Hey Everyone – just dropping in a quick entry today – as I am preparing for lots of cool and exciting things coming up (including NAMM 2010!).  Very pleased to state that James Horner’s Avatar score featured lots of Drums of War, which is evident by listening to the soundtrack.  It was a great movie, one of my favorites of the year.  And Mr Horner is one of my all time favorites! (Braveheart, Glory)

Drums of War made it into my other favorite movie of the year – District 9.   I wonder what HollyWoodWinds will show up in !  I also just finished  a feature film called “Violet Tendencies”  and a wonderful documentary for the American Cancer Society on Lymphoma.   Ok back to it! Bye for now.

Warm Holiday greetings to all visitors and friends and family!  It’s a special time of the year for everyone and a great time of the year for us who actually live in a climate zone which produces unique seasons. Ahh the smell of the winter air in Manhattan around this time of the year.

Well yesterday I was engaging in some facebook yapping over at Mike Patti’s page about secret chord progressions and reharmonizations.  I started messing around on the keyboard improvising some atypical, yet not incredibly out of the box, changes to “The Christmas Song” – kind of Mark Isham by nature. He has that lovely wide trumpet – almost fugelhorn sound that I truly enjoy.

Here is the MP3 and below is the sheet music sketch to follow along :

photo courtesy of www.freefoto.com

I am a streaky reader. Upon discovering a new interest I will read literally consecutively dozens of books about it until something else piques my interest. For the last few years its been biology. These are my ten favorite science books (well as of today). These are likely to change of course.

#10) The Hot Zone

The idea that something microscopic can bring down the mighty apex hunter homo sapien proves to me that the “survival of fittest” coined by Darwin must be true. It’s ironic that modern man’s biggest predator is something which has no brain, no computer nor infinite complexity. This book, which is based on true events, is about an Ebola (the worlds second most deadly disease) out break mere miles from Washington DC. The movie “Outbreak”was loosely based upon this book ( the movie sucks by the way).

#9) The Blind Watchmaker

Whereas I could have picked “Origin of the Species” in this spot I thought I would defer to my favorite science author Richard Dawkins. This book explains why the seemingly impossible are possible when applying the principles of evolution over vasts amounts of time. If more people read this, I am sure the world would be a less crazy place.

#8) The Bell Curve

This is one of those books I saw in the rack of “Read This” books at Borders and I went and sat in the corner and read the first four chapters before leaving. This book crosses the social taboo, associating intelligence with other physical qualities like background and ethnicity. Are we even allowed to talk about this? Reads like a textbook but worth it.

#7) Dragons of Eden

Simply stunning narrative of the brain and its power. What happens when a specific part of a victim’s brain is damaged by a bullet? How taste and smell are associated. Where, physically, are memories stored? Are memories “backed up”, stored in multiple locations? Sagan was perhaps science’s most gifted communicator and simply a marvelous writer. This book flows like water, one can breeze through it in just a few days.

#6) Guns Germs and Steel

I read once as a child that “stuff happens by other stuff rubbing together.” This book perhaps is more of a history book but it is pretty interesting story about the rise and falls of civilizations and how the roles disease and violence have influenced them. Give yourself a month to finish this beast, though you will feel good after!

#5) Intelligence in Nature

I don’t know why Jeremy Narby writes so few books because his ideas are just fantastic. I read this probably three times last year, my favorite example was something like this – paraphrase. “The Black Jay is one of the most intelligent animals known. It has been noted that while burying seeds in the ground for the upcoming winter a jay who originally buried a seed in the presence of another bird, will come back later by themselves and secretly rebury the seed in a new location. This shows that the bird is capable of understanding the social principles of thievery and deception.” If you find that example interesting you will adore this book.

#4) The Wild Trees

This is another book I stumbled onto and boy am I glad I did. Did you know that the location of the worlds tallest tree (a Redwood approaching 400 feet) is a secret known to less then 10 people. Preston is not only a fantastic writer but he is also one of the ten, and a professional tree climber. Covering everything from climbing techniques to undiscovered species living in the crests of the worlds largest living organisms you are sure to find something to relate to here. This book is incredibly inspiring, I was sad to see the final pages approaching.

