I love the automatic way in which DORICO assigns all instruments from VSL, setting up all instances of VIENNA SYNCHRON PLAYER correctly when opening a new score and using one of the many DORICO templets. It saves so much time. Well almost all instruments are correctly set up and ready to use. This is where I want help:
I’ve started a score using the DORICO 4 Concert Orchestra Template. In a matter of seconds all 29 VSL instruments in the score where installed, only 4 present a problem: Tuba, Side Drum, Clash Cymbal and Bass Guitar. The Bass guitar and the Tuba were assigned wrong instruments. The bass guitar probably because my VSL Synchronised SE does not have a Bass Guitar. Not a problem, I don’t want one in the score. The Tuba was no problem eider, I assigned the Tuba manually in the corresponding SYNCHRON PLAYER instance. The Side Drum was assigned a BASS DRUM, and the Clash Cymbal was assigned a Piatti, both are on one-line staffs and consequently produce only one sound. Opening the corresponding SYNCHRON PLAYER instances I find that the SYNCHRON PLAYER for the BASS DRUM has under "DRUMS” Taiko, Bass Drum, Snare drums, Snare Drums a4. Tambourine and Concert Toms and that each of these has 5 or 6 different sounds which are triggered by specifically assigned keyboard keys. The same occurs with Clash Cymbals which contains Gongs, Susp. Cymbal, Piatti and Tam-Tam. Naturally it would be great to be able to trigger all these sounds, not just one, from the score. But how?
Second question is: How do I add a VSL instrument to the Concert Orchestra Template Score and assign the corresponding SYNCHRON PLAYER instance?
Although Dorico includes templates to set up your orchestration such as the Concert Orchestra Template, they have nothing to do with matching your libraries to appropriate Expression Maps. VSL have supplied these for many of their libraries (or you can create your own as I have done) and they are found in your user area in VSL. If after downloading and installing that, you change your Playback Template to an appropriate VSL one for the library you’re actually using i.e VSL Syzd Special Edition, you should find that the appropriate Percussion Map has been installed which will allow you to switch instruments in non-pitched percussion.
I’m assuming here that you have set a Percussion line for these various instruments and added the instruments individually for the player(s) as in the screenshot example from one of my own projects?
Thank you so much, I see that you are an expert in DORICO with VSL. Great! I’m just beginning with DORICO. It appears that since I followed all the initial VSL DORICO integration procedure, Dorico has loaded all the aprópiate EXPRESSION MAPS automatically on this particular score as can be seen in the attachments.
However, I am having another problem that perhaps you can help me with. I find in this score the DYNAMIC RANGE, although it is functioning, to be very small, I mean the difference between p, and ppp as the difference between f and fff is just audible , while I am used to in Sibelius to have clearly noticeable differences between each Dynamic Marking. Thank you in advance
you can change the Dynamic Curve power in Playback Options → Dynamics to a higher level in Dorico 4 – however Dorico 5 has an additional option of changing the Maximum Dynamic level which has a more marked effect in increasing the overall contrast.
One problem is that the VSL Expression Maps are designed for using presets without Velocity XF which in itself considerably reduces dynamic contrast. I always enable VelXF in the Synchron player.
incidentally, if you are just using the Synchronized SE vol1, there is a radical alternative if you have NotePerformer or are willing to invest in it. The new update now supports this library in a Performance Engine which will in every respect give a much more dynamic and contrasty rendering than using the VSL maps.
Thanks.
I have and use NOTE PERFORMER a lot, I’ve been considering that upgrade, what is keeping me back is that the idea with NOTE PERFORMER is it interprets all dynamics automatically and very well. Saving a lot of bother. Nevertheless, I’m just beginning to enjoy the DAW capabilities, even if they are limited, of my new DORICO PRO 4.
I wonder if there is any way of raising and lowering the volume of a single note. Let’s say one has a Tuba that holds one note over several bars, and one wants the volume to fluctuate during the note.
No, you can either write in specific dynamics in the music as needed, or you can use the dynamics editor in the Key Editor to add or edit dynamics without affecting the printed score.
if you’re talking about the VSL Expression Maps, you can’t change the dynamic within the note because velocity is set to be the dynamic controller. To be able to vary the dynamic within a note, a Continuous Controller (CC) must be used. This is a very contentious point with the official VSL maps. If you’re not sure how to change this, I’m happy to discuss via PM ways of editing these maps or alternatives – things can get complicated. Or try out the Synchronized Special Edition vol 1 NotePerformer 4 Performance engine (available with NP 4.2 recent update) to bypass all these difficulties.
Thank you. I have just upgraded to NotePerformer 4 in anticipation of buying the ENGINE for Synchron Special Edition. Must try it out first.
As to upgrading to DORICO 5, which I would like to do, I think I’ll wait for a discount offer.
well, as you can see from the thread on the reopening of the Steinberg shop Steinberg online shop preview sale, there is in fact an offer on for Dorico 5. I’d contact Daniel to see if he can do something to help if you didn’t get a discount code in the mail. But you should hurry as today may be the last day.
Yesterday, with the discount code Daniel sent me, I installed DORICO 5, DORICO 4 is still installed, I would like to uninstall D4 to save a little disc space, can I simply uninstal it? Since I now have NP4 also, next step is the NP engine for VI Synchron Special Edition 1, I am a little worried about disc space, my PC allways downloads everything to the main partition, consequently I have a very large empty second partition. Any advice as to how to distribute music software into different disc partitions without running into communication problems in the PC? I imagine programs should stay in the main partition and sample libraries in the second partition, I recall having problems with this some years ago, namely the Music programs not finding the sample libraries after being relocated. Thanks again for all the valuable information.
yes you can simply uninstall Dorico 4 and indeed I finally recently got round to doing just that. Both programme versions have separate settings folders.
The NP engine for VSL Synchron SE1 takes virtually no space in itself. As you probably know, the Synchron player allows you to locate your libraries where you want through the settings cogwheel so if you’re short of space, if necessary you could move the library folders to another partition and change the settings accordingly. It’s good practise to keep the actual application on the main partition and your libraries on another. Providing you use the tools supplied with many libraries to show the player where your libraries are, in theory you shouldn’t run into any difficulties.
This is embarrassing. “The NotePerformer Playback Engines application is installed with NotePerformer.” I’ve looked and looked in NotePerformer 4 and I can’t find it. I want to try out the NP engine for VSL Synchron SE1
and then click on it and then download from the big button on the next screen. It will then be in trial mode as seen below and you can use it for an hour before having to reload. Note that you can’t do audio export in trial mode.
Thank you dko22, thank you Derrek.
I must say this was not as straight forward as all previous NotePerformer installations, this particular ENGINE is under $50 right now so since you praise it, I decided to buy it right away. It is now installed and permanently activated; I placed a shortcut on my desktop. Next step will be trying to use it. I will study the colourful NP page on this. If you have any additional explanations or suggestions on this, please do tell.
just to be clear – I won’t buy this NPPE because it doesn’t support the extended articulations of the Plus volume which I own because Arne, rightly or wrongly, believes most owners don’t buy the Plus extension. In fact NPPE has only 6 articulations and my combined volumes have 36 for violins 1 just as an example-- a bit of a difference! It’s also not my primary library for full orchestral works (CSS and BBC Core are the top choices here). Although the somewhat restricted articulations in the NPPE’s I do own are more than compensated for by the excellent musical intelligence, that’s not the case for me personally here though I’m sure it will work well for many.
As regards using it, there’s not much to it - simply choose the instruments that are in your score. Or just “select all” as this particular NPPE doesn’t use much memory anyway.
