Feature request: allow per-playing-technique VST/instrument switching within a single player

Dorico
1

Hello,

I’d like to request a playback feature in Dorico.

At the moment, playback routing is essentially tied to the instrument/player endpoint, and playing techniques are mainly used to switch articulations or sounds within the same playback device through expression maps. Because of this, it is difficult or impossible to let a single player use one playback engine normally, and automatically switch to a different VST for only specific playing techniques.

Example:

  • Instrument: Flute
  • Default playback: NotePerformer
  • Specific extended techniques: UVI Workstation

What I would like is the ability for one player/instrument to remain assigned to its normal playback setup, but for selected playing techniques to trigger a different VST/instrument endpoint automatically.

I am not asking Dorico to load or unload plugins dynamically for each technique. In many practical cases, the relevant VST instruments are already loaded in memory and active. What seems to be missing is simply the ability to decide which active VSTi should receive playback for a given playing technique.

This would be especially useful for:

  • extended techniques not covered well by the main playback engine
  • combining NotePerformer with specialty libraries
  • avoiding duplicate hidden staves/players solely for playback purposes
  • keeping notation clean while improving realism in playback

Currently, the main workarounds are:

  1. Using the “Enable independent playback” option to assign different VSTi instruments to separate voices within a single player. While this avoids duplicating players, it comes with a significant drawback: changing the voice assignment can disrupt the score layout and notation in ways that are difficult to control.

  2. Duplicating the instrument/player and assigning the second one to another VST, then routing only those passages there.

Both approaches add complexity and make projects harder to manage.

Suggested implementation ideas:

  1. Allow a playing technique to switch not only the expression-map entry, but also the playback endpoint/device.
  2. Allow endpoint layering or conditional playback overrides for selected techniques.
  3. Add a per-technique playback override in Play mode.

This would make Dorico much more flexible for hybrid playback workflows.

Thank you for considering it.

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