I don’t think I’m about to become senile, but when trying to figure out these things with Playback templates, Expression Maps etc it surely feels like that. I had forgotten what the ‘Large Gong’ represents in this window. According to the manual no. 2, ‘Entries’ consists of both custom endpoints and existing playback templates. So how do I know what the ‘Large Gong’ entry is? Is it a custom endpoint configuration or is it a playback template?
I guess I need to name things better from here on so I know exactly what it is. Very much of editing of one parameter isn’t done in the window that has the name of that parameter but somewhere else. And by the time you find it you have forgotten what you were supposed to do in the first place.
Yeah, I can understand the confusion there. A playback template contains and consolidates various endpoint configurations under the same roof. So that window you’re looking a - “VSL PE Orkester Standard 2” is your playback template, and all those entries on the left are your endpoint configurations. As Daniel touched on, basically anything labelled manual will be endpoint configs, whereas anything labelled Auto are other playback templates (that’s what the documentation is referring to, as I understand it).
So I suppose that’s sort of like having a playback template inside of a playback template – but I think of ‘Auto’ as basically being for fallback purposes. In other words, let’s say you have a playback template designed for strings using endpoints and maps you’ve built (all added manually in that list). Then, it would be helpful to add from the auto list a fallback playback template inside, so that when you decide to add an oboe or something, your template will look at your endpoints first and after not seeing anything for an oboe, it will then fall back to the other selected playback template from the auto list (Halion, NotePerformer, whatever else you might have). It’s sort of like a way of saying “if this playback template doesn’t have that instrument, then point to that playback template instead.”
Does that help? It gets a little confusing I know – I found it helpful after downloading some official playback templates to look at how they were built.
For your endpoint of “Large Gong,” I’d make one recommendation to name it something more specific to the library it is calling on, and not just an instrument, which might make it easier to navigate. I.e., “VSL Large Gong” or “VSL Cymbals” might make it more clear that it’s something which is pointing to a specific library, and also clear that it’s an endpoint configuration and not anything else. But that’s just me.
I see now that this was actually one of the things I had already read about the other day, and forgotten*. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to create that ‘Large Gong’ Endpoint.
*Due to the jumble of information one needs to take in to make things work.
Yes, that was one of the confusions. “Okay, I have the name of the playback template at the top but then there are also playback templates in the Entries list.”
Thanks for this elaboration! It will be useful.
I wouldn’t mind doing that myself. If you have a link, please share.
Yes, that’s a good idea! I added the library name as well as EP just to ensure I’ll know it’s an endpoint even if it’s in the middle of the night.
Of course you’ll need the corresponding libraries that go with them, but if you have any of these libraries I have found them to be a valuable resource to learn from being able to ‘peek under the hood’ in the edit playback template dialogue, as well as looking at their endpoints + expression maps themselves for ideas of how I can improve my own.
Oh yes, and assuming you have the newer VSL libraries (Synchron/Synchron-ized/Studio etc), VSL has created many amazing maps - I highly recommend opening “Vienna Assistant” and finding the tab which says Dorico Wizard, and installing maps for the libraries you have. The maps are well made and another great way to learn!
