On quite a few occasions, I have written notes that ARE possible (albeit difficult) yet Dorico decides that those notes don’t exist, and so no sound should come out. Sometimes, the notes are only yellow, and still they don’t sound.
I’ve played around in the HALion Sonic SE to no avail. And sometimes there are different versions of the same instrument that DO have the range that I want, but the sound is garbage. Is there any way I can just have dorico play all of the notes I put in, even if they are actually impossible? I know Musescore does this, and I appreciate it.
Welcome to the forum, @weberj17. If you switch to the HALion Sonic Selection playback template, you’ll get overall lower quality sounds, but all of the sounds chosen will play across the whole range of MIDI notes. The sounds in the higher quality libraries included with Dorico (HALion Symphonic Orchestra and Iconica Sketch) only play within the ranges that were actually sampled in the original recordings.
The HSO horn goes up to G5 sounding (D6 written). And Robert Schumann’s Konzertstück for Four Horns and Orchestra goes up to A5 (E6 written). To get that high, you can use the NotePerformer horn which is modeled rather than sampled.
Just to reinforce the message. The playable range is determined by the limitations of the particular VST sound library that you are using, not Dorico itself.
if you want an almost free and not bad sounding horn which can go up to E5, then the Orchestral Tools Majestic Horn costs €2. VSL horns tend to be also up to E5. The Konzertstück challenges even modern players, far less the ones from Schumann’s time (but it’s certainly a fun piece)!
No. It’s better for you to check an orchestration manual, in doubt. It will make you better understand the possible challenges of the instruments in question in extreme ranges. NotePerformer will happily play notes outside of their range, even the “impossible” range.
The colors are from Dorico and independent of whichever library you’re using for playback.
Red means out of the range for an instrument. Slightly darker red, means difficult, but possible to play. The colors can be adjusted in the instrument options. Brass instruments are generally capable of going higher than the accepted textbook ranges, but this depends on the ability of the performer. A Dorico user who’s a high school teacher might want to narrow the range for their musicians. A user writing charts for professional jazz musicians would likely want to expand the default ranges.
If you’re using straight NP sounds (not an NPPE) then no, you can’t trust it because the sound is modelled, and instruments will play any note given to them. If you’re using an NPPE you’ll be using a sampled library, which means the sounds are actual recordings of instruments. Sample libraries can only play back notes that have been recorded. But sample libraries don’t always have the full range of an instrument. Recording is costly and a cost/benefit decision is made by the library creator to determine if little used notes justify an increase in the final product price. Depending on the instrument, a missing sound in a sample library doesn’t necessarily mean the instrument can’t play it. Note that an NPPE can be set to fall back to NP sounds for missing samples, so depending on the setup, you may not be able to trust that if an NPPE plays it, it’s possible.
In short, never trust playback, you need to know the capabilities of the instruments you’re writing for.
I know, that noteperformer plays back impossible notes.
But what I mean is: If I want to play it safe when composing, can I choose to avoid notes being marked as either shades of red? If note=black, safe/ok to play on the instrument?
(I’m writing for professional players - and only common chamber instruments.)
the standard VSL (Studio) triple horn goes up to G5 in general but the Vienna horn only to F5 so I guess it depends on the exact library. My Cinematic Studio also does G5. The BBC does indeed get up to F5 so I guess most competent libraries will be one or the other. it can also depend on the exact articulation.
I agree with your conclusion.. but picking a nit: The tools that are available to library creators allow them to not necessarily record every note. If they pitch shifted every other note on a piano let’s say, the tonality would be pretty much right for the range but the size/memory could be halved. Just saying that they have choices in how they create the library and some undoubtedly prioritize one aspect over another. It’s possible to shift recorded samples crazily in range. Even more reason to agree with you though.
Certainly! The main thing I wanted to point out, which was probably lost in trying to cover too much, is it’s a function of the library being used, and not a case of Dorico deciding what is played.
