I'm happy to say I'm up and running. VDL2 is amazing! Cool! I met with my tutor and I'm all set now.

I have been using the Auto RL sounds but when I inputed a high school battery chart, the open 5's and 9's sounded like singles (as they should in auto RL) and that sounded a bit strange. Maybe I should stick with the non-auto RL banks. Sometimes, I find that with open stroke rolls, the sound gets a bit mechanical sounding - that's why I tried the auto version. I thought the auto would provide a fuller quality of sound from the 32nd notes. Any ways to get around that?

Scott 

Scott,

Howdy!  Neal Flum here.  Glad to have you on the VDL2 team!
My best to Cindy.  Hope you are doing well.  Are you using
Finale or Sibelius?  I switched to Sibelius which, by the way,
allows one to use slashes for diddles.  Finale does
have a human plaback setting which should help the
playback of your diddles and rolls.  In either case,
Sibelius or Finale, I would not use the Auto RL.
I am certain that some of the more knowledgeable
";posters"; can offer you guidance on your question
above and beyond what I have offered.  Again--
great to have you on the team and posting!

Take care!
Neal

Scott,

I am not sure if the auto RL offers different velocity settings, if it doesn't then that would be one factor in the mechanical sound.  I haven't used Finale since 2002 so I can't help you with Finale stuff.  You may want to try writing the same passage using Auto RL and Full/Lite to see if there is a difference.  Let us know what you find.  Good luck.

Gabe Cobas
Boston, MA

Tweaking velocity may very well improve any sense of mechanical sound in an open roll. Between 1-127, imagine where a drumline would realistically play that roll height-wise. Finale or Sibelius can often attempt to play those sorts of things too heigh (like some of your snare drummers perhaps). :) You can either enter a new dynamic marking (then hide it) such as mp, or use the MIDI tool in Finale to manually lower the velocity on those notes.

Regarding AutoRL, you will always hear alternating strokes. AutoRL instruments are tailored for folks who don't care about as much control over sticking, so this is in fact a limitation. If you want control over the sounds of your stickings (open rolls are a perfect example), then you should use the ";lite"; version (which is the same as ";full"; but less of a resource hog). If you're going to change your method, I'd suggest getting in the mode of doing it sooner than later as the AutoRL and ";Full/Lite"; instruments are not mapped the same, which means you'll have to re-enter notes on anything you've already entered into AutoRL staff styles.

And to clarify, diddle playback makes no difference in regard to sticking in AutoRL. Essentially, each note you hear is triggered by a midi note being played. In AutoRL instruments, each time a new note is received, the alternating hand will play.

Thanks guys. Hey Neal - wow this is a community!

Regarding velocity adjustment, might I suggest adding a LOC (lack o' chops) bank. The auto RL on the quads could alternate between rim clicks and drum sounds. The countoff could be a mix of tempi. Joking...