Balancing a Percussion Kit

[ghfagan51]

I have for months now tried to figure out how to balance the sounds in a Percussion kit using NotePerformer in Dorico. Workng on a piece for Jazz Ensemble and the balance of the kit instruments is not satisfactory at all. The Bass Drum is much too loud and I can not hear the Hi-Hat or the Side Stick (*Rim Knock") at all. I can probably set up a separate “playback” score and pull the various instruments out of the kit and re-assign the dynamics but there may be an easier way to do this.

Followup question. Does anyone know if I click a note in, say, Bass Drum in a drum kit can I then click on a snare drum note on the same beat and enter a different dynamic? In other words, can each instrument in a kit receive a different dynamic mark on the same beat? I am guessing not.

Any help is much appreciated.

Thank you.

[Robby_Poole]

Sadly, I don’t think there is an easy or consistent way with NotePerformer to balance the dynamics independently on the drum kit.

You can adjust the midi velocity values in play mode, but it sometimes work and sometimes doesn’t for me (I am on macOS27 which is not officially supported, so maybe that is part of the problems).

Select the notes you want to increase or decrease in volume. And they will highlight in blue. Drag them up or down.

Like I said, it wasn’t consistent for me. I got 3 of my 4 bass drum notes to follow what I selected. But not the very first one.

Hopefully this helps you some.

Robby

[ghfagan51]

Thanks, Robby. I will try this. If that doesn’t work I will just create a separate Playback file and pull the instruments out of the kit onto different staves and adjust dynamics that way.

Gary