GrandOrgue / grandorgue

GrandOrgue software
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Option for stop changes to not affect held notes? #1833

Open chmaha opened 3 months ago

chmaha commented 3 months ago

I use Grandorgue for playing harpsichord samples on a digital piano and I'd like to request an optional Sforzando/Sfizz key switch method that doesn't affect notes that are currently held down. It's really useful for several reasons including so I can gather all the notes in my left hand then use a key in the upper registers to switch to another manual whenever is convenient without missing a beat or sonically recreate moving one hand onto the upper manual while I continue to hold a pedal point or chord on the lower manual. Perhaps there could be an option at the instrument level / "Organ Settings" to that effect?

larspalo commented 3 months ago

@chmaha Let me just quote the GrandOrgue statement:

GrandOrgue is a sample based pipe organ simulator.

I don't know of any real pipe organ that do what you suggest.

chmaha commented 3 months ago

That's entirely true for pipe organs but there are plenty of multi-stop harpsichord samples for Grandorgue and obviously when there is a change in registration on the harpsichord it doesn't re-pluck the strings. Plus, as I mentioned earlier, there are users limited to say a single manual on a digital piano so the effect of holding notes on one manual as you move to another is impossible at present. Frankly, I'd port the samples over to SFZ but some of the most authentic ones use different releases based on the timing of held notes which seems impossible to recreate precisely in SFZ.

No worries, it's a very niche ask!

oleg68 commented 3 months ago

I think GrandOrgue shouldn't play any Percussive pipes of held keys when switching stops/couplers. @larspalo, @rousseldenis do you agree with this change?

larspalo commented 3 months ago

I think GrandOrgue shouldn't play any Percussive pipes of held keys when switching stops/couplers.

@oleg68 That's not an entirely trivial question as it could depend on how the actual instrument modelled would be constructed.

It might very well be true that within the same manual, on a mechanical organ, an already held key shouldn't trigger a purely percussive pipe (say a glockenspiel or something similar) when the percussive drawstop is activated (but a percussive noise effect for the drawstop itself should of course be...) when the key is already held down. Other types of actions (like electrical) could potentially behave differently...

But for a coupler to another manual, that's not even the same thing - the key for the other manual should, of course again depending on the construction, be pushed the activation of the coupler, which in turn means that the percussive pipe should play because its activating key is now pushed - which it wasn't before.

If something in this way is implemented (with choice or not), care needs to be taken that any single pipe auto play still keeps working nevertheless.

However, on a side note, as a harpsichord owner and player I can happily inform you that usually the harpsichord samples cannot be implemented as percussive since the jacks would have a felt dampener that should kind of silence the string any time the key is released. The same would go for any piano, celeste or similar type of instrument that will dampen the vibrations as soon as the key is released. None of them can realistically be implemented as Percussive=Y.