Hello, new to the forum and have had VDL 2.5 since Chrismas. Have been very successful running VDL. Although was wondering if the velocity layers in VDL cause my Akai LPD8 nano pad to not be so sensitive. I chose the Akai over the Korg based on its feel and construction. I have found that with other dedicated drum plugins such as Addictive drums and EZ Drummer, the sensitivity is very good. I do have Kontakt 3 which lends itself to have more flexibility. Is there a way to increase sensitivity in Konatk 3 over Player 2 based on velocities. The pad itself has no parameter sets to increase this. Has anyone done any real world testing between The Korg or the Akai nano pads on VDL 2.5? I would give up the Akai for the Korg for some definitive info on this subject.

As for the difference between the Akai and Korg, I can't vouch for that, though I do own the Akai LPk25 and it works fine.

Are you using VDL in Sonar, a notation program, or standalone?  Not sure that it matters, but I'm just curious as to the context in which you're triggering the sounds.

One thing you might to try is editing the the velocity mappings of the instrument so they better fit your needs, since you have the full version of Kontakt. However, make sure you make copies of the .nki files you're going to edit and give them alternate names, or do a Save As under a different name once you've started messing around.  I would suggest the first, so you're guaranteed not to overwrite the originals.

Once you're in the Mapping Editor, you might notice that the size of each velocity zone mapping appears to decrease in size, almost exponentially.  This more or less has to do with the fact probably 99% of people who buy VDL will be using it in Sibelius or Finale, in which the dynamic markings fall in the ranges that seem to be reflected in the velocity zone mappings.  If you want it to be more linear, you could simply go in and edit tem yourself.  That would be a bit of work, but would be the only real way, that I know of off hand, to get what you're aiming for.

This might be completely off base, but I figured it was worth mentioning.

Hope this helps.

Linear is the key word here I think. Sounds about the lines of what I was going to do. I am trying to use the advise of others here by Notating in Overture 4.1 using the Akai Nano pad. The pad has a small software editor to change pad assignments to give me a better layout for battery, then I use an 88 key controller for pitched and brass. It is a cheap one with hardly a good touch sensitivity, but does the job. I use Sonar to import the exported midi file for better mixes. Sonar 5.2 and beyond just doesn't have the guts for notation. I do know that later versions are being bundled with Notion 3. I have demoed that and it also lacks in regards to how it handles some things like drags and flams. I will give the mapping editor a try and let you know. After I make new file I should be able to load them into Player 2, correct?

They probably won't load in Kontakt Player 2. They might however load in Kontakt Player 3 or 4. 

I just tested it and you get a message that says the instrument was created in a newer version of Kontakt, and you'll need to upgrade KP to load the patch.  You would obviously still have the option to load them in K3 or 4.

Will the current VDL 2.5 files load up in an updated Player 3 and 4? I thought I read that there is issues with that. By the way, can I post some of my stuff as mp3 attachments or do they have to be forwarded to TAPSPACE?

If you're using VDL 2.5 (or the updated 2.5.1 library), these patches can be loaded into Kontakt 3 or 4. There are, however, some problems in regard to expression volume that will be ironed out in a forthcoming library update.

If you're comfortable working within Kontakt and were going to be tweaking the instruments anyway, there's nothing necessarily keeping you from doing the velocity tweaking yourself if you want to tinker.

Is it Kontakt 3 and 4, or Player 3 and 4? any how I just came up from my studio and did some experiments that Bryan and I had talked about. In my findings, he was right about being time consuming. I tried changing just two notes of the manual snare in Kontakt 3 for velocity, and did not show a great deal of change to the LPD8. Then I stopped and looked at the script editor, and low and behold under the presets button you will find a tab called Performance. From there it flys out to a setting to be picked called Change Velocity. Load it up and you have basically a Midi Compressor for velocity with four to pick from. LINEAR, Shelf, Comp/Expand, and Fix. All of which have knobs to turn for settings. So far the best one has been linear, with still some time to tweak. But did notice the ability to have a more consistent reaction from the control. This set up should work with either a pad or keyboard. This is getting exciting!

Nice work MAXimum. Sounds like your tinkering is producing some positive results!

The VDL 2.5.x libraries should load just fine into Kontakt 3 or 4, as well as Player 3 or 4. You'll just have significantly less control over programming if you're using the Player.

Just an update to this issue. When I hit the bypass button in the script, I have noticed that all the velocity changes in my playing on the pad were transmitted through the script. I guess I was looking for a type of post process that controlled the velocity going into Overture.