Hi there, I’m currently trying to learn with Dorico and it is a problem after problem, issue after issue. It is almost 20 hours of work now, trying to figure out how Expression Maps work and how to handle my huge East West Gold library.
I have given up hope of downloading existing libraries of Ex.M. After finding one that is good for 50% of instruments, I am trying to edit those that do not work properly. But. Only one of them has actually working audition button.
I’m trying to edit those assigned to instruments. Same library, working while playback and working while inputting the notes. Not working while I want to edit the Ex.M. What am I missing?
Please, help.
Attaching a screenshot. From those five strings with EWQL expression mask, only EWQL 18 violins are actually posible to edit using audition button and also 10 Violas (different library, not used in the score) and HSO Timpani. No other Ex.M. can be auditioned.
Starting out with expression maps and a large VST library is a bit like trying to learn competitive gymnastics with a move you saw Simone Biles do at the last Olympics. So consider yourself 20 hours into the “1000-hours” (or is it “10,000-hours”) rule to master a skill.
Dorico is worth investing time in, and once you grasp expression maps, you will have a highly sophisticated skill somewhat rare even among otherwise experienced Dorico users.
Check the manuals (including those for EW Gold) and Release Notes
Look through the short videos and Discover Dorico sessions
Ask questions on the forum
There isn’t a shortcut (AFAIK) but folks here are willing to help, and the results will be worth the effort.
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A little bit off the mark, I’d say if this library is the Hollywood Orchestra that has a Note Performer Performance Engine, I’d take that route. This one and the Synchron Prime one (until the Synchron arrived yesterday) are definitely my go-to engines when I want to have a nice orchestral sound (and less performance problems due to limited RAM on my machine than with BBCSO, but this could also have changed with 4.2 yesterday). In other words, if you can spend that money and cannot invest the time in learning and creating a full expression map for such a huge library (with limited expected results), go with NotePerformer and its NPPE.
Of course, if it’s another flavor of the library and isn’t handled by NotePerformer, please ignore this post!
In the screenshot, you are apparently trying to audion init, which would not normally sound at all.
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Thank you, I have downloaded Dorico for the first time this spring and through the summer I learned via tutorials, manuals etc. Now the time has come to use the knowledge by opening the program and trying to work in it. I don’t feel connecting East West to Dorico is something so big as Olympics but if so, then I train to be an olympionist. I have no better library and I’d like to compose my first short piece for a string quartet using key switches to get pizzicato, marcato, spiccato and arco. Is it such a big goal? Well, even if so, I must continue.
Your advice is checking manuals (done), looking the videos (done, but never enough of them, isn’t it) and asking the forum - done. Hopefully I’ll get some answer what is the problem with the audition button.
Thank you, it’s East West Orchestra Gold actually but I appreciate your advice, maybe look for that Note Performer in the future!
Thanks for the response, I’ve discovered previously that Init is doing nothing. When the Ex.M. is working, the triangle button for audition is white, while when not working (offline) it is grey and it doesn’t really matter if you click on Init or some type.
IIRC init is triggered only once when the project opens. Thereafter your basic switch is natural.
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I believe it is triggered on playback from the start of the flow. Question about Init values in Expression Map
Daniel says: start of playback. I have always assumed that whenever playback begins, init is sent before anything else–not just from the start of flow.
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@nika.tvrda, the way auditioning works in Library > Expression Maps is that Dorico will look for an endpoint that has been set up with this expression map in use. So make sure that you have created an appropriate instrument in your project, and in Play mode, route it to the appropriate patch in your VST instrument, and use the Endpoint Setup dialog (the cog icon in the VST rack) to set the right expression map for this endpoint.
If Dorico can’t find an endpoint in your project that is set to use the expression map, it can’t audition the sounds.
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Thank you, there is a solution in your answer! There are actually TWO EWQL libraries I’ve uploaded, the second one named EWQLSO and I routed those strings to the other, accept for first violins. Therefore, only them worked in Ex.M. among other from that not used library.
Mistake fixed, everything working now, thankyou!
Also the audition button only sends two notes an octave apart. You might see them depress/play if the sample player has a keyboard view but depending on the range of the instrument you might not hear anything.
It’s a little more complex than that, right? I mean, I’m in the (extremely painful) process of updating my Spitfire VSTs, which involves creating new Kontakt 7 VSTs and reassigning the endpoints to them under the Track Inspector (with “All flows” selected). When I audition my sounds in the Expression Map window, they play on the old VST.
I have no idea why this is happening, and I’ve figured I’d just better just delete all my VSTs and start totally rom scratch. (Took me a few minutes to figure out that I need to select “---” before deleting a VST, or risk a crash.)
It will probably look for the first endpoint that uses that expression map, yes, so if you’ve already got one and you’re adding a new one, chances are it won’t find the new one if the old one already exists.