Camelot is meant to be the center of your music technology rig when you perform. Physical controllers – MIDI keyboards, wind controllers, control surfaces, and so forth – are the primary tools used to play and control the software instruments, effects, and hardware devices managed by Camelot. This makes MIDI processing a key component of forging an integrated system out of a collection of software and hardware instruments and other plugins. Camelot’s MIDI Transformers offer a highly potent set of MIDI processing functions that we will explore fully in this tutorial.

If you are not yet familiar with the fundamentals of Camelot, we suggest you take a look at these tutorials:

The Basics of Camelot: An Overview

Getting Started: A Camelot Tutorial

MIDI Transformers in Layers and Items

MIDI Transformers reside in the Audio & MIDI Settings of Items and in the MIDI Settings of Layers. To access them:

1.    Click on an Item or Layer to open its settings.

2.    Click the legend at the bottom of the window to get to the MIDI settings.

_{Figure 1 - Click a Layer or Item to open its settings, then click, the button at the bottom to access the MIDI Settings.}

3.    Once you have accessed Audio & MIDI Settings (or MIDI Settings), click the MIDI Transformers tab and behold!

_{Figure 2 - Click the MIDI Transformers tab to access 10 different tools for processing MIDI data coming into a Layer or Item.}

MIDI Transformers on MIDI Input Devices

A somewhat smaller set of transformers are available for MIDI Input devices. To access those you can operate from main settings or from any Layer MIDI input panel:

Click the Settings button in the footer to open the Settings view.

_{Figure 3 - The Settings view contains a large number of powerful configuration features.}

1.    Click the MIDI button to access MIDI settings, then the MIDI Inputs button.

_{Figure 4 - The MIDI Settings panel is where MIDI inputs and outputs are configured. The settings made here are global and apply to all Scenes, Songs, and Setlists. Click the MIDI Inputs button to access MIDI Transformers for a MIDI controller.}

2.    Locate the controller on which you want to apply a MIDI transformer in the list of MIDI input devices, and click the “kidney bean” icon to the right of the name.

_{Figure 5 - Each MIDI input controller can have its own MIDI transformers. The selected processing will be applied directly to the MIDI stream from the controller, so it affects the MIDI data everywhere in Camelot that controller is used.}

3.    Click the MIDI Transformer you want to use to select it and access its settings.

4.    Click the Enabled button at the top to activate the transformer.

_{Figure 6 - There are only three transformers available for MIDI inputs, but they are three of the most powerful.}

Presets

Once you have spent the time to set up filters or a remapping curve, you can preserve your work by saving it as a preset.

1.    Click the “three dots” button to the right of the Enabled switch at the top of each feature’s window to drop down the presets menu, which will allow you to save, load, import or export a preset.

_{Figure 7 - The Presets drop down menu.}

Transpose and Octave Shift

These are pretty obvious. You can shift the pitch coming from the controller by semitones with the Transpose function, or by octaves with the Octave Shift function. Simply click the + or – buttons to specify the desired shift. Of course, Transpose +12 is exactly the same as Octave Shift +1, but it is convenient to use Octave Shift and Transpose as coarse and fine transposition factors, respectively.

_{Figure 8 - Transpose and Octave Shift are exactly what they say. No hidden parameters, no trick to using them.}

Message Transformer

Message Transformers convert incoming MIDI Control Change, Channel Pressure (often referred to as mono aftertouch), or Pitch Bend, into different Control Change, Channel Pressure, or Pitch Bend messages.

This is very useful when, for instance, you need a foot controller to generate Expression messages (CC11) for a SWAM instrument, but your foot controller is hard-wired to generate MIDI volume (CC7). A MIDI message transformer can easily convert CC7 messages to be CC11 messages.

_{Figure 9 - In this example, Control Change 7 (volume) is being converted to be CC 11 (Expression), and CC 2 is converted to CC3. The button at the bottom adds additional transformers.}

Conversely, perhaps you want to control the brightness of a sound on both a SWAM instrument that uses Expression (CC11), and another synth that uses CC74 (Sound Brightness). Your controller can send out CC11, and a MIDI message transformer on the synth item can convert those messages to CC74 messages. Thus, the Message Transformer eases use of one controller with multiple instruments.

1.    Click Message Transformer in the MIDI Transformers panel. Feel free to either use or modify the default transformer of CC7 to CC11, or click the Add New Message Transformer button at the bottom to add another transformation.

_{Figure 10 - The message transformer settings.}

2.    Click in the Input Type column and select the type of message you want to transform. Click the Back button when you are done.

