All instruments sounding 1 octave lower than notated

Dorico
1

Help! After importing some Music XML from an old score into my standard orchestral template (empty Dorico file containing all my instruments), the pitches for ALL INSTRUMENTS are notated correctly but are sounding 1 octave lower than written. My template uses Noteperformer and has never done this before.

I checked Edit Instruments, Violin, it shows written middle C sounds as C4, I believe that is normal.

Screenshot 2024-09-09 at 11.18.08 AM
Screenshot 2024-09-09 at 11.18.08 AM2498Ă—1624 362 KB

I tried this too Sounding octave lower then written and it shows instrument definition, appears to be correct, yet it sounds an octave lower.

I don’t know what to do or what help terms to search for in the documentation.

2

I have C3 there, which may be the source of your problem. However, “C3” and “C4” (and even “C5”) are both used to describe middle C, according to different conventions; so it is a bit confusing.

Screenshot
Screenshot1212Ă—398 27.7 KB

I suspect the XML may have contained some sort of revised instrument definition.

1 Like
3

Changing the transposition in Expression Maps had no effect.

I closed this file and opened my empty orchestral template and now instruments are sounding an octave lower there, too.

I opened the Dorico score for a piece we released yesterday and now it’s sounding an octave low.

Resetting the default playback template (Play / Playback Template) to Noteperformer (per Noteperformer documentation) did not fix the problem.

Library / Expression Maps / Noteperformer / Reset to Library Defaults did not fix the problem.

Switching off the MIDI keyboard did not fix it.

4

in that case, I suggest attaching an actual project or an extract thereof as there’s probably an innocent explanation somewhere.

5

The empty project now exhibits the problem on my computer.
Our Empty Project.dorico (977.9 KB)

6

I reinstalled Noteperformer and opened my Empty Project.dorico (above) and the problem still exists.

After reinstalling Dorico the problem still occurs.

I presume something got screwed up in a configuration file that persisted across Dorico installations.

Attempted to remove all Dorico components as directed here

Reinstalled Dorico Pro and subsequently reinstalled Noteperformer and the problem still occurs.

Calling support tomorrow unless somebody here can fix it first.

7

In that link, I didn’t see anything about the config files in [user]/Library/Application Support/Steinberg/Dorico 5/

If you’ve saved altered versions of the instruments as your defaults, then they will be in userlibrary.xml

If you can restore an earlier version, then maybe you won’t lose any other changes.

NB: If you’ve reinstalled once, you can rule that out!

8

Thank you Ben. What folder would that xml file be in? I don’t know where to look for it. Broad search did not find it. Did not knowingly alter any instrument definitions.

9

I have done nothing new. I opened a Music XML file in Sibelius and looked at an instrument configuration and let a few notes play (at the correct pitch). Then I closed Sibelius and opened my empty template in Noteperformer. Pitches are sounding as written. Then I opened the file that was created from imported MusicXML and listened and now the pitches are playing as written.

The problem disappeared but I don’t know why.

10

For future reference, the file path is as listed above:

[user]/Library/Application Support/Steinberg/Dorico 5/

That’s where all your user config files: app preferences, user defaults, templates, scripts, etc, etc, are stored.

Reinstalling the app doesn’t touch these files, so any problems here will be maintained.