Altogether the SINE version of BMB features 21 muted brass instruments and I have divided them into 6 separate shared expression maps (A to F) according to the articulations they include. The applicable expression map is shown in the following table.
INSTRUMENT EXPRESSION MAP
Horn 1 Stopped A
Horn 2 Stopped A
Horn Ensemble Stopped B
Trumpet 1 Straight Mute A
Trumpet 2 Straight Mute A
Trumpet Ensemble Straight Mute A
Trumpet 1 Harmon Stem Half A
Trumpet 2 Harmon Stem Half A
Trumpet Ensemble Harmon Stem Half A
Trumpet 1 Harmon Stem In A
Trumpet 2 Harmon Stem In A
Trumpet Ensemble Harmon Stem In A
Trombone 1 Straight Mute C
Trombone 2 Straight Mute C
Trombone 1 Harmon Stem Half C
Trombone 2 Harmon Stem Half C
Trombone 1 Harmon Stem In C
Trombone 2 Harmon Stem In F
Bass Trombone Straight Mute E
Bass Trombone Harmon Stem Half D
Bass Trombone Harmon Stem In E
No doubt anyone using these maps will want to customise them according to their own preferences. I have included both the original OT description of an articulation as well as the playback technique to which I chose to map them. You may want to associate them with different playback techniques and even add new playing techniques to associate with them. As these are muted samples I chose to set the minimum of the range for CC1 and CC11 to 30, the only exception being short natural where I set the minimum velocity to 60 and likewise CC11. Again you may have your own preferred ranges for these things. Likewise my approach to note condition triggering may not be your own.
To hear the audio of each you may need to raise the master control in the Dorico 4 mixer as it’s set default is rather too low for these muted instruments.
Hello @andhy - forgive me, I know very little about all of this, and have no personal/particular interest (other than a desire to see the broader community thrive.!)… but, my curiosity was piqued.
Now, it says in the body of the posts there, that the tool can’t build ‘Dorico Expression Maps’ since it is inherently different to Cubase, regarding its ability to handle articulations based on note length. However, it is stated that Dorico can import Expression Maps made for Cubase, which, presumably from there one would apply any desired tweaking or other anyway…
Ok, so I’m already well out of my depth; just wondering if this kind of tool might help folk like yourself, take away some of the tedium of creating these things from scratch… Maybe have a look when you’ve some time…
Certainly worth looking into, but unfortunately my DAW is Reaper, Tbh I quite enjoy the process of creating expression maps while working on projects and testing new libraries. You never know though, maybe I’ll switch to Cubase come the next cyberweeks offer in November. Nevetheless thanks for the tip @Puma0382
Ok, understood… but, no need for/to be running Cubase to use the tool. The way I read it, you can just go through and generate your XMap online, save that to a location and then import to Dorico (and perform necessary tweaks, etc…).?
Cubase expression maps and Dorico expression maps are sufficiently different that you won’t really save any time creating a Cubase expression map and then importing it into Dorico, if your goal is a good and functional Dorico expression map. Cubase’s expression maps are more limited in their capability, and you don’t get much more than a few key switch settings imported when you import a Cubase map into Dorico.
Not only are the Cubase expression maps quite different to the Dorico maps, but a lot of what the Cubase expression map generator tools do aren’t actually needed in Dorico. Suppose you have a library that uses a base key switch for the main sound variant (eg arco/pizz/col legno) and then a separate CC for vibrato level, a CC to control mute type, a CC for legato, etc.
In Dorico you can define the list of the base key switches and then define the vibrato/mute/CC as ‘add ons’, so encountering a mute or legato slur will just add the appropriate CCs. For Cubase, you need to explicitly define all the combinations of arco, pizz, col legno, arco + mute, arco + mute + vibrato, col legno + mute… The Cubase xmap generator tools provide a way of generating all these combinations, but Dorico doesn’t need this because the xmap already defines the idea of ‘if I want to make the current sound legato, just add this CC’
And thanks Paul for joining in.! As it happens, I’d literally just been back to read your other pinned post that has the repository of current existing EMaps for Dorico 3.5 and detailed explanation about creating from scratch…!! Great post, that gives nice background to the topic and building for Dorico directly…
All good…
PS:- the top 5 entries in the Opening Post there, don’t link down to the corresponding response that provides the actual link to the Map/Template; ‘Joshua Bell violin’ and ‘EWQL Brass’ do seem to work ok.
