Sync to Host does not work like it does with Pro Tools and Logic. Is that something not yet supported with Dorico or am I doing something wrong? VST setup with EZ Drummer and Follow Host Selected, but press play on Dorico and Drum Sequence doesn’t start.
Dorico doesn’t currently pass the current tempo and bar position information that is required by some plugins. This is on our list for a future version.
I think it would be best if I could handle EZ Drummer from within Dorico (like I do in Pro Tools). Maybe it does already? But I’m having trouble and causing the program to Freeze.
I have made a Percussion Map of all of the drums, cymbals etc. from the “Basic Jazz” kit from EZ Drummer and assigned EZ Drummer to be the plug-in in Play Mode. After doing this, the individual drum sounds map perfectly to the plug-in (eg. entering a a hi-hat in play mode triggers the hi-hat in EZ drummer). However, not all of the individual drums show up in Play Mode in the Drum Editor. as an individual line/instrument I think for this I have to go to Setup Mode and “Edit Percussion Kit” to add more individual drums to the drum part so that it matches all of the individual drums I added to the Percussion Map (including the Midi notes/numbers somehow?
Assuming all that works out, I would then have the EZ Drum Jazz Kit to use for all possible sounds.
Here’s where the freeze occurs. I want to be able to Import the “many” MIDI loops that come with EZ Drummer. If I could simply import the MIDI with no modification, it should map perfectly. However, when I drag the MIDI into the score, it doesn’t line up. If D3 is mapped to a Hi-hat, I should be able to import a bunch of D3’s in a Midi timeline and it should be perfect in Dorico. But it isn’t working. I tried different variations of the check boxes in the MIDI import in Dorico, and sometimes it imports it into a new flow as a flute. Very strange.
If I do this in Pro Tools, which has a Piano Roll much like Dorico Play Mode. It imports perfectly and when played back with “EZ Drummer” as the Instrumnent Plug-in, it lines up perfectly.
Am I doing something wrong, or just trying to do what Dorico cannot do at the moment. I’d think importing MIDI should be easy in this day and age. Thus I must be doing something incorrectly?
Firstly the issue with needing to add extra items to the kit in Setup Mode: this phase is needed because the percussion map and the kit definition are two quite different things. The percussion map is the mapping of percussion instruments to MIDI pitches, and the kit definition is the mapping of stave positions and notehead types to percussion instruments. Dorico represents the score as a set of players and instruments, and each instrument has its own stream of notes. The music for a drum kit is stored as separate streams for bass drum, snare, etc. The music is notated entirely independently to how it is played, which is why just adding an entry to the percussion map has no effect on the notation. This may be unfamiliar if you are coming from a DAW background where percussion tracks are basically just pure MIDI (which may explain why it appears to work for you in Pro Tools)
For drag & drop from EZDrummer: this is something that won’t work yet in Dorico because the MIDI import of percussion parts is currently limited to GM mappings, and only for MIDI content that is on channel 10. It doesn’t currently use the percussion map of the current instrument when you drag a part onto the track in Play Mode. I’ve just tried it myself with EZDrummer and I can see that it’s failing because the MIDI file that EZDrummer exports is mapped to channel 1. Improving this import behaviour is certainly on our list for a future version.
Thank you. Hopefully your thorough response helps others. Dorico is worth the wait and I am fully committed to it because of the workflow. Doing lead sheets has never been easier and now I am learning more about composing and arranging as a result. This was always difficult in the DAW for me because I like thinking in terms of music notation. The one hold back for me is drums because of the wealth of MIDI loops out there. For now, I guess I can at least map the EZ Drummer kit and add notes manually and export to DAW for adjustments.
Does the same occur with EZ KEYS and soon the new EZ BASS or whatever it will be called. These are great tools for quickly generating music. I will have to try and see if I can add EZ keys and import it’s MIDI fully notated and maybe even respond to expressions . Let me continue learning and you guys keep up with improving this amazing software.
I think you should have more luck with the non-drum EZ plugins. If you drag into Play Mode then they will be imported relative to the closest barline. We know that there isn’t any visual feedback yet as to what’s happening until you release the mouse - that’s something else on our (incredibly long) list. FWIW, I’m a great fan of EZDrummer and so I hope I’ll have the time to improve the experience with it.
There is a possible workaround you could try. Create an EZ drummer track in Pro Tools but assign to MIDI channel 10. Drag the loops from EZ Drummer into the Pro Tools track and then drag from Pro Tools into Dorico’s Play Mode, on a drum instrument track. If Pro Tools doesn’t allow you to drag and drop MIDI tracks then try saving it to a MIDI file first and then drag that into Dorico.