_{Figure 11 - The available input message types. Control Change allows you to select any MIDI CC number. Channel Pressure is also known as "mono aftertouch." Note that Aftertouch ("poly aftertouch") cannot be transformed.}

3.    If you selected Control Change or Key Switch as the Input Type, click in the Input info column, and select the desired MIDI CC or note from the list that appears. The search field above the list can help you quickly locate your source.

_{Figure 12 - The long list of MIDI CC numbers also displays the recommended parameter assignments.}

4.    Click in the Output Type and Output Info columns and select the message and value to which you want the input transformed.

5.    Repeat steps 1-4 as many times as desired. Any number of transformations can be defined.

Note to Chord

Once again, the name says it all; this feature enables you to sound a whole chord by playing a single note. This means that, for example, a guitarist could use a small set of MIDI footpedals to play a chord progression on the fly, rather than using backing tracks. The Latch Mode feature opens up even more options for triggering chords and playing over them. Let’s look at the note maps first, then we’ll go over the three options found just above them in the Note to Chord panel.

_{Figure 13 - Note mappings are shown in the bottom half of this screen, while the top half shows enhancement parameters that apply to all mappings.}

How to Create Note Maps

1.    Click on an entry in the Trigger Note column to set which note will sound a chord when it is played. You can click on the note to set it, or click the Learn button and play the note on a MIDI device you have selected as a MIDI Input in the Settings view.

_{Figure 14 - This screen shows the second mapping seen in Figure 13, which is G3 being mapped to a G minor 7 chord.}

2.    With the input note set, click the Back button in the upper left, then click in the Output Notes area and specify the chord notes you want to sound, either by clicking the notes on the keyboard illustration shown, or clicking the Learn button and playing them on your MIDI controller. It doesn’t matter if you play the notes one at a time or all at once, but you should note that the order in which you play them is used by the Strumming Time feature, as described below. The selected notes will be shown on the keyboard diagram.

3.    To add additional mappings, simply click the Add New Note Mapping button at the bottom of the main Note to Chord screen. You can have as many note mappings as you like.

Options: Latch Mode, Velocity Humanize, Strumming Time

There are three options found above the note maps.

_{Figure 15 - The Note to Chord options may be few in number, but they provide great functionality.}

When enabled, Latch Mode acts sort of like a sustain pedal. When you play a note that has been mapped to a chord, it will cause the chord to latch and continue playing until the next trigger note is played. Note that if you play the same trigger note twice, the first time causes the chord to play, and the second time stops it; it does not play the same chord a second time. Further, if you play any of the notes in the chord while it is latched, that note will be unlatched and stop sounding. For this reason, if you want to play along with Note to Chord, you will often find it most convenient to do so on a different instrument than is playing the chords.

Velocity Hum (Velocity Humanize) randomizes note velocities to add variation. A random number that does not exceed the specified percentage of the velocity as played is added to or subtracted from the velocity. For example, if a note is played with a velocity of 110 and Velocity Humanize is set to 10 percent, then the velocity will end up being some randomly chosen value between 99 (110 minus 10 percent) and 121 (110 plus 10 percent). Generally, small values of Velocity Humanize will be most useful, but, of course, nothing stops you from using a large value if it sounds good.

Strumming Time introduces a small delay between the sounding of each note of the specified chord, in order to simulate a chord being strummed on a stringed instrument like a guitar or mandolin, or even “rolled” (arpeggiated) on a keyboard. As noted above, the order in which you add the notes to the chord is the order in which they will be “strummed,” so for a realistic strumming effect, be sure to play from lowest to highest or highest to lowest note. However, interesting arpeggiation effects can be obtained by using different orders of note input. Note that when you play the whole chord at once, you will very rarely actually play all of the notes simultaneously.

The order of notes cannot be changed once they have been entered. To change the order of notes, click the Reset button at the bottom and then enter the notes again in the new order.

Filters

The MIDI Filter blocks specified MIDI messages.

_{Figure 16 - Here, Active Sense, Transport control, and Program Change messages are being filtered out.}

1.    Click Message Transformer in the MIDI Transformers panel.

2.    Click the message types you want to block to select them, or alternatively, click the Learn button at the bottom of the panel and then send the message you want blocked to Camelot.

_{Figure 17 - This is the list of messages that can be filtered. Note that five Control Change messages are called out specifically, but the Custom Control Change choice allows filtering any CC message.}

3.    If you want to filter a Control Change message other than the five shown, click Custom Control Change and a list of all 127 CC messages is shown, enabling you to block any that you want.

