Volume & Velocity

[Ananda]

What's the difference of velocity & volume of MIDI data? When I change the velocity, the volume changed too. In Sonar or Cubase, there are spesific control of each but I can't differentiate it ? Can anybody help ? I know they have separate MIDI controller change for velocity & volume. Why ?

[wogg]

Velocity is esentially how hard the note is hit, while volume is it's.. well, volume.

The main difference will be with multi-timberal sample sets where the velocity of a note determines the timbre of the instrument.

Drums in particular will sound different when hit at different velocities, and if the sample set is good enough, it should reflect those differences when the velocity of the notes are adjusted.

[zdogg]

Ananda,

The two are similar, but the difference is midi volue raises the volume potential for the instrument or performance. Think of an electric keyboard with a volume control. If you hit it harder, (velocity) it will play louder still, but the "ceiling" so to speak, is set by the volume control, dig? Also, there are other effects, such as "bite" or "growl," sometimes associated with more agressive, (higher velocity) playing, and these are switched on after a certain velocity threshold has been exceeded.

Z

As to your other question about bits, higher bits allow for finer math resolutions - think of division and "leftover" values. If you added multiple answers together, all rounded up or down, (small errors) -- eventually it can lead to an inacurate sum, and the lower the resoultion, the more error is introduced when conducting numbercrunching, which is what is going on when the computer adds effects, or bounces or "sums" tracks or processes the audio in any way. This added bit depth allows for a more accurate mathematical approximation of where the actual sound wave lies, which is more important the more you manipulate (add effects etc.) the data.

Z