Expression map by default

I was wondering if it exists a default expression map when you load a 3d party instrument (e.g. a piano) ? After all, the things are always the same on any piano : velocity, pedalling, and a few techniques like staccato.

Yes, the Default expression map is loaded by default.

Thanks Daniel. What does it take in account ?

very little as you will see if you care to take a look

But it’s enough for piano or other velocity-driven instruments with no specific articulation programming.

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LOL :wink:
But what about staccato, pedalling and “usual” things like that ?

what do you mean by staccato or “usual things” exactly? The pianos I have used do not require Expression Maps although there may well be libraries where techniques are specifically programmed and then you will need to create an EM for them. Otherwise staccato where you actually put a dot over the notes will make the note shorter by 50% This – and other articulations like tenuto and legato – are determined by the Playback Options and have nothing to do with the Expression Map.

Pedal =CC64 is built into Dorico and thus doesn’t require anything in the EM either.

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Thanks for your answer, David. You learnt me that EM and PO were different things in Dorico. In the world where I come from (Notion), these things are mixed and grouped under the “rules” term. So, my question should be “is there a default PO and what are the concerned parameters?”. It seems that we have all we need for a piano (no EM in this case). For a violin, what is the PO default ? (I understand that techniques like Pizz or Con legno need to be defined in an EM, and it seems that it cannot be done by default, as these things are not standardized within the vsti editors).

there is only one set of Playback Options in a Dorico project which is common to all instruments, not separate ones for different instruments. That’s not 100% true in fact as you do have the option in the Expression Maps to set different values as an override which can be useful on occasion when you become more experienced. But to repeat, these overrides are at an Expression Map level which doesn’t necessarily correspond to an instrument level.

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Have a look at Play>Playback Options. You will see these options only cover general performance issues, particularly things like swing, relative beat stress and ‘humanisation’ of playback.

Specific instrument techniques (pizz, col legno etc) need Expression Maps, because the actual sounds are handled by the particular VST instruments that you have installed. So, on your score you notate a playing technique (pizz). In the Expression Map you define how that instruction will be interpreted by your particular VST.

If you are using Dorico’s default sounds most of this is handled for you.

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