Please let me know if my suggestions are reasonable. I have noticed that when I play a loud section of my music, the incoming audio signal is sudden and loud. This is to be expected given that the dynamic is FF at that point. However, I believe it would be beneficial if Dorico implemented a very subtle audio fade when the user presses play. This is something that the user may not necessarily hear, but the improvement in quality can definitely be felt.
Do instruments subtly “fade in” when they strike/blow/bow ff? Most certainly don’t, as far as I can tell.
$10 says that if they did this, people would complain the attack of their samples was muddy or delayed, or some other such thing. “I marked it ff. Why isn’t it playing ff?!!!”
The transition between no sound and sudden sound can be improved with a 5-millisecond gentle fade. This effect acts like a compressor with a 5-millisecond attack but doesn’t affect the sound itself. Although it may not be noticeable to users, they will feel that the transitions are smoother, resulting in a better overall experience. It is more of a psychological effect.
I’d suggest you set a compressor on the master bus of the mixing desk. Any sound goes through this and you are able to tweak the settings to your liking, I guess. Let us know how it goes for you
I would imagine that the developers of high-end sound libraries might very well balk at this because they’ve crafted the samples to be a certain way.
For all intents and purposes, many instruments don’t, even if they “do” if you analyze waveforms at very detailed resolution and slowed down. At least it isn’t really perceptible, especially at concert distances.
Also, for those instruments where there is a significant difference between attack and sustain, this is accounted for with distinct samples for each portion, which are then phase matched and cross faded, so artificially imposing 5ms fades isn’t necessary .