#3) God Is Not Great

Don’t judge Hitchens by this book’s title or his interviews on CSPAN, the man is one of our greatest intellectuals. He moved to the United States from England because he loved the principles of Jefferson and Paine so deeply that he needed to be a part of it. This book should be a must read for everyone who realizes that many of the world’s problems are caused by who believes what and fighting over that. “Can’t we all just get along?” As he says, “I don’t care what you believe, just don’t try and teach it to my children.”

#2) The World Without Us

Did you know that Manhattan would collapse in a matter of days if humans were to vanish today? That with in a only a few thousand years most of the evidence of civilization’s existence would be reclaimed by the earth. The first chapter along is worth the purchase price. You may have noted all the books and shows like this coming out – this was the source. Don’t miss it.

#1) The Cosmic Serpent

Possibly life changing? I am not sure why but this is one of my favorite books of all time, I got it in Maryland for 2 dollars in the sale bin. This book is about the origins of knowledge and DNA. Why is it that all through history you can find drawings of the DNA double-helix when it was only discovered in the 1940s? Why can third world shamans effectively cure diseases using specific combinations of plants found in the rainforest? Why are they able to go into organically induced  hallucinogenic trances and find the specific plants needed when the odds are in the millions against it. Science is missing something perhaps anthropologist Narby is on to it. This book taught me to think outside the box. During college this book was on the toilet rack for my housemates for all the 4 years we lived together.

25  new tracks added to the music section. More will be added soon.

Behind the entry level luxury cars, white picket fences and spotlessly manicured lawn lie the Smiths – the stereotypical upper-middle class American family. By all outward appearances they are the most perfect family in a neighborhood of perfect families.

Yet beyond the picturesque facade are secrets. Mr. Smith is having an affair with the coed next door while Mrs. Smith is secretly seeing the postman. Sixteen year old Jamie recently realized she is pregnant, while her younger brother Alex has been selling drugs out of his school locker.

The twelve tracks of this library capture the various scenes in the Smith household. Providing just the correct settings for these everyday, stereotypical, atypical, domestic, cinematic moments.

Behind Closed Doors Excerpt:

Michael is award winning, classically-trained pianist, receiving his Bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance from SUNY Geneseo. His repertoire is concentrated primarily from the late classical age to the impressionist age (Mozart – Ravel) yet has explored works of all classification and periods.

At Cinesamples Mike and I receive at least 4-5 emails a week with regards to our templates and what libraries and gear we are using. Many of those questions also ask what is the correct way to maximize the computers you have and ask us to advise the customer on new gear purchases.

So here is the classic question; “How do I get the most out of my computer(s)?”

Ready for the answer? ……Well it depends………

Well of course…..it depends.

As you might of guessed, there is no easy answer to this question – but perhaps in this article I can point you in the right direction and possibly give you enough information for you to decide how to proceed. Since I am a mac user and a logic user this is what I am going to concentrate on, although I will add my knowledge of other utilities where I find it appropriate.

Let’s start with OSX.

hey! Yes You! …..Why the hell are you always following me around?!

It’s easy to forget that everything you have runs off of your operating system. You must take great care of it, baby it, stroke it, comb it, clean it, lube it. First off why don’t you open everything you normally have open Firefox, Quicktime, Transmit, Mail, iChat, Itunes (all the things you have open right now) and then open your Activity Monitor and marvel at how much space it is all taking up. It’s actually silly how much memory Firefox can take up when you have a bunch of tabs open. So if you want performance first off get rid of all that crap when you are composing (or at least bouncing). If you are serious about getting power from your mac(s) then you must think of your computer(s) as dedicated music computers.

• - For more tips on Optimizing your OSX check here:
• - Download Onyx and use it weekly. Uncheck all the audio boxes just in case though.
• - Install i-stat menus to monitor your CPU activity

Keep your hard drives clean and with lots of free space and turn off all background apps (Spotlight – especially for Pro Tools Rigs, Auto Updates etc..) and now you are ready to proceed. You might get an extra 20-40 percent perfomance this way.

When in doubt reboot it out, after cleaning you may notice faster boot times – so be sure to save the Earth and power off every evening.

Our salvation lies within one, yet one whom is not known to us.

Our dream, well at least my dream, is to use one program on one computer and have it host everything I possibly need (sequencing, samples, reverbs, video, stems, etc..). You may here this referred to as the 1 box approach, it is the holy grail of media composers. No external midi, no external audio, 1 file to manage and thus 1 software hosting all, 1 set of displays, comp keys etc… However for most of us our need for computer power is just too great to have this be a viable method. The advantages of the one box method however are supreme in regards to ease of use and file management however the stresses on the computer and especially the software! is great.

