  • Donkey Oaty
    Donkey Oaty Member Posts: 27 Member
    edited November 2022 Answer ✓

    If you are playing the melody version of the instrument, you can use the midi key switches on your keyboard (or add them using your DAWs editor).

    G#1 - to slide up

    A1 to slide down

    I know, because I had to look it up myself. Section 3.6 of the user manual. You'd need to revert to C1 (normal) or D#1 (tremolo), or whatever articulation you'd been using prior, after the slide. You need to leave a space (if manually editing) or pause (if playing) between the end of the note you're sliding up/down from and the beginning of the note you are sliding to. This determines the speed of the slide and the slide effect you hear. It works really well but requires a bit of experimenting at first use.

    To get the effect of sliding up and carrying the prior pluck's input you will need to adapt your velocity. If you get your spacings right there's no pluck sound on the destination note of the slide, so how it sounds will be down to the velocity of that second note. Obviously it should be lower than that of the initial note in the slide. I'd suggest that if you're playing it all in via your MIDI keyboard, you have a little play around with the second note velocity in your DAW editor. This will enable you to get the sound as you want it and enable you to work out how much velocity you should apply to the slide's destination note to get that sound.

  • Balarila
    Balarila Member Posts: 15 Member

    Thank you. That was very detailed. I have been experimenting with the length of the notes but have not considered velocity. Will try it out. Regards!

  • Donkey Oaty
    Donkey Oaty Member Posts: 27 Member

    No worries. I hope you get the sound you want. I played around with the rest between notes for an age before I got things sounding right. The velocity of the destination note's also important - I found it worthwhile to experiment with adding tremolo to that note too.

    Enjoy!

  • Balarila
    Balarila Member Posts: 15 Member

    It worked! The destination note’s velocity should be considerably less than the first note for a smooth, no-pluck slide. About 20% less. The result, though, is that the slide note is too soft. Will play around with volume automation to make up for it.

    Your suggestion on tremolo is also brilliant.

    I just wish there was a way to automate fret noise. I like louder fret noises in some parts of the song. But that slide I am working on is in a quiet part of the song so i’d prefer a much softer fret noise. Oh well, hopefully In a future software update…

    Many thanks, again!

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