Hey!
I’ve been searching far and wide for answers on how to change the playback of guitar. I write heavy jazz music and need to switch between clean and distortion quite often. How do I do that?
I’m used to Sibelius were you only write it in as a ‘technique’-text and NotePerformer will automatically understand and switch from clean to distorted (or vice versa).
You should be able to adjust the instrument’s Expression Map and link the Playback technique to a Playing Technique, but much depends on the VST instrument sound you are using and the keyswitches and the like that particular instrument needs to change the sound into and out of distortion.
Welcome to the forum, @l.husoe.musikk
So there are no built-in shortcuts to switch between guitar effects in Dorico?
It all depends on the capabilities of your VST and sound library. Dorico can switch between effects using Keyswitches, CC values or MIDI channel or Program changes.
In general:
It might sound a bit complicated, but it is straightforward, extremely powerful and flexible.
Hello again.
I’ve tried finding solutions with the words and expressions you mention in you last reply, but I have to be honest: this is not straight forward at all.
I’ve checked out reference guide, YouTube and the online support of NotePerformer and I still don’t understand how this actually works and what I’m supposed to do.
For instance in the expression map window you’re supposed to add key switches, or program changes or control changes. Three different terms that is not explained anywhere (as far as I’ve seen).
What kind of switch am I looking for to switch between effects on guitar? Is the effects add-ons or base switches? And the YouTube tutorial mentions MIDI-keyboard mapping found in the play menu, something I can’t seem to find at all.
Is there any dictionary list to explain all the terms and words used in the program? And are there any updated tutorials on how to use the expression maps and playing techniques?
This depends on the specific VST/Sound Library that you are using.
The sound library is NotePerformer, and on their support page they mention CC value, so I guess that’s what I have to use?
How do link playing techniques and playback techniques with CC value, then?
OK, so you’re going to be editing the NotePerformer Expression Map. In My case, I duplicated it to a new one, as you can see in the pic below. You will add a new expression map base type for every one of the Guitar Effects listed on the NotePerformer web site (Distortion, Fuzzbox, Heavy Distortion, etc.)
For each one, you need to have an appropriate “Playing Technique” which is what you will enter in the score, mapped to a “Playback Technique” which is what will trigger the expression map entry.
I just did it for all the Guitar Effects individually, and it took maybe 10 minutes. It will seem weird at first, but once you’re done it a couple hundred times you get used to it 
Some things to watch out for: always make sure you have a playing technique and a playback technique mapped to your expression map entry. In some cases, there’s already a playback technique (like, Distortion is already there) but mostly you will create new entries for both playing and playback. If you rename your NotePerformer Expression Map like I did, you need to go into your endpoint setup to and apply the Expression Map there, otherwise it won’t see your new entries.
I would walk you through it in more detail, but I’m just heading out. Lots of folks here know how to do this, so they can help too. For folks playing along, the full list of NotePerformer Guitar Effects is here:
Here’s my quickie demo file. Good luck!
NotePerformer Guitar Effects.dorico (644.5 KB)
Thanks for trying, but it still makes no sense to me… 
Though I did fool around and eventually got it working now. I have no idea how, so I just left the whole expression map as it is in hope of it never changing again.
Thanks to everyone who helped out!
Yeah, I’m a bit baffled, too.
I wonder if there are video tutorials for these features somewhere online. They seem like something that many, many NP users would be interested in. The NP market doesn’t have to be limited to orchestral scoring, especially at the expense of genres that would attract a far larger user base.
.
I was able to get Distortion to play back wonderfully – this is amazing!
I can’t seem to get “Clean” to work by sending 0, though, but this is probably because I added “Clean” as a new entry, whereas “Distortion” already existed. What do I have to do to get Dorico to re-scan with “Clean” added to the Library?
If you would like to use “Clean” as a Playing Technique, you can set its Playback Technique to “Natural”. Then, in your Expression Map, under the entry for Natural, add Control Change 103 0 to the list of control changes that are already there. This is probably a good thing to do anyway. I just tried it and it works.
Dorico doesn’t need to rescan anything, btw, as soon as you make the change in the expression map, it becomes active. If you’re still having issues, please upload your project and we’ll take a look.