After browsing the top of the line mac pros at apple you may be surprised to find out that the one computer approach is still problematic. However at this point the hardware people have long surpassed the software people. The biggest problem we are facing at this point is that the world’s most popular sequencer (Apple Logic) can only access around 4 GB of Ram at any time. So even if you have 32 Gigs of Ram on your new shiny mac pro logic is only using 4 GB (Physical + Virtual Memory). What’s even worse is that logic’s performance greatly degrades as you reach the 4GB point – to the point where it is unusable. You may have witnessed the error message – in fact if you are reading this and use logic I bet you have!
Now staying within logic only for a moment there are some tricky things one can do to squeeze more juice out of it.

1. Stack the EXS24 and stack it hard. The EXS24 has the ability to access external RAM outside of logic and infact is very good at doing so. All you have to do is tweak the Virtual Memory settings within the exs24 – set it for more EXS24 instances and you are in business. Ready for the catch? You can think of this memory is extra bonus memory only after you cross a certain threshold. What I mean to say is that only the EXS24 goes external and only after a point. So if you add a Chan EQ and a Space Designer that stays internal, and thus contributes to the 4GB wall. This method is practicable only for people who use lots of EXS24 and nothing else (well that excludes most of us right there). Either way its good to tweak these settings as needed so I am glad you now know about them.
2. Eat till your full, puke a little bit, and then come back for more. (On a side note I actually did this at a fantastically delicious Thanksgiving a few years ago when I just wasn’t ready to give up eating all the amazing food even though my stomach said no.)

Regarding choice 2 – a friend of mine told me about this little trick for those of us who use logic the normal way (not exclusively exs24). The trick is you fill up logic all the way till you get the error message of death. Then you save and quit logic, load it back up and you get a bit more room. Load it up again, get the message, then rinse and repeat. The basic idea is that each time logic opens it loosens some more memory which you can then fill with new stuff. This method might get you out of a jam in an emergency but seems like an exceedingly annoying way to work and I expect there are diminishing returns to this method. I also don’t like pushing logic around to live around that error message because you are more likely to crash when doing anything.

In general Apple Logic works less and less efficiently the closer you are to the memory wall, don’t listen to anyone who tells you otherwise!   So if those either of those methods work for you – then you can stop reading right now! If not continue on.

“Please sir, may I have some more?”

Now in general there are two ways to work as a composer, you are either template based or not template based. You either have the majority of your sounds loaded when you begin or you add them as you go. There are advantages to both, however the more complex your music gets the more you usually need to have a template to be efficient with your time. Most of us switch back and forth or have several templates, its mostly a work flow thing. However their usually comes a point where you have exhausted your sequencer’s ram allocation and musically have new elements to add. Now you must turn elsewhere at this point so lets explore the options:

1. If your sequencer computer has more power not being used then figure a way to use that
2. If your sequencer computer is full you must use an external device (like another computer most likely)

Each has their strength’s and weaknesses (and expenses for that matter) Lets start with #1.

If you have a mac pro, especially a later version, you are usually going to have power (Processing Power and Memory). As I see it this is where two fantastic, no brainer, must have, will die without, applications must be used – Bidule and Kontakt 3.5+.

Bidule and why you need to own it.

The best thing to come from Canada since Mark Messier.

Plogue Bidule is a very efficient and trustworthy VST/AU sample hosting software and it is cheap! I have had it for many years now and it is the best money I ever spent in the studio – it just works and thats a matter of fact.
There are three ways to run Bidule. Now referring to the above scenario (trying to use extra power left over in your sequencing computer) only the first two options below apply. The third belongs to the #2 category above.

1. (Choice A) On your sequencing computer use Bidule in addition to Logic via rewire mode. . Midi data and audio data is automatically handled by Rewire.
2. (Choice B) On your sequencing computer use Bidule in stand alone method in addition to Logic and figure out a way to pump it midi in and get audio out.
3. (Choice C) Use Bidule on it’s own computer running by itself and figure out a way to send it midi and get audio out.

Now of course there is no easy answer here so lets quickly go through the pros and cons of each of the scenarios.

