About different settings for playback and printing

I’ve noticed that it’s not always so obvious which dynamics to use. In one place I need to use ppp to let other instruments come through. But what will that sound like in a live performance? In this case I doubt that ppp would be loud enough, maybe mp would be the right choice. So, to let people hear my work I need to set a ppp on a signpost (hidden) and maybe, just maybe put mp visible to the player and suppress playback.

How do you know what will actually sound best?

Is this something that only can be estimated by experience?

Or, do you make an estimated choice and let the orchestra take care of the fine-tuning? After all there are differences in acoustics as well as players and other factors that might influence the overall sound. How worried should I be regarding which dynamics I choose in the printout?

Although these are great features it can be a bit hard to keep track of everything. I find it tiring to have the “real” dynamics along with the signposts and greyed out (suppressed) ones. Or maybe one gets used to this As Time Goes By?

I would suggest that you write in the music the dynamics that are appropriate for the human performers to read and interpret, and use the Dynamics editor if necessary to adjust the volumes of the synthetic sounds used in playback.

I wouldn’t recommend allowing mock-up audio requirements to dictate the notated dynamics: they should (in my opinion anyway) always reflect what the performers should receive.

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Thanks, Lillie!

I actually just (re?)discovered this, that I can drag the dynamics volume of an inserted dynamic. It makes it much eaiser to get what I want of both aspects.

Hi @Tomas_E, beside the useful suggestion by @Lillie_Harris, I would suggest to experiment with the Dynamic settings of Playback options. Depending oil the used library, changing the curve values, and/or the min. and max. dynamics value can give very different results:

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Thanks, Christian!

I’ll add this to my “advanced course” exercises. :slightly_smiling_face: