A big complaint about Finale was that the user was forced to dig through menus to get anything to happen. This was NOTHING compared to the rocket science that is Dorcio percussion maps. Oh, my. I want to control playback with Spitfire Joby Burgess percussion, for example. Dorico simply is insanely complicated and I can NEVER get it to work. I thought I’d go down the rabbit hole for another try, but I’m not hopeful. And no one seems to be able to help. I’ve watched video after video and I’m so frustrated. Here’s a breakdown of my issue:/
I create a percussion map, but the key switch is off by an entire octave. The JB conga library says C#2 is the keyswitch for a flam technique. Dorico doesn’t play C#2 when I assign that key. I have to assign it to C#3. This is the same with all of the key switches in the library. WTF?
When I dig into menu 3 on the percussion map, namely the Edit Drum Kit Note dialog box, there is no “flam” technique. So there is nothing I can input in that, the FOURTH field in the submenu. WTF?
This is me only trying to configure one f**** note in a new percussion map.
If I do two notes that aren’t a flam, such as an open note and a roll, Dorico only plays one of them. Not both. And I can’t see a way to indicate which is which because there are only two lines of conga staff, and I have no idea how to tell Dorico which note to play.
Please. Can anyone please help. This is incredibly frustrating. I’ve been at this for f*** months.
There are two standards for what middle C is. C4 is the most common with musicians and in notation software, but the most common in sampler software and DAW’s is C3 for middle C. So these types of issues are quite typical, unfortunately.
For the other problem, can you upload the Dorico project you are using to make the map?
Hi. I created MIDI maps and percussion maps for Spitfire Joby Burgess Percussion years ago… Have you tried those? Or are you using the new libraries (part of Abbey Road series)?
In any case, one big work when attempting to build up that bridge between a sound library and Dorico is to understand which samples will be usable and which won’t. For instance, swells won’t be usable, because of their rhythmically determined nature (it lasts a finite number of beats, whereas you can write whatever you need in a notation software).
Flams might be a problem, unless you create some specific way to trigger them while retaining a notation that won’t be usable by itself. I mean using a grace note and a note cannot be used by Dorico as a trigger. But a hidden playing technique can.
Hope it helps!
Oh, thank you thank you thank you all of you! I really appreciate your help. I’m working on a deadline and I really need to get this percussion working. I haven’t tried your SJB percussion maps, no. I’ll look for them and see if I can find them.
I would still like to know how to make percussion maps, though, so I’ll post the Dorico file I’m working with for you guys. Thanks so incredibly much!
Hey @Michael_Johnson please feel free to ask anything Dorico here at the forum, many of us have been helping much more than we used to, after the Finale thing. We all try our best to help, we all help each other and there are many specialists answering with their expertise, many from Finale having made the jump a few years ago.
We understand your frustration (we have all been there because most of us have come from other notation software, or still use it in tandem.) Dorico is only at v5 so there is a long way to go to cater for the diverse needs of us all, it’s a constant slow evolution of development. We are all eagerly awaiting v6, always exciting, even the free updates are full of improvements and refinements.
So Welcome to the Dorico Community! glad to have you finally (“finale”?) here.
Thanks so much. Yeah, I’m totally baffled. I watched the youTube videos and I can’t get anything to work like in the video.
I’m trying to use JB Percussion, in particular the congas. I imported Marc Larcher’s percussion maps, but I can’t get them to work.
A lot of the keyswitches in the percussion maps don’t map to the VST key switches in the KONTAKT player.
I link in the Play window my percussion map to the instrument, but nothing happens.
I try to input a playing technique onto a note, for example the “open” playing technique, but nothing happens.
The octave is off when the percussion map does trigger something on the VST, it’s always the wrong note. I understand that there is a difference between where middle C is between Dorico and the Spitfire plugin, but I can’t see where on the percussion map to change that. On the expression maps it’s pretty clear, but I don’t know how to change the octave on the percussion map so as to get the correct note.
I should be able to make a playing technique called X, for example, place it on a note, and have Dorico trigger that playing technique in the percussion map, which will then trigger the KONTAKT instance. It doesn’t happen. Help.
Thanks so much mducharme. I understand that, but where in the percussion map do I change the octave to C3? I see in the expression maps that I can change the octave, but not in the percussion maps.
Thanks so much for your help. Here’s my Dorico file. It’s just a test.
Thanks so much for helping out. Sorry I dropped the ball in that other thread. I thought I should just start a new one with a test file so I could get clarity. Here’s my Dorico file.
I did check that thread and it didn’t help. I’m confused as to how to tell Dorico that I want C4 to be middle C, but also, I’m confused as to why I should have to, since Dorico and Spitfire both use C4. Additionally, I’m confused because I can’t see a way in the percussion map to change it to C4, unlike the expression map dialog where it’s pretty clear. Finally, I’m confused because when I make a playing technique and place it above a note, it does nothing.
Hey, mducharme. Yep. Changing Dorico’s middle C to C3 in the preferences does nothing. When I input a note on the conga staff, the note it triggers in the VST in KONTAKT is C0. This makes no sense to me. Can you help?
To my knowledge, there is no setting under the percussion map like there is in expression maps. In percussion maps it looks like it follows the Dorico setting under Preferences->General->Middle C (note 60). When you look at a percussion map and change this setting from C4 to C3, you can reopen the same map and all of them appear differently based on that same setting.
However, personally I don’t change this setting globally - it would get too confusing since some instruments I work with do use C4 as middle C. So instead, I just transpose in my head by an octave, so if the keyswitch in the sampler like Kontakt says C1 or whatever, I know that if Kontakt treats C3 as middle C, and Dorico treats C4 as middle C, I have to tell Dorico to actually hit C2 to trigger the same note. This is actually what you have to do in almost every DAW and other notation program to my knowledge.
I opened the file you sent. I do not own the percussion library, so I had to substitute a piano library to see what notes were being triggered. The note it was initially playing for all four was F#0 (F#-1 in Kontakt), the note for low bongo hit natural:
The wrong note is being selected because your map is configured to only define sounds for “Single Instruments” but instead you have many different instruments under the one map, So you have to change that to “Multiple Instruments”:
After which it correctly plays different pitches than before. In Kontakt, it is E0 then F4 three times (where C3 is middle C). In Dorico set to C4 as middle C, these are E1 and F5, which you have specifically mapped to those pitches:
So aside from the incorrect “Single Instruments” vs “Multiple Instruments” setting, it is correctly playing the pitches that you have asked for in the way you have configured the percussion map.
You also have two percussion maps with exactly the same name - “Spitfire Percussion Drums High”. This can be very confusing as you might end up changing the setting for the wrong one that isn’t even being used, so I would not recommend doing this.
I’m so sorry I didn’t see your post earlier today (well, I was quite busy…)
My percussion map do work quite reliably, but they need you to use the versions of the VSTi that I MIDI mapped to make sure they work. So if you are using the original instruments, they won’t work, I’m afraid. Because they are not optimized for Dorico (or any other notation software), but for DAWs like Logic or Cubase…
I will try to spend some time tomorrow morning with your file (France time zone here, I am about to sleep)
I’ve been working on creating the necessary files so my percussion instruments work for me. So far, what I’ve learned is:
1- create the instrument (e.g.: snare drum). Maybe add something that differentiates it from another snare.
2- create an Expression map to control the possible beaters this instrument uses.
3- create the percussion map for this instrument. When doing this, check the playing techniques in dorico to see which one you can use to trigger the particular sample/and/or in setup, under percussion playing techniques for the instrument, add a notation you can use in the score and attach the playback tech. that triggers the sample assigned in the percussion map.
Sounds confusing? well I’m there with you.
Hopefully you can make some sense of it, in which case, let me know so I can continue getting better at all this.
Good luck.
Using my percussion maps and MIDI mapped instrument does work, but I’m afraid I got the tumba and quinto reversed (I don’t know anything about congas, I should read some reliable paper and correct my percussion map).
In any case, I could not really load your file because I don’t have Kontakt 8 (and don’t see any good reason to update, to be honest). It seemed like the instrument was not MIDI mapped, but that could be because of my Kontakt problem. When the instruments are MIDI mapped, the MIDI note is written as on this picture :
[Edit] From low to high, this should be conga supertumbass, tumba, quinto, requinto. Which means basically that my maps are the other way round, I will correct it.
