I have come across this strange dip in the dynamics, that I simply do not understand. Am I doing something wrong, or is this a (known) issue?
I know I can overwrite it in the CC lane, but I would rather not.
I know I can overwrite it in the CC lane, but I would rather not.
Do you hear the effect of the dip? I have seen many of those in the piece I am working on and have in most cases drawn in a line to fill the gap just to be sure.
Do check where the second note (the e) of the first and the first of the second slur (the a) are exactly located relative to the dip. Probably easiest to use the zoomed in velocity lane for this. Sometimes the CC line seems not to be exactly aligned. So the first note might be just before and the second just after the dip.
So it would be sort of a « breath » between the two slurred phrases.
Thank you for your reply. I’ve just found out, though, that the VST was causing it. For all other articulations and techniques velocity governs the attack and CC1 dynamics, so naturally I thought the same would apply to tremolo, since it’s manual doesn’t state otherwise. Well, you may have guessed it by now: tremolo is an exception. Both velocity and CC1 governs dynamics and it seems to be hit or miss which one gains the upper hand. As soon as I switched velocity off in the expression map the dip disappeared. 
you haven’t said which library you’re using. If tremolos have their own patch and their dynamic is set much lower than for other articulations – perfectly possible – then that would be a simple explanation. Of course you can easily test this and if it doesn’t happen with all three stroke tremolos then there has to be a different cause.
If it really is hit and miss then that’s a badly programmed library. More likely they both have their own specific functions. Which library is it --just in case I’m familiar with it?
It’s Embertone’s Intimate Strings Friedlander.
In hindsight, I am not even sure it is the library, which is at fault. It is more likely Dorico, that sometimes lets velocity affect CC1, when both are set to govern dynamics. And that is hit or miss, because it only happens on some notes.
don’t know how that’s programmed, I’m afraid. But of course you do know that you can set the Expression Map to use just one dynamic controller, rather than also activating the secondary? Many libraries use one controller for pure volume and one for expressiveness or tone (often CC1). Shorter articulations are sometimes given to velocity instead. I guess all you can do is check the documentation as carefully as possible as to how Embertone envisage you use the controllers.
Even: from what I’ve noticed, Dorico in the current version doesn’t immediately update the CC lines when editing dynamics in the notation, resulting in strange line jumps. Only if you delete these dynamics and draw them in again will the CC lines be updated immediately
However, this does not affect playback.
Well, I found out what the problem was, and to answer my own original question: yep, I did do something wrong, something horribly trivial. All the base switches of the expression map have CC1 as primary dynamic and velocity as secondary and velocity is constrained to a narrow band, because it controls the attack. In the tremolo switch I had somehow managed to set CC1 as both primary and secondary with the latter constrained to 50-60. As soon as I flipped the radio button to velocity, the anomalies disappeared.
In other words, good, old, bloody user error. You can always depend on it.
Thank you for all the contributions. I’m sorry to have waisted your time, though.
1 Like