Fail to record midi CC

You’re certain that your keyboard is correctly configured to send the CC data you expect? Many keyboards allow you to adjust which CC is sent by each controller, so is it possible that it’s actually sending data on a different controller? If you open the MIDI CC editor in the Key Editor and open the menu to choose which controller is shown, any controller that already has data will be listed automatically in the top level of that menu.

Yes it is set up correctly because it’s working for the english horn line:

And I can see the trumpet slot responding to fader movements as well, however here’s a similar screenshot for the trumpet:

I’m actually wondering if this is a VST3/Kontakt7 problem rather than specifically a Dorico problem though I don’t know how the data flow works in this case.

The MIDI CC data will be received by Dorico and recorded there before it gets passed to the plug-in, so there’s really no reason why it shouldn’t work. Perhaps the issue is that the CC data can only be transmitted on a single channel, so it’s being recorded only on the instrument that is assigned to channel 1?

I thought of that and just now tried putting the trumpet on it’s own Kontakt instance and still no bueno. This is also with a brand new file. I even tried a spitfire plugin for the trumpet to take Kontakt and the specific library out of the equation.

I started a new file from the brass trio template, loaded up Kontakt 7 and just like this file it will only record CC data on the top staff (channel 1). It records midi notes but no CC data regardless of whether I’m using the mod wheel on the keyboard the notes are recorded from or the nanokontrol.

I’ve tried it here myself with my little M-Audio Keystation mini 32, and I’m able to record CC7 (the only CC value I can record with it) as expected for each instrument.

I don’t know why it would make a difference, but can you try creating a new project from e.g. the brass quintet template, and use the HSSE+HSO (Pro) default playback template, and see whether that behaves any differently?

In that scenario it only records notes and no CC data on any staff.

Perhaps we should get a look at the MIDI data that Dorico’s actually recording, then. Please follow the steps here:

Thank you @dspreadbury

Here’s a zipped file of the contents of that directory.
midi_captures.zip (33.5 KB)

Well, the MIDI files contain the expected CC data. For example, I imported capture 0051.mid into Dorico, and the CC 1 editor shows your played values in the Key Editor.

I’m really at a loss for the time being. Without being able to reproduce this myself, I’m not sure how else to assist at the moment.

That’s fair and I appreciate you digging in to help narrow down the problem. So seems to have something to do with the temp file getting written to Dorico then?

No, I don’t believe so, because recording CC data works for me, and it works for you for the first instrument, and the MIDI files you’re recording include the CC data as well. This is why I’m at a loss.

Got it. Also just for thoroughness I did reboot along the way and I even reinstalled Dorico from the download helper but the result is the same.

Reinstallation would almost never make any difference in this regard. Can you tell me what kind of MIDI input device you’re using, for completeness?

Sure. I have an M-Audio Keystation 61 and a Korg nanoKontrol2.

Do you get the same results with both devices?

Yes I do.

I don’t think it’ll make any difference, but could you try changing the state of the WinRT MIDI option in the Advanced Options section of the Play page of Preferences, then restart Dorico?

Unfortunately that didn’t do anything either.

UUUGGGGH. I can’t believe how dumb this was. So I have ‘Pitch Before Duration’ checked because that’s how I enter notes. So when I went to record I double clicked on the measure, assuming I needed to mark where I wanted to start recording. On a whim I simply single clicked the measure, recorded and voila notes AND controller data appeared!

So my apologies for the fire drill but I learned something valuable here and got to know some aspects of the app I wasn’t aware of before.

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Great. I’m glad there was a simple explanation in the end!

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