OPTION A

Option A is convenient because of the Rewire protocol which automatically sets up the Midi transfer and Audio routing. The big problem is you only can access about 2 GB more of data and only have access to one core of your processor (which really sucks if you have 8 cores!). Additionally I have found in my own research that Rewire uses the core farthest to the right which often comes into direct conflict with the cores used by altiverb or the 1 core used during Logic’s Live entry – any software track record enabled is routed live through one core during not entry. Therefore, unless you only need a touch of light cpu, extra room option A is useless.  However this is the method my friend Mike Patti uses for his mac pro and it works very well, for some reason,  with Digital Perfomer. You may have watched his video on his own bidule template.

Click here to view the embedded video.

OPTION B

Option B can work rather well for some people – be sure to have Rewire turned off in Bidule of course. The big advantage is you get access to another roughly 4GB of memory (same as logic) and all of the processing cores (which really works well for Kontakt – to be explained later). Now getting midi data into Bidule from logic is not that bad – you can use something like IAC Midi on your mac to do it the bigger problem is getting audio off. Here is where I recommended hard wire routing your audio back into logic rather then using a software audio router (like Soundflower). Remember the more software you use the more it will slow you down. I have used a MOTU 2408 mk3 and set all the audio going out of Bidule into ADAT and then used aux inputs in logic to listen to it. The problem is that the processing cores in bidule do not coordinate at all with the cores in Logic so you are likely to get some collisions and drop outs.

Now before I go option C – which is an example of choice 2 above (using a different computer) – lets discuss more about Native Instrument’s Kontakt 3.5.

“Does it come in pink?”

There is not a single valid excuse for not owning this software. However you don’t want any old version of it you want version 3.5 or greater (3.5 works VERY well! – so perhaps don’t upgrade it at all). Aside from being the best sampler no questions asked – Kontakt 3.5 + (only) has an option that saves the day in terms of memory – Memory server. Whenenabled Kontakt is able to access free memory outside of your sequencer and place samples there – with no catches, its just amazing. Also Kontakt uses disk streaming meaning that for most kontakt instruments only a relatively small amount needs to go take up your valuable ram space – the rest is streamlined into your , critically well maintained, hard drives. It’s a double whammy. With this tool you can load up a MASS of samples onto your computer. It’s really the only way to fly these days.

So whether you are using Kontakt within logic or within bidule or in standalone you have access to the majority of the RAM on your computer.
I am not going to discuss using Kontakt within Logic as that can turn into a flame fest really fast (there are “issues” with how best to handle Kontakt and other multi timbrals in logic). But Kontakt with memory server + bidule is a fantastic way to efficiently store samples, this is your best option to date, try and keep Kontakt samples out of logic for your own sanity.

To best use Kontakt try and keep your samples off the system drive (OSX) and keep them spread out as much as possible on different internal hard drives. Additionally try and get rid of the big patches (most premium libraries unfortunately need to commit rather high amounts of samples directly to the RAM to make them scriptable) that aren’t being used to free up more resources.

However you can count on bigger patches being the norm for years to come (which means once again we need more and more RAM!).

Now regarding Option 2 and stand alone rigs:

Lets say you have two decent macs (say a mac pro and an intel G5 or Imac) to compose music on. What I recommended (which at first seems to make little sense) is to use your best possible computer to turn into a sample hosting computer only and use your second mac to host Logic. A mac pro (sadly?) is used best when not hosting a sequencer and just hosting samples. In this regard in can host a TON of samples very well with little drop outs. You will be surprised how efficiently logic can run, with little to nothing loaded, on a second and inferior computer.
If you use bidule to host a ton of full kontakt instances (of course with memory server) you can load just about everything you need on your mac pro and let your Imac host logic. Now you should use Midi Over Lan to get midi from Logic into the samples computer and use ADAT (audio interface) to get audio from the samples computer to Logic. Both are set and forget and never have problems if set up correctly.

Now with regards to multiple PC, mac mini farms, think on this. Witch each new computer you must figure out a new way to get midi on and audio off, you have to worry about getting new licenses of your software, you have to figure out ways to hook up displays and keyboards, (or sharing devices), clocking issues – it can become a total drag and surprisingly a great expense . The cost of 2 farm computers could be the same as 1 pimped out mac pro, and the mac pro should trump it performance wise in most cases.

