Creating Playing/Playback Techniques for Different types of Horn Articulations - EW Libs

Dorico
1

Hi all,

I was having a look at the different notation/playback options for some of the ‘rips’ and ‘shake’ techniques in the EWQLSO 6 French Horn Keyswitch patch. There’s quite a few different types of rips and shakes in the patch but it’s not exactly clear how they would be triggered/notated in the most practical way.

When I scrolled through the different lists of ‘Playback Techniques’ in the library I noticed there was quite a few options under ‘ornaments’ which accomodate techniques such as ‘rip’ and ‘shake’. I thought"great". Now all i have to do is just name the base switch in the expression map and assign the rip or shake to the corresponding keyswitch.

Where I became a little bit stuck is how to a assign an actual ‘Playing Technique’ for these options as I couldn’t find a matching category for ornaments in the Playing Techniques section that would either have a glyph or text instruction I could put in the score to trigger a PT change which would trigger the correct PB technique for the Horn artics I need.

I then just did a quick google to look at some of the notation options for Horn Glissando and rips, etc. It seems Dorico 4.1 has a PB technique for a glissando up/down

Screen Shot 2022-06-10 at 11.56.31 am
Screen Shot 2022-06-10 at 11.56.31 am722×510 59.1 KB

but there is no option for these in the PTs section. I don’t mind creating new ones but I would be interested to see what other people might have used to trigger some of these techniques for Horn. I’ve seen a wavy line for a gliss(rip) up. The rip patch in EWQL Brass 6FH seems to be an octave gliss pre-recorded so I’m wondering what’s the best way to setup a playing technique. I was thinking I might have a silent grace note first then a gliss line up to the required pitch. The naming conventions used in the EWQL 6FH Horn patch are a bit confusing. There’s

RIps S
Rips X
Rips L
Rips F
Shake

I think one of them is like a semitone 3 note up/down shake or something but the one I would really like to trigger is the octave gliss/rip. Like the JW Jurassic/Star wars style I guess. BBCSO has some lovely warm sounds but I’m combining the patches from EWQLSO and HWB to take care of some of the missing techniques I need.

Thanks in advance for any wisdom on this. Always learning every day in between toddler madness! Cheers Simon.

2

I think this one of the best parts of my ongoing education - sure from books but especially learning from the players. EWQL may have good reasons for their sample naming scheme, but I often feel they don’t necessarily have a place in the score.

For EWQL, this is one reason that I mostly avoid the KS patches and I map an articulation like gliss to a MIDI channel. Unless it is a fake trill or something, The KS patches do actually load an articulation sample - but this way I get to choose which one fits my needs best.

If I do need two different gliss for some reason - then I create a new PT with text above it. Any players, please correct me, but I think that works best whenever I think players would have a question about it. I’d rather they understand and shake their heads at my failings as a composer, than not understand.