I’ll have to spend more time on your approach in ProTools as it didn’t work for me, but I’m guessing I’m doing something wrong. One thing that definitely works is to let it create a 2-part Flute part. I don’t know why it does this, but it creates all the right notes and when assigned to EZ Drummer it plays back perfectly. Notation is garbage. But, I’m sure I can choose to not show that part or to make it slash notation. I’ll reply back again when I know more.
Yea I’m crashing the program constantly. Going to bed. You know what we want to do with the drums for us jazzers etc. It does work when it creates automatically creates a two-flute part, but I want to be able to paste these tasty MIDI loops where I want them in the score easily. The Drum editor in Play should simply be able to drag a part with MIDI note numbers into the matched lines defined in your Percussion Map (percussion map should be saved so you don’t have to import every time too).
I tried EZ Keys and it worked very well. However, it also does create a separate flow for some reason. Is there a way to simply past it into the piano part of the flow you are working on? I was able to paste the flow part it created into the piano part of flow #1 perfectly, then expand the parts to horns etc. . . . . . . . . . . . Really Cool! You know what I’m hoping for here. This is such a time saver if you can make it work. Import any MIDI from anywhere into any instrument in the score and have it intelligently align the MIDI note numbers to what you have defined in Dorico. I’ll create the percussion maps and key maps, just please continue to improve the MIDI Import, unless as I said I’m doing something wrong? This is going to be really cool, similar to what the others already have, but with a perfect workflow.
Can you provide some reproducible steps for the crash? I haven’t been able to make it crash myself.
Note that there are at least 3 different ways of importing MIDI into Dorico:
- Opening a MIDI file will create a new project (this can also be done by dropping a MIDI file onto the hub window).
- File > Import will import a MIDI file as a new Flow in the current project.
- Drag and drop onto a lane in Play Mode will import only into this instrument
- File > Import > Tempo Track will import only the time signatures, tempos and markers from a MIDI file and replace those in the current score.
Thanks, that explains why all drums go on that one lane in Play Mode and also why a new flow is created.
Hey Paul,
I have a similar problem here.
Your answers explain a lot. But is there a way to change how my percussion kit reacts on the new percussion map? Is there a way so that the percussion kit does/SHOWS exactly what I did in the percussion map?
I’m not sure what you mean. The percussion map and percussion kit definition are quite different things. The percussion map doesn’t have any information about where each node is to be displayed on the staff.
The basic question is: If I have a VST Plug In like EZDrummer which gives me brushes playing on the snare in a full cycle on MidiNote 67 - How do I have to notate this in Dorico so that the sound will be played back when playing the score or what do I have to do so that I can notate brushes in the score?
Thanx a lot Paul.
You need to add an entry to the percussion map for the snare with the brushes technique. Eg look at the entries for open and closed high hats. Then you have 3 choices. Either:
- use a different notehead type in the percussion kit (eg try creating a tabla kit stave to see how this works),
- create a new playing technique symbol (eg similar to how the ‘o’ symbol is used for open hi hats) and set the playback playing technique to brushes
-create playing technique text for brushes
Yes Paul ! That was the crucial answer. I figured out everything and it works perfectly. It’s hard to understand how everything is connected but once you understand it, it’s very logical what you guys did. If you now still improve the handling of the rests within the drum part that would be amazing.
Thanx for all.
For everybody who reads this, a very good article about drum notation is this:
Great, glad you got sorted out. I think also John devoted a recent YouTube Discover Dorico session to this subject.
I never figured out my issue and couldn’t understand what Paul was telling me . . . . . . . . . . until today after upgrading to Dorico 3. However, it would have worked in Dorico 2, I just didn’t understand what he was saying and didn’t know about an obvious Preference selection so I’ll post here in case there are others having an issue with Superior Drummer or EZ. First, make a Percussion map of an EZ Drummer drum set and save it so it can be reloaded in other projects. In EZ Drummer, you can go to the menu and find a list of the note numbers and mapping and then add the Percussion map in Dorico. It still won’t work work though. If you import midi from EZ Drummer, everything is played as a snare drum and sounds still won’t line up. Here’s what fixed it: Go into Dorico Preferences and Note Input and Editing and Select Use Percussion Map in the Percussion Input (Don’t use “Use Staff Position”). That was the only thing I needed to understand. Now, I select EZ Drummer in the Play Mode and I can drag and drop EZ Drummer MIDI directly from EZ Drummer into the Drum Set line and it plays back perfectly. Awesome!!! I don’t need Sync to Host although that might be useful for some peoples workflows, this is perfect for me.
Would someone please be able to share a percussion map for EZDrummer?
Thank you