Can someone walk me through expression mapping?

Dorico
#1

Hey everyone! I just started using Dorico, and I’m really enjoying it so far. However I am having quite a bit of trouble expression mapping my East West Hollywood Strings/Brass Libraries to work within the player. I have watched/read numerous tutorials, but nothing seems to work right. My end goal is for the specific playing techniques in the notation to use the correct sample during playback, but I am confused on how to accomplish this goal.

I am a beginner at this and the vast amount of samples available, along with the expression mapping process is a bit overwhelming to me. I will say I am mostly getting stuck with what keyswitch values to enter into the expression map gui, or if there is a way to just load the specific samples for each technique separately and still have them play correctly when written. If anyone could give me a step by step guide, I’d really appreciate it. Thank you!

#2

Hello again! So I’ve made a little bit of progress. I’ve gotten the “Play” plugin loaded correctly, and from what I’ve read it seems I need to load the keyswitch variations of the samples. There are two keyswitch samples for the hollywood cello (short and long). I was hoping I would be able to have just one instrument for cello with all of the articulations, but it seems I need two. How do I load both of these, but still have one instrument on the staff (with all of the articulations mapped correctly)? And also, what would the keyswitch values be? I apologize if this has a very simple answer, I have been looking everywhere for these answers and have only been able to find bits and pieces from various sources. I’m hoping someone can iron out the details for me, as I am very confused. Thanks!

#3

Number “24” will work for the Natural setting for 18 violins, 11 violins, 10 Violas, 10 Cellos, 3 Flutes, 3 Oboes, 3 Clarinets.

Also be sure to select Volume Dynamics and select “11” and the “control change”

See below.
Capture334.PNG
Haven’t got too far yet. But for instance on the 18 violins patch change, Staccato to 22, Pizzicato 38 — again make sure to change Volume Dynamics to 11 for each of those.

more in depth tutorial on changing to VSTS

#4

Thank you! Could I ask where you are getting those keyswitch values from for the violins? I have several instruments I am wanting to make expression maps for (Cellos, Trumpets, Violas, etc). I’m having a hard time finding a place where all of the keyswitch values are defined for each instrument clearly, like you did above (staccato 22, pizzicato 38 ,etc). Also, what is a patch change? Is that where it switches between two samples? For example, the East West Hollywood Cello has two keyswitch samples, one for long sounds and one for short. Is this a way of getting them under the same instrument in the score? Again, thanks for your help!

#5

BTW, I only have SO, so I’m not sure if Hollywood is similar.

One way to find to keyswitches is simply count up Or down. The instrument listing on Play shows them as notes. Relationship of Pizz to natural.

See below.

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And If it doesn’t work, you either forgot a step or counted wrong.

Dorico truncates notes for staccato notes which can create a “false” staccato making you think you got the right input. But you can hear the difference if you sample the play staccato to see how it should sound;

#6

Awesome, thank you! I will try it out. So I should only have one keyswitch sample per instrument, with the keyswitch values linked to the articulations? Hollywood is confusing me by having two keyswitch samples for some instruments, one for long articulations and one for short. I don’t want to have two different cellos on my staff just to get all of the articulations during playback, if that makes sense.

#7

To add on to my last question, here is what I mean by the separate samples (pictures below). One is a keyswitch sample for the long articulations, while the other is for short. I am confused on how to set this up so all articulations can be accessed by a single expression map, and all be accessed by the same instrument in the notation. Something like this:
art.PNG

Any help with this would be appreciated!

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short1.PNG.jpg
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#8

Still no luck :frowning: does it have anything to do with control changes?

#9

What’s not working?

Make sure you follow the steps in the video link, if you haven’t watched it yet.

Miss a step, it probably won’t work. (Keep pausing video if you need to and complete each step as you watch

As to the double cello, I think EW allows you to reassign keyswitches. Never done that though, but it might be a solution. As long as your keyswitches don’t conflict with each other and there are open keys to assign still.

(I don’t believe I cued up the video to the exact part that will help but it’s a little further along I think)