Hi, I am trying to figure out what’s the best way to use playback for extended techniques. I am currently using the strings instruments from the HAlion library on Dorico pro 5. Is there a built in way to get the Halion string quartet instruments to playback extended techniques such as Ricochet, Legno, Falutando, etc.? Do I need to download an external library for this?
I’m afraid you are limited to the available techniques each library has, and HALions’s strings are not known for their extended techniques! So yes, you will probably need to invest in other libraries (which is quite a money and time investment).
Gotcha, thanks. For things like the Spitfire libraries or Note Performer would I have to manually map the extended techniques in Dorico?
That depends. You’ll find a thread with a lot of expression maps and playback templates shared by fellow users or John Barron in the forum. NotePerformer comes already with everything set (except, maybe, organ stops that need to be configured following the manual). So check NP’s manual to see whether the techniques you’re looking for are there. From a very personal point of view, I’ve shared the Cremona quartet expression maps and playback templates made by Thurisaz and modified by myself to be used without VEP last month, and most of the techniques you’re citing are there, but it’s a solo quartet.
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Thanks for all of this helpful info! The techniques I am after are akin to the Spitfire Frozen Strings with lots of squeaky sul tasto/sul pont, bow pressure, lots of noisy stuff. I looked through and just downloaded NP, it’s definitely better than Halion, at least there’s Con Legno, the temolo is faster, the mute is fine, the bartok pizz, but I wish I could find a plugin/vst inst that gives all the noisy squeaky stuff like Frozen Strings and can be mapped well in Dorico. BTW, can the NI Cremona do microtonal playback in Dorico?
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I don’t think Cremona does micro tonal.
You should be able to create an expression map for frozen strings — Spitfire stuff usually works with keyswitches or UACC, it’s only a matter of saving a working instrument, set a working expression map, save the endpoints and build a playback template with all this. Then all you have to do is recall the playback template. So the hassle is just once 
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Thanks! I am new all this so I’ll start looking into what UACC and keyswithces are 
It does actually. You can see this thread for how a composer got it working with the HEJI system.
For a pretty a sample library with a pretty thorough set of extended techniques, this one seems interesting, but I have not worked with it.
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Great, I’ll look into it thank you!