I’d like to dial back the dynamic increase on accented notes for a particular VST instrument from the default of 0.50 to 0.25. I can make this change in the playback override section of the expression map editor. When I close this window (saving the result), and return to it, the editor shows that the override setting is enabled yet the value is displayed as 0.00. I can’t tell if it’s saving my desired level.
Oddly, when I increment override value by an integer value either by typing it in or using the up/down down arrows in the field editor itself, this value does hold when I exit and return to the exp map editor. See image attached for what I’m seeing.
Note that I can change this setting globally under Play>Playback Options. I understand this setting will be applied to all instruments in my project, but I’m not sure I want that behavior for other instruments.
I’d actually been thinking about commenting on this as well. Throughout the overrides, only integers seem to be acceptable. I noticed it first with the humanise playback where, to replace a 2.5 default, only a whole number such as 2 or 3 are acceptable and in some cases, very small changes to the figure can bring about considerable changes in the playback. The dynamic increase rounding example by the poster makes even less sense here, surely?
Hey dko22, thanks for chiming in. Interestingly, I just tested trying to save the value “1.25” and it looks like that field is just ignoring the fractional component of the entered number. 1.25 rounds down to 1. Likewise 1.85 rounds down to 1. 2.25 rounds to 2. I’m seeing the same thing in other fields where you’d expect to put in a fractional value…integers only. It’s unexpected because you can enter values like 1.25 in the global override.
Anyway, yes, the instrument I’m working on is sensitive to velocity changes, and default accent is a little more than I want on playback.
Ultimately I think I can work around this by changing the velocity of the note itself in Play mode to get the playback I want.
Yes, unfortunately this is a user interface bug in the Play > Expression Maps dialog. It’s perfectly happy dealing with non-integral numbers under the hood, but the UI is unnecessarily restricted. The good news is that we’ve already fixed this in our internal development builds. The bad news is that I can’t say when the next version of Dorico will be available that will include this fix. Sorry for the inconvenience in the meantime!
Thanks, Daniel! I’ll look forward to the future update. This particular issue is fairly minor. I just wanted to report it in case a) there was something I wasn’t understanding about playback overrides or b) it hadn’t been reported before.
thanks, Daniel --glad to see this is fixed. It never really was an issue of significance until my most recent work, a piano quintet where the piano and strings required quite different values for controlling dynamic range and I struggled a little with the overall balance. As I tend to use accent without a patch assignment, this is, as @SMAustinTexas points out, another area where getting it to work properly would be definitely beneficial.
