Experssion maps - note on AND off events happen at the same time

Hello,

I’m trying to create proper expression maps to Fablesounds Broadway Big Band Kontakt version Standard Playing mode. I’m using key switches to achieve the proper sounds. It works well, but I came across a problem, that might come from my misunderstanding.

A playing technique (or articulation) has two types:
Attribute - Direction

  • the former applies for the given note to which it’s attached to
  • the latter stays on until other direction is given

It can have a duration or be momentary (changed by shift+alt+left/right)

BUT whatever I choose from the possibilities above, the Off events are happening at the same time as the On events. I exported my score into MIDI, and it seems that this is a consistent behaviour. Although the Playing technique timeline looks perfectly precise.

Should these events happen at the same time, or am I expecting it well to happen at the beginning and at the end of the “note’s”/“playing technique’s” duration?

Welcome to the forum, dcsekesax. At the moment there’s no specific control over how keyswitch notes play. Dorico makes them all latching by default, i.e. they all last for the duration of the technique region to which they apply. We’re planning to add greater control over the duration of keyswitches in a future version.

Thank you for the fast answer. Not comfortable, but manageable by using nat./growl off/non vib. etc. Looking forward to the advanced control. Please keep up the good job you’re doing already!

Experimenting further, I was surprised by another problem connected to expression maps.
If I use 3 active techniques at the same time

  • even not entering them at the same point of the score
  • even when one of the 3 isn’t handled by the actual expression map (Trombone growl.png)
    then
    I get a fourth technique which is exactly the first one in the expression map. (Two examples are attached, I intentionally changed the first technique to test it)

I’ll be grateful for any help or explanation.



When you’re writing music that combines playing techniques, you need to make sure that you specify exactly those combinations in the expression map, otherwise the playback result is effectively undefined.