So in conclusion, when looking to expand your rig:

Ask yourself first what exactly do I need to accomplish? What is my budget? What do I have in terms of existing software and hardware – what can be (re)used? Can I use my main DAW as a sample server and spend less on a sequencing host computer? Can I do anything out of the box to get the same results.
quick closing thoughts.

• -In general I have never heard of anyone loading more then 16GB of samples on even the best macs.
• -Use transmit to use 1 keyboard and mouse between multiple macs (it’s free).
• -Only buy what you are comfortable with, if you are a mac guy try and stay with macs if you makes you feel better. Feeling good is a huge component here. Remember in general when you start mixing operating systems things get more complex.
• -Keep it simple, the simplest solution is usually the best -3rd party software (like altiverb especially) can QUICKLY eat your computer for lunch try and use only what’s needed
• -Use Hardware Audio Interfaces unless you are positive
• -Trial and Error is huge here, you are going to have gather information and use the data the best you can (there is no right or wrong really)
• -Workflow is huge! Respect it. What good is the best machine or software, if you cannot or don’t know how to, use it
• -If your rig is stable DO NOT update – who cares if the new itunes (which requires an update) does something really sexy
• -Use a gigabit ethernet network with high quality cables (don’t skimp out on this – it is important)
• -Take notes/screenshots when you get things working (some day you will use them)

Ever since I was a child I was fascinated by the civil war and in particular the Battle of Gettysburg. For three days in July 1863 this small town became a scene of armageddon as over 150,000 soldiers gathered on these fields engaging in hellish slaughter. In the intense summer heat the battle escalated into a deadly escapade not yet witnessed on the continent. On the third day of battle the invading Army of Northern Virginia commanded by Robert E. Lee undertook a desperate attempt to severe the Union Army of the Potomac in half. The resulting attack known today as Pickett’s Charge would forever live in history as one of the most valorous and horrible events in American history.

At this point I am going to invite you to head over youtube to watch the excellent 5 part representation of this event in the 1993 movie “Gettysburg.” When you are done come back and I will talk you through the battlefield as it exists in its preserved state today.

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZWAmsdGBiE
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GupEJXlNKCE&feature=related
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iT0Hmu5bXY&feature=related
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiDumCX_Pr8&feature=related
Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUPONW7gdw8&feature=related

When visiting the battlefield, especially this sacred ground, you are immediately touched by the overwhelming emotion of the place. Recently I visited Gettysburg on a summer afternoon and took this panoramic picture standing from the Confederate position and looking across to the union lines. The battlefield is amazingly preserved! This is almost identical to what it would have looked like the afternoon of July 3rd.

1) The Positions

Where I was standing was near the left flank of the confederate lines. When fully assembled the assaulting line would extend to the right nearly a mile in length and consisting of nearly 13,000 men. During the cannonade the confederate infantry would be hiding in the woods directly behind me (Trimble,Pettigrew) and Pickett’s Division would be hiding in the woods to the right.

The union defensive position was nearly a mile in the distance, this portion was anchored on the left by two white barns and running straight across the row of trees and monuments and curving slightly back to the two large hills far to the right.

2) The Cannonade

The confederates organized nearly all their artillery (200 pieces) onto the field nearly directly where I was standing and extending to the right in a cresent moon shape in front of the woods. Their target was the “copse of trees” in the center of the union line. From here they heavily bombarded the union position located. However after a few minutes the fields were covered in such a dark smoke that they were unable to see that their shells were passing overhead of the Union breastworks, landing in the hospitals and staging areas behind.

After a few minutes the union was able to courageously muster a counter fire. You may have witnessed the factual representation of General Hancock mounting his horse and ride along the line encouraging his troops. He was considered by many to be the finest commander wearing blue.

For nearly an hour they engaged in the most horrifying and largest artillery duel ever witnessed on the continent. Unfortunately for General Lee neither side gained a clear advantage in the fight. Around 2 PM the union began to deceptively silence their cannons in an attempt to show weakness and invite the oncoming assault.

3) The March

At this time the confederate troops formed lines directly where I was standing and extending to the right. No man was unaware of the peril facing them yet they courageously and silently formed ranks in perfect fashion. Meanwhile the Union took this opportunity of this lull to reenforce their position and move new troops and cannon along their defensive stonewall.

Within a matter of minutes the confederates began advancing on the union line. From where I was standing they would be marching in straight line engaging the enemy directly in front. From the trees to the right they would they would march at first straight then suddenly turning left concentrating all forces onto the copse of trees.

