How to see the playback value in Dorico

[megan]

Hi I am wondering is there any way to see the playback value of the dynamic. To be more specific, I want to know how much does Dorico input to this dynamics. For example, perhaps pp=20, mf = 50, f= 70.

Hope someone can tell me, I appreciate it

[Andro]

This is a frequently asked question. The dynamic level is controlled by the Dynamic Curve which you can adjust - it’s not a static fixed value. As to seeing the value, it’s not simple in Dorico 4. Go to Play mode and click on the note in the editor. The velocity bar will highlight. It does not show the value, but if you experimentally adjust it up and down the value shows on the left. Control-Z can then undo any unintentional change. This is pretty clunky by any standard. I have put in a feature request to improve this. I do not know why Dorico does not take a leaf out of the book of its sister Cubase, where you can click on a note in the editor and all the properties are displayed as text in a bar above the editor. But then Dorico is not aiming to be a DAW, as I keep telling people!

You can at least guess the value visually as the scale goes from 0 to 127 (8 bits).

Note also that small variations in dynamic levels will be observed due to the various humanizations that Dorico applies - which can be adjusted through options.

Also note that there was a recent discussion in which it emerged that the MIDI export does not take heed of the dynamic curve in operation, which muddies things somewhat.

Lots of people ask for this!

See this recent topic as well:

Velocity values and intensity markings

Dear users and developers, The following values are from a test to know the relationships between velocity values and intensity markings: pppppp: 1 ppppp: 2 pppp: 5 ppp: 12 pp: 24 p: 41 mp: 52 mf: 76 f: 87 ff: 104 fff: 116 ffff: 123 fffff: 126 ffffff: 127 sf rf sfz …: 127 fp: 87 Are they common values in Dorico? I am making a table for my student to show the relationships between dynamics, velocities, dB FS and dB SPL.

[dspreadbury]

@Andro

Also note that there was a recent discussion in which it emerged that the MIDI export does not take heed of the dynamic curve in operation

This isn’t correct. Dorico produces the same velocity values when exporting MIDI as it does during playback.

[Andro]

I’m going to have to double check that, because my experiments with Dorico 4 and Cubase 12 and Addictive Keys Piano VST led me to see differences. I am happy to be wrong!