Apologies for resurrecting an old thread, but I thought there might be some of you out there curious as to how this all worked out.
The short answer is - IT DIDN’T.
The so called Notation Mode that comes with the Fable Sounds “Broadway LItes” and “Broadway Big-Band” products is a joke. It was created by Fable Sounds as a means to make using what is essentially a product better suited to a live performance compatible with notation software like Dorico, Finale and Sibelius. They state that explicitly on their web site. See https://fablesounds.com/broadway-lites/
In notation mode the Fable Sounds products use an alternative set of key switches to control the various articulations. In process of creating my own expression maps (as advised above by other Dorico users) I tested each of the articulations by manually operating the key switch assigned to that articulation. Roughly half the articulations simply don’t work! Now I realise that not all articulations can be expected to work on all notes (as is the case in the real world with the real instrument), so I tested across the full range of each instrument to see if the missing articulation was hiding away in the upper or lower register somewhere. So when I say an articulation (stated in the user guide to exist) is missing, I mean it was genuinely missing!
The problem seems to have come about when the key switches were reassigned when Fable Sounds created Notation Mode. Some were forgotten and some landed up on top of other key switches that were already setup to do something else. Also, in Notation mode, each instrument is supposedly put back into it’s native range on the keyboard so that when you notate a middle C in your score, say, that’s what you hear being played, instead of one or two octaves up or down (as might be convenient for someone playing live with their right hand while operating key switches with their left).
Unfortunately, despite the user manually specifying that this is how the Fable Sounds products work in Notation Mode, it simply doesn’t work this way, causing instruments to play in the wrong octave. This problem could be solved when creating the expression maps if it were not for the fact that Fable Sounds failure to put the instruments back into their correct range causes collisons between key switches and notes. So you either get an articulation that works, but a hole in the playing range, or no hole without the articulation.
I twice tried to contact them with a list of problems that they need to rectify but I got no response. All I can say is, thank goodness I didn’t fork out for their full “Broadway Big-Band” product. I was going to but, given the totally absence of customer service, I won’t be buying anything further from them.
I trust this thread will serve as a warning to others considering using a Fable Sounds product.
