Choose a playing setup
Performance profiles
Choose a profile before recording. It prepares the musical hand and bow setup, Live Keyboard, automatic string choice and automatic direction. It turns the three performance intentions to Auto and starts with audible portamento off.
| Profile | Initial articulation | Character |
|---|---|---|
| Baroque Style | Legato / Melody | Restrained vibrato ornaments and clear phrasing |
| Classical Cantabile | Legato / Melody | Clear arrivals, supple connections and modest vibrato growth |
| Romantic Singing | Legato / Melody | Supported long lines; broader arrival followed by a narrower continuation |
| Romantic Dolce | Legato / Melody | Lighter contact and intimate singing color |
| Pop Lead | Legato / Melody | Direct arrivals with delayed, focused vibrato |
| Rhythmic Détaché | Détaché | Separate strokes with body; velocity supplies accents |
| Rhythmic Martelé | Martelé | Pressure catch, released travel and restrained vibrato |
| Dancing Spiccato | Spiccato | A fuller dance bounce with 136 ms nominal contact |
A profile resets its performance controls, including finger/shift timing and vibrato settings. It preserves the selected body, tone, bow-hair sound level, room, microphones, master level, output finish and keyswitch bank.
Customize → Vibrato character changes the hand's expression. Customize → Bow phrasing selects Standard, Classical, Singing or Dolce bow support. You can combine them: for example, Singing bow phrasing with Baroque vibrato.
Current settings means the controls form a custom combination rather than an exact named profile. It is not an error. Profiles are starting points; they do not infer a score's bar accents, write rubato or quantize your playing.
Assisted, Expressive Live and Detailed MIDI
| Choice | What you supply | What the plug-in supplies |
|---|---|---|
| Assisted | Notes, velocity, timing, articulation and optional gestures | Automatic expression, coordinated bow character and vibrato intensity, with phrase development |
| Expressive Live | Notes plus expression, bow character and vibrato gestures | The live bow/finger behavior and velocity response remain active; the three macro intentions are manual |
| Detailed MIDI | Independently authored MIDI controls | Detailed physical response to the prepared performance |
Assisted and Expressive Live use the same grouped keyboard map. You can also keep just one or two intentions automatic by using their individual Auto buttons.
Connect a MIDI keyboard
A practical KeyLab 88 setup
Use the keyboard's User/MIDI configuration and send absolute CC values, 0–127. Configure the controls through the appropriate Arturia MIDI Control Center/User preset for your model. The plug-in does not require aftertouch or a proprietary keyboard script.
| Hardware control | Assignment | Musical use |
|---|---|---|
| Pitch wheel | Pitch bend | Pitch and intentional inflection |
| Mod wheel | CC1 | Phrase dynamics |
| Fader | CC17 | Vibrato amount, while musical development continues |
| Knob | CC16 | Coordinated bow color and articulation character |
| Sustain pedal | CC64 | Hold a slur across changing notes and key gaps |
| Optional knob | CC22 | Sul tasto / sul ponticello sounding point |
| Optional knob | CC23 | Full hair to edge hair |
| Optional knob | CC82 | Tremolo speed |
| Optional button | CC69 | Retake; send 127, then 0 before the next trigger |
| Optional button | CC31 | Change bow; send 127, then 0 before the next trigger |
Send keyswitches and musical notes on an accepted input channel. Start with All MIDI channels and leave the keyboard untransposed; hardware transposition also moves the switch notes.
Aftertouch can be Off, Vibrato or Bow intensity. For predictable vibrato from a fader alone, choose Off and use CC17. Keep pitch bend assigned to pitch.
Do not use a relative encoder mode for these absolute controls. Avoid a DAW-control preset that redirects the wheel, faders or pedal away from the instrument track.
Grouped keyswitches
The live bank is MIDI 34–54 by default. There is one grouped map and no layout selector.
MIDI numbers are authoritative. The note names here use middle C = C4/MIDI 60. Logic and other hosts may display a different octave number for the same key.