_{Figure 18 - The Custom Control Change option displays a list of all 127 CC messages, so that you can block any combination of those. This image shows only the first 11 CC messages, just to keep it to a reasonable size!}

The Invert Filter button flips all of your message selections, so that the messages selected for blocking become the only messages that are not blocked, while the messages allowed through before become blocked.

_{Figure 19 - On the left, messages selected for filtering, and, on the right, the same thing after clicking the Invert Filter button.}

Octaver

The Octaver processor offers a different approach to playing in octaves than Octave Shift. Octaver can generate one or two octave-shifted parts. The mix of the three voices (original source, Octave 1, and Octave 2) is achieved by scaling the velocity of each. Of course, for a great many sounds, velocity will affect the tone as well as the level of the sound.

Octaver is enabled just like the other MIDI Transformer processors:

1.    Open the MIDI Settings for the Item, Layer, or MIDI Input source and select the MIDI Transformers tab.

2.    Click on the Octaver label and the Enabled switch at the top.

3.    Make the desired settings.

_{Figure 20 - Octaver is like the octave divider boxes guitarists have used for decades. It generates MIDI data for one or two voices in octaves above or below the original.}

Let’s take a look at the settings, from top to bottom of the panel:

• Input Velocity Rescale: Scales the velocity of the MIDI source in order to control its level in the mix, but it may also alter the tone. Note that the octave voices are not affected by this rescaling.
• Octave 1 Velocity Rescale: Scales the velocity of the Octave 1 voice in order to control its level in the mix.
• Octave 1 Mode: Selects either Shift or Fixed mode. In Shift mode, the voice is generated the specified number of octaves above or below the source. In Fixed mode, the voice is always played in the specified octave number. Middle C is C3, so choosing Fixed mode and specifying Octave Number 1 means that whatever octave you actually play in, the new voice always will be generated in octave 1, two octaves below Middle C, so it follows the melody or chords being played, but ignores the octave of the source.
• Octave 1 Octave Shift/Octave Number: In Shift mode, this parameter is Octave Shift, which specifies the number of octaves the MIDI source will be shifted. In Fixed mode, this parameter changes to Octave Number, with specifies the octave the new voice will always be in.
• Octave 2 Velocity Rescale: Alters the velocity of the second generated voice for level mixing.
• Octave 2 Mode: Chooses Shift or Fixed mode for the second voice.
• Octave 2 Octave Shift/Octave Number: Provides the shift specification for the second voice.

For example: to add a voice an octave above and another voice an octave below the MIDI source, you would set both octave voices to Shift mode, set one to an Octave Shift of -1 and the other to a shift of +1, then use the velocity rescalers to get the mix you want, as shown in Figure 20, above.

To double a part with a bass synth that always stays in the same range, set one or both octave shift voices to Fixed mode and set the octave in which you want the double played.

_{Figure 21 - This setup doubles a bass part with a voice that is always in octave 1. For reference, Middle C is C3, so this double is two octaves below Middle C. Seriously down and funky!}

Remapping Table

What is Remapping and Why Do I Need It?

MIDI Remapping Tables let you reshape the curve onto which any Control Change, Channel Pressure (sometimes known as “mono aftertouch”), Aftertouch (also called “poly aftertouch), velocity (of a note message), or Pitch Bend message is mapped. Without remapping, setting a control halfway through its travel produces a value in the middle of the available range of values. But this does not always produce the most musically desirable response on every sound parameter of an instrument; sometimes the controller output needs to be reshaped to be really playable. Simply put, remapping is very useful in matching the action of a physical control to the sonic response you want from an instrument.

In a remapping table, you can construct a curve that performs this reshaping. In this case, setting a control halfway through its travel may result in a message with a value above or below the middle of the available range. An input value results in a different output value when an exponential curve or an “S” curve (just to give two examples) is used than when there is no remapping.

_{Figure 22 - On the left is a linear curve, which is to say there is no remapping and the output value is always the same as the input. But that doesn't always play musically with every parameter and instrument. On the right is an S-curve with a small offset of the output value at the bottom of the scale. Remapping lets you create curves that will play musically for each instrument and parameter.}

This is useful in massaging the values to get the change in sound you want for a given action. There are a tremendous number of very different uses for remapping tables. The amount of flexibility available in shaping the curve is key to being able to attain the desired response. Camelot is capable of generating curves ranging from simple modifications of linear to very complex shapes.

