Incorrect Bass Xylophone and Bass Metallophone ranges

Dorico
#1

Unless I’m doing something wrong, it appears the bass xylophone and bass metallophone ranges are incorrect in sound and notation.

In Dorico Pro 3…
The lowest notated that makes a sound is 3rd space C on the treble clef for the bass xylophone.
The lowest notated that makes a sound is G on top of the treble clef for the bass metallophone.
Edit>Transposed Pitch & Edit>Concert Pitch has no effect on the notation.

The bass xylophone and bass metallophone are supposed to be notated from C below the treble clef to G on top of the treble clef.
They sound at least one octave lower.

In their current state in Dorico Pro 3, these instruments are unusable. (Regardless of notation, they sound few or no pitches that are actually in these instruments ranges.)

My present solution is to use a xylorimba for the needed notes. I don’t yet have a substitute for the bass metallophone.

#2

For what it’s worth NotePerformer is very forgiving with instrumental ranges. I just tried both of these Orff instruments in NotePerfomer, and they make sound for a very wide range of pitches. From what I can tell, the octave is correct, as well.

#3

As far as I can tell we do have the bass xylophone set up correctly: its range is C3 (i.e. the octave below middle C, which we call C4) to A4, and it is written an octave higher than it sounds. The bass metallophone is set up with the same range and transposition.

#4

I don’t know. I tried creating a new file and got similar results. I must have some really wonky things going on with Halion Sonic SE.

In Dorico, I ask for a solo or section player of bass metallophone. Halion loads Glockenspiel (range G3 to C6).

I ask for a solo bass xylophone. Halion loads Xylophone (range C3 to C6).

FWIW, I searched Halion for xylophone. I only find “GM14 Xylophone” and “Xylophone.” (I do realize sometimes the same virtual instrument will have its total range split to accommodate multiple instrument ranges.)

As an aside, I also noticed that, if I delete a player and its layouts, Halion does not “give back” the assigned slot. That is, the deleted instrument’s assigned slot isn’t cleared.

#5

HALion Sonic SE doesn’t include specific patches for bass xylophone and bass metallophone. However, you can use the GM patches, which cover the whole range of MIDI notes.

You don’t need to worry about the unused slots in HSSE: if you want to close them up, the simplest way is to simply re-apply the default playback template, but when you do so, you’ll need to re-apply any manual sound assignments you have made in HSSE itself.

#6

Thanks Daniel. I could write the same reply as I did to the “Marching Bass Drum sounds?” thread. My only naive suggestion is to show some sort of warning dialog when the patched sound isn’t going to match the assigned instrument in Dorico. Probably a foregone assumption to anyone remotely connected to the field of music notation software, but to someone just introduced to notation software or drawn in by Dorico’s appeal, such a warning might be useful in setting expectations properly.

#7

Your suggestion is a good one on its face, but I’m not sure how we could really do this on a practical level: we could conceivably do it for the sounds in the content that is included with Dorico, but we can’t do it more generally. However, I’ll think about how we can try to help set expectations correctly in future.