Hello. I apologize if the question may sound silly but I am a little confused about it. What is the concrete difference between velocity and dynamics? For example, if in play mode I go to act on the dynamics, if I’m not mistaken they don’t modify the velocity. Dorico considers an mf to be a note played with a velocity of about 80. Are two things coincident? In simpler terms, if I want to make a note sound softer or louder for playback purposes, does it matter if I act on the dynamics (eg CC 1) or on the velocity?
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Ideally, you should adjust the dynamics in Write mode by writing immediate and gradual dynamics in the score, which will then adjust either or both the velocity and continuous controllers as needed.
Dorico 3.5 had a dedicated dynamics editor in Play mode that allowed you to edit the dynamic profile in a similar way, again so that Dorico would handle the appropriate changes in velocity and controllers as needed, and this dedicated editor will be making its return in Dorico 4 in a future maintenance release (though not the one coming imminently).
an important distinction between velocity and CC controllers for dynamics is that velocity is a single strike on the note whereas CC1, CC11 or whatever is programmed in the library can modify it during the course of the note. So piano, for instance is usually programmed for velocity only but a string legato is nearly always programmed to be controlled by a CC. On the other hand, you can’t do much with a string pizz after it’s plucked, so often (but it doesn’t need to be) this sort of articulation is programmed for velocity.
What’s mean by “dynamics” here is actually the main dynamic controller for the particular instrument and playing technique being used. This can in fact be either velocity or CC but the great thing is that the soon to return dedicated dynamics editor makes the whole thing transparent to the user so you don’t necessarily need to go into the Expression Map to check it for yourself.
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