_{Figure 23 - The only difference between these two remapping tables is that Bipolar has been enabled for the table on the right, yet they produce very different output values for an input value around the middle of the range (along the X axis).}

To give you an idea of how useful remapping curves can be, consider these examples:

• The sound you are using for a virtual instrument does not sound good with very low velocity values. To deal with that, you could change the Min Output value in the remapping table, so that even the most softly played notes will play the VI with enough velocity for the note to sound good.
• You play a weighted keyboard controller but want to a lead sound to respond more like what an unweighted synthesizer keyboard would put out. A remapping curve can achieve that.
• You want to alter how a filter cutoff responds to a mod wheel or foot controller.
• You lower the Max Output value of a remapping table for a control assigned to the wet/dry mix of a reverb so that the sound never gets too washy, even when the physical control is on full.
• You are playing two stacked instruments from the same controller, but they respond differently. Applying remapping curves to one or both can match the responses more closely.

Remapping curves is a very powerful technique that can allow you to really dial in how a sound changes when you use a control, but applying it to a number of different parameters on several instruments can create a situation that is rather complex to understand and use intuitively in performance, so be careful. For example, it is possible to create remapping curves on a Layer, an Item, and a MIDI input device that are all shaping the response to the same control. This would greatly complicate adjusting any of those maps to get a desired effect, since they would all be interacting.

A remapping curve applied to a Layer or an Item in a particular scene is applied only when that scene in active. However, it is also possible to globally remap data for a given input, that is, to have a remapping always in effect on the input from a specified physical MIDI controller. This can be useful if you are using multiple controllers on a gig and want to more closely match their outputs, or if you use one controller at home or in the studio and a different one when performing and want to match their outputs.

_{Figure 24 - The main Remapping Table screen gives an overview of all of the remapping curves that have been constructed.}

How Do I Make a Remapping Curve?

There is a slightly different procedure for accessing remapping curves for a MIDI input controller than for a Layer or an Item, but creating curves is the same after that.

To access remapping curves for a Layer or Item, simply invoke MIDI Transformers as described in the MIDI Transformers in Layers and Items section above, and click the Remapping Curve option.

To access remapping curves for a MIDI input controller:

1.    Click the Settings button in the toolbar at the bottom of the Camelot window and select the MIDI section and the MIDI Inputs page, as described in the MIDI Transformers on MIDI Input Devices section above.

2.    Find the controller that you want to remap in the list of MIDI input devices, click the “three dots” menu (“…”), and choose MIDI Input Remappings from the drop-down menu that appears.

_{Figure 25 - A remapping table can be applied directly to a MIDI input to make it active on that input all of the time.}

Note that a remapping you make on a MIDI input device will apply to every Setlist, Song, or Scene you use.

Having chosen the remapping option for the Layer, Item, or MIDI Input, the rest of the process goes like this:

1.    Click the Enabled button at the top and then click the Add New Remapping button at the bottom to create a new map.

2.    Click on the new remapping item to open the map edit window. (If the message you want to shape already has a map, there is no need to create a new one, simply click the existing item to edit the map).

_{Figure 26 - The new map gets added at the bottom of the list of maps and must be configured in the map edit window. Just click on it to open the edit window.}

3.    Select the Message Type you want to remap and create the curve by adjusting the parameters, which are described below.

4.    As you work with the parameters, play and listen to hear their effect.

Remapping Table Parameters

Let’s walk through the parameters available for creating remapping curves.

• Message Type – Allows you to select the type of MIDI message the curve will process. This should default to Velocity, so you won’t need to adjust it if it is velocity you want to map.

_{Figure 27 - Curves can be created for any MIDI CC, as well as mono (Channel Pressure) or poly aftertouch, velocity, or pitch bend.}

• Message Number – This setting only becomes active when you select Control Change as the message type.
• Bipolar - By default, this setting is Off. Switching it on divides the range of values in two, so that the specified curve applies from the minimum value to the mid-point value, and then again from the mid-point to the maximum value. This is most useful for parameters like pitch bend, where the center represents a value of zero, but the complexity of a bipolar curve can sometimes be useful for other applications.

_{Figure 28 - The Bipolar switch makes a curve symmetrical in the positive and negative directions. It can make create some pretty complex shapes.}

