Hi guys,
I have noticed that I can’t get BBCSO pitched percussion to respond to the dynamics markings of the score since It seems to react only to the velocity.
Is there any way I can set the velocity to follow the dynamics? Or to replicate them non manually?
Thanks in advance!
Welcome to the forum, mortegae. I don’t have BBCSO myself so I can’t give you specific instructions, but you can certainly tell Dorico to use velocity for dynamics; you’ll need to look in the Endpoint Setup dialog to see which expression map is chosen for those instruments. Depending on how sophisticated the controls for those instruments are (e.g. whether they need special keyswitches etc.) you could either edit the expression map, or simply choose an expression map that uses velocity for dynamics.
Maybe you have a look at this thread. I had similar problems and created a quick fix.
Perhaps Daniel may verify if my way to solve it is correct.
OLDMACILLI_QuickFix_BBCSO_Harp_TubularBells.zip (3.28 KB)
OLDMACILLI_QuickFix_BBCSO_Unpitched Percussion.zip (3.66 KB)
we discussed BBC percussion a few days ago, as oldmacilli said. Basically it is not correct to say that the Expression Map responds only to velocity as you can easily test for yourself by sliding up and down in the dynamics lane. However, it is true that the velocity response appears to be much more contrasty. The simple answer you need both and whatever you choose, you’ll probably need to set the dynamic manually for the majority of entries.
Looking at the timpani for instance, the default setting in the EM is CC1 primary +CC11 secondary full range. Without adjusting the velocity, this gives a somewhat restricted range. An obvious thing to try would be Velocity + CC11 but the trouble here is there is a sharp spike near the top of the velocity range so performance is more uneven and if you cancel the secondary altogether and choose only velocity, this becomes more extreme and is unusable in my view. The exact response will vary from instrument to instrument and indeed, as oldmacilli has correctly pointed out, from articulation to articulation. Don’t forget that in the instrument itself, there is a setting for dynamics which defaults to “full velocity range”. This seems to mean somewhat different things for different instruments in notation software but percussion certainly needs the velocity and I certainly wouldn’t recommend switching it off (i.e change to vel. mapped to dynamics).
I should stress that I am using the Core version of the library. I think it’s highly unlikely that the maps are different for the common instruments as the articulations are supposed to be the same but if we really do find discrepancies in the way things work, then we should compare the maps.
Thanks a lot for your answers and time, guys! 