Articulations — terracotta
| MIDI | Key | Action | Operation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 34 | B♭1 | Arco / chords — Chords on Play | Tap to select |
| 35 | B1 | Legato — Melody on Play | Tap to select |
| 36 | C2 | Détaché | Tap to select |
| 37 | C♯2 | Martelé | Tap to select |
| 38 | D2 | Spiccato | Tap to select |
| 39 | E♭2 | Pizzicato | Tap to select |
| 40 | E2 | Tremolo | Tap to select |
Bow — lavender
| MIDI | Key | Action | Operation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 41 | F2 | Auto bow direction | Tap; keep this stroke and resume automatic direction for following separate notes |
| 42 | F♯2 | Down bow | Tap to select; repeating it retakes |
| 43 | G2 | Up bow | Tap to select; repeating it retakes |
| 44 | A♭2 | Retake | Tap for an airborne return in the current direction |
| 45 | A2 | Change bow | Tap to reverse on the string |
| 46 | B♭2 | Slur | Hold through the connected passage |
| 47 | B2 | Lift | Hold to raise the bow; release to re-engage |
Strings — sage
| MIDI | Key | Action | Operation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 48 | C3 | G string | Tap to latch |
| 49 | C♯3 | D string | Tap to latch |
| 50 | D3 | A string | Tap to latch |
| 51 | E♭3 | E string | Tap to latch |
| 52 | E3 | Auto string | Tap to restore automatic choice |
Harmonics — blue
| MIDI | Key | Action | Operation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 53 | F3 | Natural harmonic | Hold, then play an open-string base key |
| 54 | F♯3 | Harmonic touch | Hold; follows the selected harmonic type |
Tap selections persist after the switch key is released. Hold actions remain active only while held, unless an equivalent pedal/controller is also active. Switch notes themselves are silent.
Move the bank
MIDI → First live switch moves all 21 switches together. Its range is MIDI 0–34, so the bank stays below the lowest violin note. After moving it, use the displayed map; all numbers in this manual assume the default first switch, 34.
Moving the bank clears old switch holds and preserves held musical notes and controller pedals. Prefer setting it before a take.
Dynamics and automatic control
What changes the sound
| Control | Effect |
|---|---|
| Note velocity | Changes engagement, contact power and sustained excitation; it supplies attack weight and accents |
| Expression / CC1 | Shapes the musical energy and coordinated bow response through a phrase |
| Bow character / CC16 | Moves several bow settings together; lower values are gentler, higher values more focused and firm |
| Vibrato amount / CC17 | Steers the hand's intensity without requiring a new width/rate curve for every note |
| Expression trim / CC11 | Scales expression for an additional performance trim |
| Master / CC7 | Sets the overall level |
Live · Touch response / CC9 sets how strongly keyboard velocity influences the live response. Its factory setting is 0.85. A value of zero reduces the additional live sensitivity; it does not remove every velocity-dependent behavior in the instrument.
Dynamics do not require the master slider to move. A held note can grow through CC1 and bow work while Master stays fixed. Likewise, a MIDI clip can have little velocity variation but still contain a large dynamic shape in its expression and bow data.
Taking over and returning to Auto
Moving a slider, sending its CC or changing its DAW automation takes ownership of that control or intention. The instrument does not immediately fight the new value.
| Gesture | Ownership |
|---|---|
| Move CC1 | Expression becomes manual |
| Move CC16 | Bow character becomes manual |
| Move CC17 | Vibrato intensity becomes manual; musical phrase shaping can continue |
| Move CC20/CC21 | Physical bow force/speed becomes manual; automatic bow distribution respects that choice |
| Move CC76/CC77 | Direct vibrato rate/width takes over the automatic contour |
| Move CC22/CC23/CC82 with Refined articulation response enabled | Sounding point, hair or tremolo rate takes an independent override |
The Auto buttons above Expression, Bow character and Vibrato amount return the corresponding intention to the performer. Vibrato Auto also restores musical automatic shaping.
After an independent sounding-point, hair or tremolo edit, the Bow page offers Automatic point, Automatic hair or Follow dynamics. Use those buttons to release the individual override.
Auto bow direction, MIDI 41, only changes direction policy. It does not erase a manual speed, force, sounding point or hair setting. Use the performance Auto buttons and independent Bow buttons for those controls.
The Play macro sliders show effective automatic values while Auto is active and incoming/manual targets when you take over. The Hand readout reports the evolving vibrato motion. Internal automatic motion is calculated in audio; it is not emitted as a stream of new MIDI CC events.