• Input Min – This setting is the minimum input velocity value that will be recognized. Notes with a lower velocity value than Input Min will be played with a velocity of whatever Output Min is set to.
• Input Max – This sets the lowest input velocity value that will produce the maximum output velocity value (which is 127). So, if lnput Max is set to 72, a note played on the MIDI controller with a velocity of 72 will produce a note with an output value of 127, while input values below 72 will produce a lesser value determined by the shape of the curve. If you want to produce the loudest note without having to really pound on the MIDI controller, then you can lower Input Max a bit to get that.
• Output Min – This sets the lowest output velocity value that will be produced by the map. It interacts with Input Min, in that Input Min sets the minimum input velocity that is recognized, while Output Min sets the output velocity for notes at or below Input Min. If you have an instrument that is just too soft at very low velocity values, you could set Input Min to something like 36 (just to pick a number), and then set Output Min to whatever velocity you would like such soft notes to have, say, 64. If the MIDI controller plays a note with a velocity of 30, the output velocity is 64. If the controller plays a note with a velocity of 12, the output velocity is also 64.
• Output Max – This sets the highest output velocity value that will be produced. If Output Max is set to 110, no note will be output with a velocity greater than 110, no matter the input velocity.
• Symmetry – This control interacts with the Shape setting. If Shape is set to 0, then Symmetry does nothing. At higher Shape values, Symmetry alters the symmetry of the curve defined by the Shape control. With Symmetry set to 50 percent, the Shape is perfectly symmetrical. Symmetry can be used to create an exponential curve at its leftmost extreme and vary it to a logarithmic curve at its rightmost point.
• Shape – This control sets the basic curve shape. With all of the other controls at their most “neutral” settings, the Shape control varies the curve from linear, through an S-curve, to a step function.

The input, output, Symmetry, and Shape controls are highly interactive, so you really need to look at the curve display as you adjust them to understand how you are processing incoming velocity values.

Musical Scale

Musical Scale forces notes that are played to conform to a specified scale. If you specify a C Major scale, no note you play will produce an F#, because it is not in the C Major scale. This means that notes that are in the specified scale are unchanged, while notes not in the scale are changed, most often to the next lowest note that is in the scale. So, in our C Major example, playing an F# will sound an F natural, which is in the C Major scale.

The process is simple: access the MIDI transformers for the Layer or Item you want to control, click the Musical Scale option, and adjust the parameters that are described below.

_{Figure 29 - Musical Scale allows you to specify a chord scale, including its starting note, and even transpose it.}

Musical Scale Parameters

Scale Type allows you to choose one of two dozen available scales. All of the common church modes are included, which means that Major and Ionian are actually the same thing, as are Minor and Aeolian. If you know your modes, there’s a lot you can do. The Scale Root sets the note from which the scale starts, so, if you set up for a C Major scale and then play an F Major scale, what you will hear will be an F Lydian scale, just as if you had set the feature for an F Lydian scale in the first place.

_{Figure 30 - The scales available range from the ordinary to the exotic.}

Scale Shift is a transpose feature. In our now well-worn C Major example, a scale shift of +3 shifts everything up a minor third to Eb Major. If you then play a C Major scale, what you will hear will be a C Minor scale.

Note Range Min and Note Range Max designate the range of notes that will sound, regardless of where they are played. If you set Note Range Min to C2 and Note Range Max to B2 and then play from C4 to C5, you will hear C2 to B2, and then the C5 will again sound C2, starting the specified range over again.

Advanced MIDI Channel Routing

Advanced MIDI channel routing simplifies using a single physical controller to affect multiple instruments, or even multiple sounds in a fully multitimbral instrument. The idea is quite simple: data received by Camelot on one MIDI channel can be assigned to transmit over any combination of MIDI channels. A mod wheel coming in on channel 1 can be assigned to transmit over channels 1, 3, 6, and 12. When we say “transmit,” however, that does not mean the data can only be sent out a MIDI interface to play an external instrument, oh, certainly not! In fact, it can be sent anywhere in Camelot, to any virtual instrument or effect plugin…as well as to external instruments.

Setting it up is just as simple as it sounds.

1.    Enable the feature and click the MIDI input channel you want to remap.

2.    Click every output channel to which you want the data routed.

3.    Click the next input channel you want to remap and repeat, and so on for as many input channels as you need to reroute.

That’s all there is to it!

_{Figure 31 - In this example, MIDI input channel 3 is being routed to channels 3, 4 and 11.}

Humanizer

The Item Humanizer panel contains parameters that define the amounts of randomization that will be applied to the timing of MIDI Note On, Note Off, and Pitch Bend messages, and to the values of note velocities and Pitch Bend messages to “loosen up” performances.

_{Figure 32 - The Humanizer introduces variation to simulate the slight imperfections found in the playing of even the best musicians.}

Humanizer Parameters

Average Delay is a base amount of delay added to the timing of Note On, Note Off, and Pitch Bend events. Average Delay works in conjunction with Note Timing Rate to determine the actual amount of delay applied to any note or Pitch Bend message.

strong>Note Timing Rate is the amount of randomization applied to the specified Average Delay.

Velocity Rate is the amount of randomization applied to the performed value of each MIDI note.

Pitch Rate is the amount of randomization applied to the performed value of each Pitch Bend message.