Divisi playback with VSL

Dorico
1

Hi,

I want to swap between solo and full section divisi in a project I’m working on, but am having issues with getting playback to work as I want. I’m using VSL Synchron SE Vol. 1. What I am trying:

  • I have two violin sections, that either play in unison or in divisi.
  • At some point, I want a different sound, and only want the first and second violin playing solo, both a different line

I have two solutions in mind, but can make neither of them work.

Solution 1:

Switch between divisi (from 2 groups to two solo players, and back), and use different voices (e.g. up-stem 1 for group, up-stem 2 for solo) for the group and solo sections. In the playback tab, you can link different voices to different instruments.

However, this leads to haphazard behaviour. Sometimes, the up-stem voice 1 in the second group of for example violins I maps to a different, seemingly random voice, such as up-stem 3 or down-stem 2. The behaviour seems erratic, or at least, I haven’t been able to find a solution.

Solution 2:

Create tutti and solo playing techniques, and map these to expressions with program changes. However, this does not seem to work with VSL Synchron Player: I think it ignores MIDI program changes altogether.

I am already quite far along with this project, but was hoping to experiment a bit with orchestration to give it a little extra zest. Hopefully any of you has an idea I can try to fix this problem? It would be much appreciated!

2

I didn’t try divisi just yet but last month there was a discover Dorico session that covered independent divisi playback, maybe that can help?

In 3.5 there also a bug reported that program changes aren’t working, maybe try solution 2 in the previous version 3.1

1 Like
3

Thank you. Divisi it will be, then! What I did not realise is that on the play tab, you can see in which voice your music ends up. This helps me a bit further along.