After allowing the confederates to advance for a few hundred yards the union suddenly opened up their artillery. Not only were the cannons directly in front firing but they were also receiving a terrible flanking fire from the hill known as little round top far to the right (bald hill with monuments).  The solid cannons balls created a terrible havoc upon the troops bouncing and toppling rows of men at at time before lodging in the ground.

The confederates who were traveling at this point around 100 yards per minute were slowed down by the fences in the fields before you, yet they continued forward.

4) The Emmitsburg Road and the Bloody Angle

You may remember in the video clips a road placed in the middle of the march, the Emmitsburg road. To this day the road exists as it did in 1863. Although it is somewhat hard to see the road in this frame you can trace it’s route by following the red farm house (which sat during the battle directly in front of the road) to the left, past the white truck and extending off frame to the left past the modern telephone poles.

At this point while the confederates struggled to remove the planks of the fence they were engaged by the first concentrated rifle fire of the Union troops who where dug in around 400 yards to their front. At this point the Union cannon switched to canister fire, a devastating array of golf ball sized metal spheres capable of striking dozens of men at a time.

Still on they went – bloodied, men falling at every step. Here the right portion of the line turned, concentrating at the copse of trees. At this point General Hancock noticed the confederates abandoning their right flank and rode forward to notify his men to march forward and fire perpendicularly upon the confederates. As he did so he was shot in the groin around this point ( where a marker remains to show where he fell).

Now the rebel assault (facing fire from nearly every direction) began to fall apart. At this point general Armistead (Hancock’s Best Friend) , hat pierced trough hat, led a small group of men past the union lines before every single one of them was killed or wounded. They penetrated just to the left of the copse of trees which has since been renamed the “High water mark of the confederacy” . You can see the large tree to the left which marks the “bloody angle” – perhaps the most bloodied ground in the entire United States. The fighting was fiercest here in the entire war, too fierce to imagine.

You may have witnessed a disturbing shot of a group of men being obliterated at close range by a single cannon burst. This is based on fact, the men represented are the 26th North Carolina.

The march across took a surprisingly short amount of time, 15 minutes. Yet the dice had been cast and the confederates had by most historians’ opinions lost the war in this time.

When the smoke cleared the confederate casualties exceeded 50 percent, around 7,000 men had fallen or were captured. Casualties on the Union were also great but not nearly as severe.

I invite you to look over the rest of the photographs I took of this portion of the battlefield and to ask me any questions you might have.

Just because a sample is named “Sample_Bb3_MezzoForte.wav” doesn’t mean it must be used exclusively at the Mezzo Forte dynamic. Quite often it will serve best at it’s designated mezzo forte layer but sometimes with a little manipulation it can serve other purposes.
After sitting through many sampling recording sessions (and hearing the same sound over and over and over and over) I have noticed that the sound of an instrument changes considerably when struck/played at different velocities. As a composer, one must be aware of these sonic changes.

Take a concert bass drum for example, when struck at a very hard velocity you will get a sharp, forceful attack with medium length (but surprisingly short) decay. But on a well- crafted instrument when you strike it rather gently in a precise spot you get the warmest “booooom” with a delightfully long and spacious decay. The nature of the sound will differ dramatically just by having the striking velocity change. More often then not a sample producer will map this “difference” into the patch in order to get a straight forward representation of the instrument.

It’s been my experience that many patches contain these sweet spots- certain MIDI velocity zones usually around the 60-99 CC value that sound organic, unprocessed,, a truer representation of the instrument. Often when journeying to higher velocity layers an instrument will lose this charm, becoming pinched and harsh and more synthetic. Journeying below yields too much noise per signal to be of use. You can hear this especially in brass; the overblown FF layer often embodies fakeness rather then power. More often a horn sounds more like a horn at the medium velocity layer(s). Sometimes you can serve your track best by triggering only these sweet spot samples and using gain to place them louder into the mix as needed.

So when the composer decides to have something to play at a certain level of volume (say f – ff) there are two choices:

1. Trigger the appropriate (loud) sample layer provided within the patch
2. Trigger a softer sample layer and properly compensate the gain, moving it higher to the level of a true forte

You might find choice #2 to sound more natural within your track.
So trust your ears. If something sounds better but you are using a production tweak to make it so, that’s just fine.