Fine tune Dorico Playback in Cubase

Dorico
#1

Hi,
I want to make some adjustments and fine tuning to my Dorico project’s playback in Cubase to make a better mockup and add some audio tracks. I exported as a MIDI and can’t get this to run properly in Cubase:

  1. instruments are not attached correctly (and by the way tons of channels get instruments attached which are not used)
  2. Doricos velocity is completely killed and everything set to 100

Is this intended behaviour or a special problem with my project or a bug? How can I get to the point in Cubase where I left it in Dorico?
Thanks for your help!

PS: It’s nearly impossible to search for something like this on the forum because all search terms get killed and the query cannot be forced, can it? I’m sure there have been discussions more or less about this before - sorry that I could not find them. Feel free to post links to helpful threads!

#2

You can export it as musicxml to cubase. I’ve never done this so I’m not sure what is retained, but I’ve delivered orchestrations to cubase users as xml from Dorico.

#3

Regarding search: don’t use the forum search. Use Google to search this domain for the desired terms

#4

What exactly is your Play setup in Dorico?

Dorico exports every MIDI channel used. That means that instruments piped to the same MIDI channel will share a MIDI track (usually labelled with the topmost instrument, iirc).

Re: 2), I’ve never tested this and I don’t know it off the top of my head, but, if all instruments are set to use CC dynamics in the expression map, I wouldn’t be surprised if they weren’t mapped to velocity anymore. But, as I said, I never looked specifically for this.

Other than that, I can’t help you. I’ve never heard any reports of what you describe.

#5

Thank you for your answers and sorry about the late reply!

Some points to answer back:

  • MusicXML is not a good choice. Cubase does not do much useful stuff here, it does not even get the bar lines and meters correctly, not to speak about tempo. So we should keep MusicXML for exchange with other notation software, not DAWs, I think.
  • Search: Thanks for the hint! I searched the web, but somehow did not get to the idea to search on this domain. This won’t help if I want to search only in the Dorico forum and not in the Cubase (and other) forums, but it’s a step forward.
  • I have just the standard setup in Dorico with HalionSonicSE and Symphony Orchestra installed. Your crucial hint was that the used instruments really have modwheel-controlled dynamics, so the velocity is all 100 but it should not matter. The problem is that Cubase will just load a GM instrument patch and this does not apply the modwheel so everything sounded plain and bad. There does not seem to be a file format to export the instrument settings, too - maybe (@Steinberg) we might get a possibility to export Cubase-Files directly from Dorico, so this and things like Expression Maps could be included?

At the moment I have this workflow:

  • export score from Dorico as MIDI
  • import in Cubase (new project). Instruments and routing are, well, I’d say: not really useful (MIDI-Tracks to one multi-channel-HalionSE using mostly GM-sounds). The grid, tempo and meter are set correctly, though, so in time everything is in the right place.
  • add and setup new instrument tracks for each instrument in Cubase with a clean Halion instance just for this instrument/player, drag each corresponding MIDI region to the new tracks
  • cleanup (sometimes program changes in the MIDI, no expression maps but just their results…)
  • begin working on the music

Well, that’s possible, but it really could be easier considering that the basic structure is quite similar in both applications. If somebody knows ways to get this done easier, I’ll still appreciate your help!

#6

Are you exporting MIDI 0 or MIDI 1 format? MIDI Format 0 saves all instruments to a single channel.

#7

Curious… I’ve sent a lot of xml to cubase users. One in particular I’ve been writing and sending whilst in the same room, and the bars, metres and tempi all transfer.

#8

Thanks for your interesting feedback. I did a few more tests:

  1. MusicXML
  • Start: Export from Dorico without layouts; transposition in Dorico was turned on, I have a simple mini-piece in 3/4 for 2 clarinets (Bb) and Euphonium (Bb treble clef), 1/4 pickup bar
  • I imported the XML into Finale: No tempo information (120 throughout), no transposing instruments (the euphonium in Bass clef though) but the transposed key, meter and pickup bar correctly
  • I imported into Cubase (File | import | Music XML without a project opened before): MXL does not work at all but uncompressed XML gets imported: Transposition is calculated correctly (really funny enharmonics but that’s no problem in my case), pickup 3/4 instead of 1/4 (1st clarinet goes through from beat 1, other parts have inserted rests on beat 2 and 3 of the pickup, so the parts are displaced, no tempo (120 throughout), plain MIDI tracks with no instruments assigned
  • I took a look into the XML manually and it seems that the tempo markings are simply not included, so this should be Dorico’s fault. Probably the pickup-bar problem can be solved using rests at the beginning. Any additional information like controller events won’t be included though (probably because MusicXML does not have a time line to define them), so the velocity-all-100-problem from the first post comes up again.
  • I added the tempo markings in Finale again and exported as MusicXML again to Cubase. The tempo markings are now included and read ( tags in the XML), the accellerando is not, though (just …, so really much interpreting possible for Cubase).
    As far as I can see it, I’ll stay with my statement to use MIDI for playback exports and use MusicXML for notation only.
  1. MIDI
    MIDI 1 or 0: Actually I don’t know because I did not find where to select this in Dorico. I remember Finale asking, but Dorico just does it and I could not find it in the preferences until now - any hints?
#9

Dorico only exports MIDI Type 1 files.

#10

Hm…I’ve got the latest Cubase but never installed it (as I use DP and Logic). I’ll install when I have a moment and experiment.

#11

@Daniel: Thanks for the info.
@steveparker: Thank you very much for taking your time! I‘m looking forward to your results and to learn something.