I would like to build a custom percussion instrument as a composing aid, giving me a reasonably simple way to have distinct notational markers (via a custom notehead set) with distinct audio cues for each such marker. My general ignorance of all playback-related topics is once again catching up with me here, because I struggle to achieve the second part, and some help would be appreciated.
(Note, for context: the instrument is created via an algorithmically generated doricolib file. But right now I am asking for how to manually set up the things I describe below)
The custom instrument is equipped with distinct Playback Techniques, matched up with unique Notehead Sets. The instrument itself, at its core, is a Bass Drum, and it successfully plays back as such once I apply ‘HALion Sonic’ to it in Play Mode. That is, all of the various techniques play back as the same Bass Drum sample.
What I ultimately want, though, is to be able to assign an arbitrary percussion sample to each of the available custom techniques. I suspect that this ventures into the area of Expression Maps / Precussion Maps – a thought that, frankly, scares me. Still, is that the right direction? Is what I want possible at all, and if so, could someone kindly give me some pointers for what the next steps would be?
[To preempt the suggestion to solve this via a Percussion Kit instead: the case presented above is somewhat simplified; my actual compositional aid is planned as a Kit itself, consisting of several instances of that custom percussion instrument.]
Are these arbitrary samples all contained within the same sample library, or are they all in different libraries? If they are all in the same library, then this is pretty straightforward and you can just use a Percussion Map. If you are using the Halion Ionica Sketch Percussion for example, you can map your existing Playback Techniques to any of the instrument sounds contained in that library, such as Snare, Triangle, Conga, etc.
If these samples are all in different libraries then this is possible, but quite a bit more complicated. Your “Tick Tock 1” instrument can only be connected to one VST instrument in Dorico, so if you need multiple instruments, you’ll need to add them to host software, connect the “Tick Tock 1” instrument to the host software, and then use a custom expression map that uses those Playback Techniques to switch channels as well as trigger percussion sounds with the Percussion Map. Since you are using a single Percussion Map to accomplish this, it can get tricky if any of the samples you want to use occupy the same location in different libraries.
Since the first scenario I gave above is pretty straightforward, I thought I’d elaborate on the second.
Following your example, here’s my “Tick Tock 1” instrument that began life as a Bass Drum. I’ve set up two Playing Techniques which I will want to be a Djembe and Crash Cymbal.
Since I have to use some sort of host software to host multiple VSTs, as I want to use the Djembe sound from one library and the Crash from another, I’m using Vienna Ensemble Pro. Here’s the Djembe (on channel 1) …
Now that I know what key switches these instruments are on, I can create my Percussion Map. The Instrument is listed as Bass Drum because you said you modified a Bass Drum to get the “Tick Tock 1” instrument. Luckily, the samples I want to use aren’t using the same key switch. If they were, the VST I’m using for the Crash allows for easy remapping.
Now I need to create an Expression Map that tells Dorico to switch the channels so some notes can use the VST I loaded into channel 1 in VEPro, and some notes can use the instrument I loaded into channel 2.
Dorico switches channels and will playback from both VST libraries:
Hopefully, you can use the same VST library for all the sounds and won’t need to get this complicated! I just wanted to show that it can be done if that’s what you need.
If all the samples are in the same library, you can just use a single VST instrument, and make a Percussion Map that will match the Percussion Playing Techniques you have created for the instrument. You shouldn’t need all the external hosting and channel changes from my post above though, so you can ignore that stuff. Percussion playback can get complicated, and it’s easy to miss a step, so if you run into issues, just ask.
Thanks to your pointers, I was able to get to something useable quite easily.
Two follow-up questions:
Do you know of a doricolib way of linking my custom map to my custom kit? Or will I always have to assign the map manually in Play Mode?
Is there a more convenient way for finding out the mapping of the Halion Sonic percussion map than hovering over the piano keys in the VST’s control window?
