I’ve just loaded a flow that I know very well, which uses NPPE with the Cinematic Studio Piano. It has always played back correctly without issue but the note lengths are inconsistent, some notes sustain correctly, while others are cut off prematurely. I am wondering if the last week’s update (to Version 6.1.0.6067) could account for this?
I have Independent Voice Playback enabled for this instrument, and something very curious is going on with the number of voices exposed in the Play window:
I have checked and double-checked and the maximum number of voices used in the Keyboard 1 part is 4, 2 per hand (Up Stem 1 and Down Stem 1 voices only).
I guess it’s possible I’ve upset something somewhere, but I cannot account for the issue.
If copy the troublesome Keyboard 1 part to Keyboard 2, it plays back correctly, with or without Independent Voice Playback enabled. But, if I copy it back to Keyboard 1 the issue originally described persists…
What could possibly have happened to have caused this issue, and what might be the solution, I wonder?
We’re fortunate to belong to a community led by a highly responsive team at Steinberg, but I’m worried that downgrading to the previous version has not resolved the playback issue I’m currently experiencing.
Apologies, I was mistaken. I checked numerous bars in which the playback ack issue is most apparent (dotted minimum playing back as crotchets) and the notes were all in Up-stem Voice 1. While I can’t account for the number of voices, this does not appear to the root cause of the playback issue.
Thanks for reminding me about voice colours - I’d forgotten about this functionality.
This morning, I exported the flow, intending to trim it for upload here, and was delighted to find that the issue was resolved in the exported version. Unfortunately, the problem reappears as soon as I import the flow back into the original project.
I’m completely at a loss as to what to do next. I’ve spent so much time trying to fix this, but with no success.
This morning, I exported the flow, intending to trim it for upload here, and was delighted to find that the issue was resolved in the exported version. Unfortunately, the problem reappears as soon as I import the flow back into the original project.
I’m completely at a loss as to what to do next. I’ve spent so much time trying to fix this, but with no success.
UPDATE:
Exporting all flows and then importing them into a new project has resolved this peculiar playback issue insofar as I can determine at this stage. A new issue has arisen, however, and I’ll post about this in a new topic shortly.
For your information, while the issue has been resolved in some flows, others continue to experience the same problem. For reasons unknown, some notes are truncated, whereas others play back correctly.
I’ll give this - anything! - a try. I’m quite confident I haven’t set any playback overrides, but then again…
Alas, after selecting Reset Playback Overrides the issue persists. (It would be good if Dorico provided feedback after selecting such an option, as I have zero idea if anything has actually been changed in the project.)
It’s so strange: some bars play back perfectly, while notes in others, always in the Keyboard part, are truncated. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it. There are issues in numerous flows, but all note durations appear correct in Play mode (played durations).
At first, I thought this might relate to a previous issue I raised concerning slurs+staccato markings affecting playback in swing time. However, I don’t think that’s the case here. (That said, the swing playback issue remains a significant one, especially when managing numerous flows. A slur followed by a staccato can wreak havoc, and there’s no reliable way to trace where the problem originated; the playback glitch can surface many bars, or even flows, after the original slur+staccato combination.)
Everything was working perfectly until very recently, which is why I thought the 6.1 update might have been involved.
Daniel and I have looked at this a bit today, but it’s going to take some more detailed digging to really get to the bottom of it. What I think I can say so far is that:
it’s not new, it happens at least as far back as v5
it could well be related to the issues you mention with slurs+staccatos in swing time
Thank you, Richard I appreciate that you’ll be fully occupied addressing issues arising from the recent update, which, as always, introduces a wealth of useful improvements and once again demonstrates why Dorico remains in a class of its own.
What baffles me is that everything was working perfectly until very recently. It was only when I returned to a song I had been working on previously that I noticed the problem.
In this song, exported just a few days ago (with Synth V vocals, for anyone interested), everything played back exactly as it should. Now, however, that’s no longer the case. Nothing in the score has changed, though Dorico was updated to version 6.1 when it was released.
@rraby The other thing I would suggest is go into Playback Options and Reset to Default in there.
@Richard_Lanyon I have previously experienced (and reported so in here) issues with swing playback, I suspected to do with note length conditions, with the triggering of staccato (not factoring in the swing). I recall the user in question was using VSL Saxophones, and I could reproduce their issue, and there was nothing wrong with the map that I could see. I’m not sure if it was ever fixed because I rarely have to use swing playback myself.
@Richard_Lanyon mentioned in this thread the likely cause of tied notes being truncated in swing time:
The problem here is I think that when swing is applied the position of the note and the position of the staccato “region” used for playback end up getting out of step with each other. The result is that the long note (the tied one) plays back as though it were staccato. I think this is a known issue but I will make a note of it (our ref: STEAM-5575).
I’m aware of this issue and typically apply ord. to ‘reset’ following a slur+staccato combination. In the example I shared with the team, playback remains inconsistent within the same flow, including passages where swing is not specified.
With thanks to the Dorico team for their stellar support, it appears the issue is related to NotePerformer rather than Dorico. To confirm this, switching to CinePiano (via Kontakt) resolves the problem.
For reference, I was using NotePerformer 4.1 with the Cinematic Studio Piano.
With thanks to Daniel and Richard, and others who contributed to this topic.
I’m having a somewhat similar issue, I think. Note Performer playback in 6.1 now puts space between each note in the strings (and sometimes, randomly but not always, other instruments), where before it would play as a connected line. In this bar, it cuts off the dotted quarter by almost a full eighth, and cuts the second dotted eighth in half. Sounds very disjointed. In the Piano roll, I see it is applying “Base Switch: Natural” to each note, which I don’t remember it doing before? It does switch to legato for the slur, but still cuts that 2nd note off very early.
None of the changes suggested earlier in this thread made any difference that I could tell. For example, setting default note duration in Playback Options / Timing to 110% instead of the default 95% still sounded exactly the same.
Switching to another Playback template does fix this, but I’m hoping to still be able to use NP.
I appreciate that you’ll be fully occupied addressing issues arising from the recent update, which, as always, introduces a wealth of useful improvements and once again demonstrates why Dorico remains in a class of its own.