In vol 5, I have borrowed trills from the chamber and solo strings as I don’t regard the omission by VSL as acceptable. Thought I’d documented this somewhere but maybe not. Of course it’s only a workaround and requires adding them in the Synchron player.
I have recently created an add-on switch for mute in Vol 5 which completely eliminates the requirements for separate entries. On that basis, I imagine you are perfectly correct in what you’ve done with the SSE Chamber strings and I’ll look at simplifying this library also.
These maps are now out of date. In all recent ones, I have used a scaled secondary controller which definitely improves the dynamic response. I’ve now created short and concise Dimension strings maps which have also added all the player divisions to add-ons (which must obviously be in the mutual exclusions). The only small thing to look out for which I’ve found is that if you are in “con sord” mode, playing techniques such as pizz for instance (but not note-specific articulations) require the “con sord” to be reapplied on changing back to “arco” even if there is no reference to A0 in the switch. This would simply be hidden in the score.
Thanks for this. I’ve read elsewhere about the re-applying issue. Just now it’s time for me to find out about add-on vs base.
On scaling the secondary dynamic, could you explain? Do you mean narrowing the range (by default 1-127) in the expression map, or is there a control in the Synchron player that I’ve overlooked?
I mean narrowing the range in the Expression Map. The top end can stay largely unchanged – I currently use 120 typically – but the lower end must be higher. I’ve tried with between about 40 and 60 and it’s just a matter of seeing what suits you but allowing the CC11 to go all the way down to zero will mean the quiet dynamics will be barely audible.
All parameters can be adjusted in the Synchron Player. E.g. you can use the same CC to control both Expression and VelXF and just scale the effect individually in the SY player.
@fratveno: how, specifically? For reference, let’s say that what we want is for cc2 to scale from 1 to 127, and we want cc11 to follow the same contours, but with reduced variance. For instance, centred on 96, with a lowest of 64 and highest of 127. If one wanted to do that, could it be done in a simple fashion?
more on that base/add-on gambit. Following Andi’s thread in the VSL forum, the idea of using add-ons to switch desks in the Special Edition Dimension Strings arose. I thought about this, and it seems more logical to me to reserve Base for things that are both mutually exclusive and subject to various inflections. The obvious e.g. is mute/open, but desk layout too.
So I’ve set up these maps (attached; it says ‘violas’, but has violins too. Only difference is that violas only have 3 desks, and solo is on a different switch to the violins’ solo). VSL SSE Dimension Violas.zip (4.59 KB)
There are three exclusion groups: mute/open; players (i.e. desks etc.); and bowing. Everything in these groups is Base, and everything else is Add-on.
If anyone feels like trying them out and commenting, that’d be appreciated.
I’m not sure you can do everything by numbers only, but I was referring to the right hand side of the SY player’s CONTROL section. This is basically the same functionality as in Vienna Instruments, and very efficient as one CC can be used to control several related parameters…
There has been a lot of discussion recently about the “official” VSL SE synchronized templates, I just wanted to put my current EM versions here in one place for comparison (they don’t seem to be currently on the main Expression Maps thread) VSL SE+ Synchronized maps.zip (11.4 KB)
Hi everyone,
I’m posting here since it’s been about Expression Maps for different libraries.
I’m focusing on the VSL Synchronized Solo Strings and Con Sordino that VSL has put out this year. I’m finding that a simple change between these two libraries is not working as I was told today by VSL support. In other words, having the VSL EM chosen in preferences, the End Point showing it, and when choosing a violin for a player which triggers the Synchron Player to show up with the Violin basic preset, I insert the Con Sord. technique after a few notes, and the player does not change to Con Sordino violin basic preset, as again, indicated by VSL.
So my question is: Are any of you using the same libraries and EM’s, having similar issues, or is it just me?
Any help is appreciated.
Thank you
I’m not surprised by what you are writing, since playback templates do not allow this functionality : “when you invoke such playing technique, Dorico will load a new patch devoted to this technique (here, con sordino).” What Dorico does is trigger whatever keyswitch, UACC value or program change inside the patch, so usable patches have to be loaded before. I don’t think the VSL playback templates load normal solo violin and con sordino one when you add a solo violin, and that could be the issue.
first of all, the strings con sord is a separate library, not an articulation within the main one. I assume you’re aware of this and have the appropriate library but for it to be correctly programmed, you need to either use a channel change or an instrument change. I’d probably suggest the latter in this case --simply create the muted instrument(s) from within setup and switch to it in the Galley View when required. This is not something that can be done from within the Expression Map unless VSL have already programmed channel changes in the maps – and I see no sign of that at a quick look. If you post the specific maps you’re using, I could easily confirm this.
I just got another reply from VSL; their suggestion is to manually choose from the Con Sordino library, the merged basic preset, which apparently includes the sense sordino and con sordino.
I’m waiting to find out if this choice means I get access to both library techniques/features or not.
So for now I’ve created a template that has that choice.
it looks to me, reading the thread on the VSL forum, that there are presets available which merge the patches of two libraries together which makes some sense. There is a single EM “add-on” entry on B0 to switch to muted (except for the 2nd violin for some reason) which should then work as the presets treat the two libraries as one and you can then programme this way as I do in my maps for the Dimension Strings which include muted patches.
However, there should really be also an add-on “open1” to unmute which seems to be missing. In theory you can do an “ord” but of course this also resets the patch, not just the mute state so this might be an oversight. It’ll be interesting to see how you get on anyway.
Well, the final choice for Synchronized Strings presets are the merged velocity versions, which, like you say dko22, includes both “sense sordino” and “con sordino” presets.
To go from one to the other, yes you do have to add order. or nat. for “sense sordino” and con sort. for “con sordino”.
Doing a trial project, using the different techniques available and it’s symbols, I’m finding that when opening the project and doing the first playback where Dorico finding a word/symbol to activate a technique, it’s muted the first time and then it plays fine. I’m attaching a screen shot with notes for you to see. It’s somekind of delay for activating the technique. (e.g.: con sord. “A “ note doesn’t play, but the rest of the notes do play as indicated).
I’m even trying the project with the latest Dorico update, 4.3.10 from 12/2/2022.
If the techniques are not taking immediate effect, it is quite likely that a previous one is not being cancelled (unless it’s an add-on) so Dorico is effectively reading as a combination if this makes sense. You can check this by putting in an “ord” (as you’ve been doing) and ensuring that you don’t combine techniques unless that combination is actually in the map-- for instance your marcato and ord together bar 17 is actually a combination. I suggest also having a look at the mutual exclusions in the Expression Map
Thanks for your reply. I had the pre-roll already. For some weird reason it still wouldn’t playback. I finally edited the pre-roll to zero, saved and then set it back to the number I had. Now it works.
I’ll check the EM for exclusions, as well.
Thanks for your suggestions.
