Which are the best settings for playing fast passages? – Re.Corder

In order to play fast passages on re.corder you may need to make some changes to your playing technique (blowing and tonguing) and also make some changes to the settings in the app.

PLAYING TECHNIQUES – BLOWING AND TONGUING

These are key to playing fast.

1. BLOWING

Play each phrase on a single breath and blow steadily all the way through the phrase – don’t blow individual notes separately.

2. TONGUING

You must tongue VERY lightly, more lightly than you would typically tongue an acoustic recorder; just a light touch of the tongue on the palette. If you tongue too hard you will interrupt the breath stream and this will cause latency and/or non-sounding notes. Double and triple tonguing are possible, but you don’t actually need to tongue every note individually – you can, for example, just tongue the first note of a triplet or the first note in a group of four sixteenth notes and let your fingers do the rest; when played digitally, the re.corder does not slur and the notes will sound individually, whether they are tongued or not.

APP SETTINGS

There are changes that you can make in the app settings to maximise response and minimise latency. These changes make it easier to play fast passages.

1. BREATH RESPONSE CURVE

The default ‘Linear’ breath response curve is not ideal for fast playing. If you are going to play a fast piece, it is best to change this to a curve that responds more quickly over a shorter range of breath pressure.

To change to a different curve, do the following:

a. select ‘SETTINGS’ > ‘MIDI’ (turn on ‘advanced mode’) > ‘Pressure’

b. use the upper arrowheads to cycle through the available curves until you find the one you want

c. save this curve to the re.corder.

I suggest that you try ‘Embedded1’, ‘Embedded2’, or ‘Embedded3’ and see which suits you best. They are all good – the difference is that ‘Embedded2’ is slightly more expressive than ‘Embedded1’, and ‘Embedded3’ slightly more expressive again. Personally I use ‘Embedded3’ – and I use it for everything, not just playing fast as it is expressive enough for slow, lyrical playing.

If you want to play very fast you can use ‘Embedded10’ or (drastic) you can use the lower arrowheads to change the CC number (which defaults to 11) to something else (127 for example). This will make the re.corder respond immediately, at full volume (as set in ‘Velocity’), to the slightest breath pressure – but it will also mean that you have no dynamic control at all, so you will need to put it back to 11 when you want to play with dynamics again.

2. SENSITIVITY

You should change the sensitivity setting to its most sensitive. To do this:

a. select ‘SETTINGS’ > ‘MIDI’ > ‘Sensitivity’

b. use the arrowheads to cycle through the ‘Threshold’ values to ‘Low’.

c. save this setting to the re.corder.

3. VELOCITY (VOLUME)

Velocity determines the maximum volume at which the re.corder will play. The default value is 80, which is not particularly high. You may find that it helps to change this to a higher value. You do this on the same screen as you change the sensitivity threshold, and it can be done at the same time, but you have to have ‘advanced mode’ turned on.

a. select ‘SETTINGS’ > ‘MIDI’ (turn on ‘advanced mode’) > ‘Sensitivity’

b. use the lower arrowheads or drag the slider to the desired velocity value.

c. save the change to the re.corder.

What value you change it to is up to you – you can experiment to see what works best for you. Personally, I set it on the maximum, 127, but that can be a bit too loud/harsh sometimes.

All of these changes individually will make some improvement, but the most important thing of all is how you blow/tongue – which might take a bit of patience/practice to get used to.

(Guide by John Harrison – re.corder Community expert)

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