I created playback techniques named “Distortion” and “Overdrive” by clicking “New from Selection” while selecting an existing factory playback technique. I’m not sure if I did anything else that might have contributed to the situation but now they seem to be treated as factory playback techniques. I’m unable to delete them, even though they are not used by any playing techniques or expression maps. I did some exploring and found “Distortion” and “Overdrive” defined in Dorico 3.5.app/Contents/Resources/playingTechniqueDefinitions.xml. What’s going on here? Also, I’m a little confused by the filename because they are playback techniques, not playing techniques, right?
You cannot delete custom playback techniques if they are used in the score or even assigned to a written playing technique. You need to make sure they’re completely free.
You shouldn’t get too worked up about the filenames inside the application bundle. By dint of the fact that they’re hidden away inside the bundle, they’re not intended for end-user consumption. Internally, playback techniques are indeed known as playing techniques, while playing techniques are known as playing technique appearances, and that is reflected in the names of the library files, but since you’re not meant to muck about with them, hopefully that doesn’t matter.
However, Overdrive and Distortion are indeed factory-provided playback techniques, so you can’t delete them.
Well, that explains it. I wondered, but it seemed too strange a coincidence, and I couldn’t find those playback techniques mentioned anywhere on the forum or in the manual. Thank you, Daniel!