I’m just learning Dorico, and would like to do a lot of percussion.
I added the basic drum set, and bongos and it plays fine.
When I add agogos, notes show up in the Write and Play views, but does not make any sound. High, Low or both, no sound.
Mute is not on for those tracks, and the mixer volume is not low.
Any suggestions? Do agogos come from a different sound library?
Do you know what Playback Template you are using? Halion?
If you could provide a simple project file highlighting the issue that would probably be the fastest way to help investigate.
I went to the Play mode, and it looks like like Groove Agent SE for the Drum Set and HALion Sonic for Bongos and Agogos.
I put agogos in the same player as the others, and also in its own player.
Here is the project file. Apologies, I could not resist the name.
No Agogo.dorico (2.2 MB)
Hmm. Upon initial investigation I have noticed that the individual agogo’s themselves are not connected to anything. I tried switching playback template and back (which can usually flush/restart midi connections) but nothing happened there.
Adding a new separate Agogo appears to do nothing.
I tested this with a different playback template using NotePerformer, and they loaded no problem - agogos sounding great. But then back to HSO/Halion template (which is what you’re using here), they do not connect to anything.
I looked through the available maps and instruments and it appears agogos are not even mapped or available. I find this odd because they are normally part of the “General Midi Kit.” This is far as I could take it, I’m wondering if anyone else happens to know more about this, if Agogos are perhaps not even available for some reason?
Thanks for looking into this problem.
So I found this forum post.
It had a project that lets me play agogo on my machine. ( I stripped it down to just agogo)
Agogo.dorico (493.7 KB)
The post says I need to export the percussion map and import it to any project I want to use it in. I did that, and it now shows agogo as one of the instruments of Yamaha XG copy (the imported map).
(Oddly, the original Yamaha XG is missing the agogo. It has MIDI …65, 66, then 69, 70…)
I restarted Dorico, but No Agogo still does not play agogo.
Any suggestions? Do I need to activate the new percussion map somehow?
Ah yes, that is so unusual the map is incomplete. I love Agogos, how could they forget them? 
So basically stuff like percussion and expression maps are project-specific, meaning you’ll have to import it in for use in that project. There are a couple ways to do this, but the easiest is Library > Library Manager which allows you to compare your open project with another project file in order to import settings.
So with that window open, drag the Agogo.dorico file at the top right where it instructs to drop, you should then see its path next to that.
In the list you can see all kinds of settings you can import. The red ≠ means the two projects differ regarding those settings. When you hover over that you have the option to click a leftward arrow. Click apply and close!
Finally, I discovered you have to reconnect the instruments to Halion, and the new map:
Notice how Dorico automatically intuits for the remaining agogos the correct map!
FYI the alternate method for this would be equally as simple - you can just export that Percussion Map to a common folder and every time you need it, in the percussion map window, also “import library” to add it to your project.
Either way here is that project updated so you can check it out -
And Then There Were Agogos.dorico (2.2 MB)
I’m sure you are wondering “What if I want this for all my projects?” And that would be a great question for which sadly I don’t have an answer – I would like to know as well. You can save default permanent Expression Maps in a folder called DefaultLibraryAdditions but apparently this does not work for Percussion Maps (I just tested). Curious if anyone else might have an idea about that because I’ve been meaning to save some maps for default use myself.
In the meantime hope that helps!
So…
I believe I did what you suggested with the Library Manager, but no joy.
Then I downloaded the aptly named file, and there were agogos!
But they seem to be glommed onto the bongo track.
When I solo bongos, I hear the agogos, but when I solo the agogo tracks, I hear nothing.
I can start my projects from the Agogo file, if I really want them.
Thanks for your help!
I’m wondering if maybe they are re-assigning to the wrong midi channel. Sounds like that could be possible. On my end they were definitely agogos so that’s odd. Have a look at the midi channel assignment on each agogo and see if maybe those changed.
And like I said if the Library Manager doesn’t work just export the percussion map (export library) from the working file, then you can have the percussion map ready to import into any project the back-end way.
I’ve found there’s a couple of separate bugs here. Firstly, the agogos, congas and bongos are missing in a file that tells Dorico a default sound to load for each instrument type, so that’s why it doesn’t load any sounds. Secondly, for some reason the Agogo is missing in our percussion maps, which means that even if a sound is loaded, it won’t play back. The same is true for congas and bongos. However, if you add them to an existing kit then it’s ok because the sound is already loaded.
I’ve already fixed this in our internal build. In the meantime you can manually edit the Yamaha XG percussion map to add these lines:
or you can import this updated Percussion map (with the Import Library… button)
Yamaha XG.zip (2.2 KB)
Annoyingly, I’ve also discovered that the HALion Sonic mapping has the agogos the wrong way around from the GM standard, but this one should play back correctly for the HALion GM kit.
Thanks!
