Artificial harmonics randomly play back?

Dorico
#1

Hello,

When I do searches regarding artificial harmonic playback in Dorico (with NotePerformer), I find many mentions that they do not play back yet.

However, in September as a test I engraved part of a piece in Dorico where about half of the artificial harmonics actually do play back. I am wondering how this is even possible if artificial harmonic playback is not supported yet at all. I have no idea why half of them play back and the other half do not, when they are all touch fourth harmonics. The ones that do not play back as artificial harmonics end up sounding as double stop perfect fourths.

Is it still true that artificial harmonic playback is not supported? If so, why do I sometimes seem to get playback of them (but not always)?

#2

I’ve had the same experience - it seems that artificial harmonics playback sometimes in NotePerformer, but I have no idea why or how.

#3

Harmonics and some other playing techniques that have symbols above notes (including also various pizz symbols) do not play man reliably at present. There are circumstances where they can play but end up stopping one note before the end (this happens if you select multiple notes before adding the symbol). This is a high priority for us to fix in a future version.

#4

Hi Paul,

This is not notated as a playing technique with a symbol above the notes - it is a touch fourth harmonic which is notated like a perfect fourth double stop but with the top note as a diamond. I didn’t think that Dorico supported that yet, but it plays back correctly some of the time, and I was surprised by that.

I’ve attached an example (this is first violins section, treble clef) - in this passage, everything plays back as an artificial harmonic sounding two octaves above the written bottom note, except for the two eighth notes near the end, where instead I hear a perfect fourth double stop at pitch.
artificial-harmonic.PNG

#5

Ah, sorry I was mistaken. There is indeed no support for that currently. If it does play back I can only assume that it’s just because it’s being interpreted as if it was a regular notehead and it happens to just be in range of the HSO program (whereas other pitches may be out of the range and so you won’t hear anything). It’s possible to mute those notes in the properties panel.

#6

I had edited my message above to include an example. This is with NotePerformer, not HSO. It might be that NotePerformer is doing something extra?

#7

I don’t think so, as NotePerformer currently has no way of knowing that the notes are harmonics. However something doesn’t quite sound right here. Could you cut down the score to a small excerpt that reproduces the problem and attach here?

#8

Hi Paul,

It is attached below. With NotePerformer, the artificial harmonics at the end all play back correctly as artificial harmonics (even though they shouldn’t) except the two eighth notes.
dorico-artificial-harmonics.zip (405 KB)

#9

It looks like it’s the actual harmonic symbol in the first bar that’s causing things to go wrong. If I delete that then it plays back correctly. If I leave it in but route the MIDI to a different plugin then I can hear that it’s playing back at the correct pitch. So I think the presence of that initial harmonic that is putting things into a strange state within NotePerformer. However, I think you may have an old version of NotePerformer, so check for an update. In the version I’m using, if I reset the expression map (in Play > Expression Maps, select NotePerformer and press ‘Reset to Default’) then it plays back correctly.

#10

I am running NotePerformer 3.1, that is the latest released version. Reset to Default in Play->Expression Maps->NotePerformer does not change the behavior for me. I can confirm that if I delete the natural harmonic at the beginning then the artificial harmonics now do not play back (as expected).

It looks like if the piece starts with a natural harmonic with the circle above, then some perfect fourth double stops (or divisi) after that are interpreted by NotePerformer as being artificial harmonics? They seem to play back as artificial harmonics even when I change the notehead back to the default from the diamond notehead, which would be bad if I actually wanted a perfect fourth double stop (or divisi).

#11

You’re using the older expression map from NotePerformer 3.1 (3.2 is our latest version).

Our old expression map doesn’t allow “broken” articulations such as harmonics to be turned off, which is also why they’re working.

So harmonics playback is triggered by the circle accent, and then never turned off for the score. So all notes are performed as harmonics, and NotePerformer interprets those dyads as artificial harmonics, and would do so even if you didn’t use the diamond note. :slight_smile:

#12

Hi Arne,

Thanks. This is basically what I figured was happening. NotePerformer 3.2 was released like the day after I posted that, so it was not possible for me to use the 3.2 expression map at that time.

#13

Hi there,

I am having the same issue here. I have Noteperformer 3.2, with Dorico Pro 2.2.20; my Expression Map for Noteperformer says version 12. In the following extract…

Captura de Pantalla 2019-05-20 a la(s) 4.42.20 p. m..png
Captura de Pantalla 2019-05-20 a la(s) 4.42.20 p. m..png1996×174 23.4 KB

… the circled notes play as artificial harmonics; the rest just plays back as normal fourths. What’s going on here?
What startles me the most is bar 60, because both the first and second notes are exactly the same; no difference whatsoever. But the first one plays as a normal fourth, and the second as an artificial harmonic.

#14

I was having the same problem but just in time to read the comments, thank you.

#15

Anyone can tell me what’s going on here?

#16

It’s hard to diagnose what’s happening from a screenshot. Could you attach a copy of the score that reproduces the problem? (it doesn’t have to be the full score, just enough to show it happening). You’ll need to zip up the file first.