Control mixer sliders with MIDI?

[xenophon]

Is there a way in Dorico to control the mixer channel amplitude/volume sliders with MIDI? So that I could, for example, turn instruments up or down during playback to achieve better balance?

[judddanby]

Unless I am mistaken (for the umpteen-millionth time!), there is no direct fader automation as one finds in a DAW. (I’m guessing this is due to the focus on Dorico being fundamentally a notation program.)

However, in addition to the obvious — inputting dynamics and hairpins, which affect changes to key velocity and are reflected on the Dynamics Lane in the Key Editor (first half of my example):

…one can also draw in CC7 (volume controller) curves:

Both will affect loudness changes in playback…:

…but note (in this silent video capture) that in neither case does the channel fader move:

[xenophon]

Thanks, Judd.

Thanks for the reply. The dynamics and hairpins are not sufficient for this. They often do not create a realistic balance between instruments. I will have a shot at the CC7 data.

Best,

Michael

[judddanby]

BTW: I should definitely add that I’m using NotePerformer, which “takes over” the mixer in a somewhat unique way, as I understand it. Perhaps a non-NP user will have better advice!

[tfiers]

Being able to MIDI-map to the UI of Dorico would be such a killer feature.
E.g. when writing for string quartet, to quickly turn down the violin 1, lower the first of these four sliders:

Or map the percussion pads to commonly used commands (MuseScore can do this btw).

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Or even before going to MIDI-mapping, being able to mute instruments by hotkey would be ace.
E.g. for when using scrub playback, but you only want to hear a subset of the instruments.

EDIT:

Never mind, HALion Sonic has MIDI mapping, this is amazing.

Doesn’t work with NotePerformer, but doing this with HSO is already very nice.

[Christian_R]

Hi @tfiers,

@tfiers

when writing for string quartet, to quickly turn down the violin 1, lower the first of these four sliders:

you can program your Arturia sliders to send specific CC signals, in accordance on what CC are set in the expression map you are using (normally CC1 or CC11 for dynamics and expression or CC7 for volume, CC2 for vibrato, etc., depending on the sound library that you are using) and Dorico will receive that signal, that you can also record, but only on the selected channel/instrument. You have to set the Arturia in user mode (you find all in the manual), otherwise it sends its predefined CC and notes.

@tfiers

Or map the percussion pads to commonly used commands (MuseScore can do this btw).

This is already possible in Dorico. (You have to program your Arthurian pads to send specific notes, maybe starting from C-2 for example).
See this :

Assigning MIDI commands

[tfiers]

Fantastic, thank you!

But so it seems you cannot control the volume of different instruments with MIDI without using the computer to move between staves?

I did find the solution to my quest however: scrub playback can play just a subset if you select only those staves, that’s perfect.