Note: this independently contributed article has not yet been reviewed for accuracy by Karma-Lab.
This article is under construction. Please pardon the dust
Plain English summary:
The Velocity Pattern in the Velocity group determines how to vary the velocity of the notes played at each step of the Phase. In general, the highest velocity values in each step of the Pattern are equal to the velocity at which you played your input notes, although there are other options. The other parameters in the Velocity Group determine the starting velocities for the notes, whether they relate to how hard you play the input notes, a scaling amount applied to the pattern, and the ability to randomize the velocities as they are generated.
More exact description:
The Velocity Pattern specifies a negative offset velocity at each step of the pattern that is scaled by the Velocity Scale parameter. A "0" offset (the highest row) is the original velocity of the input notes in the set that has triggered the GE (if the Velocity Mode is "Actual" or "Average"), or a value you specify (if the Velocity Mode is "Constant") - known as the Initial Velocity. Steps in the pattern with lower values in the columns specify increasing offsets to be subtracted from the Initial Velocity. It is most normal to use the pattern with a positive Velocity Scale percentage, which decreases the velocity/loudness of some of the notes, but it can also be used with a negative Velocity Scale percentage, in which case you can play softly initially and have the Velocity Pattern operate "upside down", adding accents where the column values are lower.
How the Random Pools work
Placing more than one value in the same column of the pattern grid creates a Random Pool at that step of the pattern. When a step containing a Random Pool occurs, one of the values from the pool is chosen at random, based on the effects of the Weighting Curve and Weighting Factor parameters.
Note that this randomization process only chooses the base value of the velocity offset for a given step in the Velocity Pattern. The Randomize control up in the global parameters area (above the pattern grid area) is independent of the Random Pools and performs a different effect (which is to randomize the velocity of multiple notes that are played in the same Rhythm Step when the Cluster Pattern over in the Cluster group results in more than one note being played at the same time. However, it still does operate on even single note "Clusters" at the same time as the Velocity Pattern, so it can be a way to add an additional bit of unpredictable randomness to a Velocity Pattern that is selecting between two fixed values at Random, for example.)
- Slanting the curve towards the top (a positive Factor that shows more orange color than green color in the graph) results in the higher values from the pool (the values closer to the top of the pattern grid) being chosen more often.
- Slanting the curve towards the bottom (a negative Factor that shows more green color than orange color) results in the lower values from the pool (the ones closer to the bottom of the grid) being chosen more often.
- Several different curves are provided to influence the choices in different ways. Setting the curve in the center (a Factor of 0) produces a straight diagonal line and an equal chance of any of the values from the pool being chosen.
- A Factor of 99 results in a solid orange color, which means the highest value in the pool is always chosen.
- A Factor of -99 results in a solid green color, which means two different possiblities depending on whether the curve is S-shaped or not (Exp-S and Log-S)
- For regular curves, the lowest value in the pool is always chosen
- For S-shaped curves, either the highest or lowest value in the pool is chosen (50-50 chance of either).
- A simple way to remember the meaning of the color codes in the visual graph is that orange is a "warm" color and green is a "cool" color, and warm air always sits above cold air. Therefore more orange always means higher pool values are favored, while more green means lower pool values are favored.
More coming soon