No matter what I do and how I map it, I can’t write/input congas or other percussion instruments on the 5-line staff. It enters all the everything as Cymbal on the first line above the treble clef. Very frustrating! Spent soooo much time on this seems to be a very simple task. Tried to add Percussion player, tried to create an Empty Kit and not matter what I do I can only enter two lines even if I add 4 different congas on four different lines. Or all of the would be on the same line suddenly even that they all setup for different lines
PLEASE! What’s happening?! Please advise! All I need is to create a congas part in the score on 5 lines with a nice Latin sound using maybe Yamaha SX or General MIDI kits and to be able to input with my MIDI keyboard.
Egor,
this might sound quite silly, but if you take a cup of tea, make yourself a comfortable Sunday afternoon to watch this video, you will have a nice time and your problem probably solved: https://www.youtube.com/live/QSIs8myHrBk?si=PRs5BOXtiGaYXoQG
The short version, I created an Empty Percussion Kit, added a Conga to it.
You’ll do this by pressing the little + icon at the bottom left:
The Conga will be placed on the middle line, but you can easily change it here in the same window.
Then I switched to Write Mode and in Layout Options>Players>Percussion changed to 5-line Staff.
For Input, there is a nice feature, a drum pad for your instrument, have a look here:
How do I do it? I have the full 10-piece, 67-bar score, but I still don’t have the percussion kit because I can’t create it. Choosing Percussion only gives me one-line notation, but I need a five-line staff.
Then I switched to Write Mode and in Layout Options>Players>Percussion changed to 5-line Staff.
Doesn’t work for me. Doesn’t not change it to 5-line staff
I am aware of the Pads to input but I use the MIDI keyboard.
The Conga pad will input the notes automatically onto the right line:
I need at least three different types of conga playing techniques on at least two different lines, and I don’t want to use the default classical percussion kit. I need with a real Latin percussion sound.
this might sound quite silly, but if you take a cup of tea, make yourself a comfortable Sunday afternoon to watch this video
I already watched this video, and it doesn’t help or explain the method. I don’t have a nice Sunday afternoon because I’m on my way to my first Sunday house gig right now, followed by a second house gig later. Takes me to 10 PM, and I have a big project to finish and submit by the end of the day. I’m stuck on this simple task.
Egor, this will work, you have to choose the right Layout, the one you are working on (at the right, when you are in Layout Options)!
With this setting:
ps.: I have never worked with Perkussion Kits - and I use only the Dorico Elements/iPad version at the moment, but it all seems to work without hiccups. They even playback nicely:
I tried to add several congas and only two being played into the score by my MIDI keyboard and all end up entered on the same line and all sound the same sound of one conga instrument.
If you set your Playback Template to Silent, it may reduce the file size enough to upload the full project. Obviously, if you can upload the full project, someone can create this kit or diagnose the problem and then send it back, and you can carry on. You can also use a cloud service and attach a link here.
Yes, exactly. You can’t tell the difference in the instrument picker apart from by their names: “conga” singular is a single conga drum; “congas” plural is a percussion kit with multiple congas in it.
However, you can always create a kit from individual percussion instruments held by a player if you wish: right-click the player and choose Combine Instruments Into Kit from the context menu.
For your info, percussion kits show up as green entries when you’re looking at the expanded player card, while individual instruments show up in blue.
@Derrek and @k_b have each shown you how you can add further congas to the kit. However, do be aware that by default the General MIDI (and I think also the Yamaha XG) drum maps only contain sounds for two congas, which are the two included in Dorico’s preset Congas kit.
If you need more than two congas, you will need to find another playback source that includes a larger number of conga instruments.
Both of these contain all the congas I need, but I have no idea how to enter the all of them on the staff using the MIDI keyboard and make the keyboard match the mapping.
I’ve tried many different combinations of MIDI kits, mapping, channels, and more, but I can’t get it working for me.
I am really exhausted with what is supposed to be simple notation. Why is it so complicated that it takes three days on the forum with several users to figure out how to enter two congas on a five-line staff and use a proper MIDI kit for playback? Ugh…
Here is the Percussion Kit I created but no mater what key/percussion instrument I play on the MIDI Keyboard it all enters the notes on this one line… Mind boggling!
I am sorry Egor that this is so exhausting for you.
I myself have never done this kind of setup before and still managed in less than an hour.
I have documented my steps with screenshots; if you follow them step by step you will have it working very soon.
To enter notes in a percussion kit 5-line staff with a MIDI keyboard just imagine a treble clef staff. For the default Congas instrument the low conga is the A above middle C and the high note is an octave above the middle C or on the respective positions if you moved the instruments.
Even if I use pads only 1 and 2 give me two different congas sound. The onther pad 3 and 4 give me a different percussion sounds while showing that I am entering congas 3 and 4… This is crazy!
