Combining Articulations

Tutorial VSL-E excerpt, V1.55, October 2022, based on November 2016


Introduction to the topic

You have now learned various articulations using short examples in chapters 5) 6) and 7). The following examples should also show how you can make many musical phrases sound more interesting (more real sounding) with just four different articulations. These are the following articulations:
port.-l = Portato long (approx. 0.5s)
port.-s = Portato short (approx. 0.3s)
stac = Staccato
sfz = Sforzato

Interesting: The use of sfz often gives the impression of legato... Experiment for yourself.

Using different short articulations...

A "real instrumentalist" plays each new note with a different articulation, even if, for example, he only wants to play (repeat) staccato.
With samples we have the problem that all notes and articulations should sound as neutral as possible. You know how annoying faulty samples can be.
Notes with integrated feelings would be great on first hearing. But as soon as we hear the same tone again with the same feeling, it would be more and more horrible with every new repetition.
So it's up to us to vary the tempo, velocity, dynamics and articulations to bring life to the neutral samples as often as possible.
The variation of the articulations is a first big step forward to natural sounding music!
To check this, play a section only with "Sustain" and then according to the recipe of this section. There will be worlds in between.

The following PDF and the accompanying music example will show you this in a beautiful way!

Download: bk_articulation_demos.pdf [195 KB]



These examples are intended to encourage you to use more different articulations.
Choose articulations according to how they sound and not what they are called!


This is of course easier in a DAW than in music notation programs, I know.