btw - I’m constantly discovering new aspects to Dorico that encourage me in switching over from Sibelius. Tribute to Daniel and his entire team!
I’m trying to input playing techniques contained in an expression map for guitar. I thought there would be a mapping between the names given to the playing techniques in the map and text entered on the staff in the score. At least, that seems to be the case with most string instruments and standard expressions like legato, pizz. or col legno.
However, I just imported an expression map for guitar and it doesn’t add the related playing techniques to the list of available articulations in the Playing Techniques panel (I expected the list to be automatically updated). Since I don’t see any of the guitar playing techniques found in the expression map – such as “legato NV”, “no nail 1st pos.” or even “espressivo Tir” – how do I enter them as text to the notes?
Hi. You are missing a “brick” in the wall here. Playing techniques are notation on the paper. What the expression map does is trigger playback techniques. And playing techniques can be associated with playback techniques. The playing technique editor is where you can create your own playback techniques. So create your associated playing & playback techniques so that the whole chain works perfectly and you’re done!
Hope it helps!
Tks, Marc. My guitar map uses a pair of events: a KS + a CC. Let’s see if I understand:
In Sibelius, all I have to do is input the appropriate “technique” text like "portato”, “mute”, “flutter-tongue” or “secco” on the note in the score and it is immediately recognized and rendered by the VSL Synchron player .
But in Dorico, I have to select the note, open the bottom panel, select the piano roll, enter the desired key switch, select the proper midi change command editor, enter the related cc note, and finally, I must select the note in the score and add a general text that will ‘document’ what playing technique is actually occuring under the hood?
No. On the score you write a playing technique (eg portato). Your playing technique should reference an appropriate playback technique. Your expression map then holds the switches for that playback technique. And you associate that expression map to the instrument.
Once you get your head around it, it is very elegant.
Before diving into this on your own, have a look at this video, which (though outdated) teaches you the basics.
Tks Janus. Easy enough when applying ‘universal’ techniques like portato or legato. Just like in the video you suggested, the playing techniques must be selected from a pre-defined list that does NOT include “tirando 1st pos.”, let alone just ‘Tirando’ (or “no nail 1st pos.”, etc.)- although this is a playing technique defined in the guitar map (as KS D-1, 120 and CC1,20).
The video then selects and applies markings that exist in the articulation panel for strings (e.g. pizz.); but there is no “tirando 1st pos.” anywhere for me to choose in any of the panels.
So, how do I type “tirando 1st pos.” on the note in the score?
Create the playing techniques (and their associate playback techniques) you need! You’ll only need to create them once, because you can save them as default…
Ok. Maybe there is a difference between Dorico elements 5 (which I have) and Dorico Pro 5. I have tried to popover-enter “tirando 1st pos.” but nothing is displayed and nothing is rendered; but it does works if I type “pizz.”…
It seems, as @MarcLarcher has suggested, that you are confusing Playing Techniques vs Playback Techniques.
e.g. Pizz. is a Playing Technique (that you enter in the popover) which triggers the Pizzicato Playback Technique. In an expression map, you choose how your VST responds to the Playback Technique.
Importing an Expression Map does not create/change Playing Techniques (I don’t think!). You would need to create your own and then assign this to the appropriate Playback Technique.
I’m not sure if this is possible in Dorico Elements, sorry.
In Elements you can define playing techniques and expression maps, but not playback techniques. So you would need to hijack one of the built-in playback techniques to make the connection between your custom playing technique and the expression map. (there are many obscure ones to choose from!)
Tks. In other words, playing techniques are a finite set that Dorico understands; and if my VST instrument offers more specialized sounds then I need a different editor that will let me ADD those playing techniques and map them to the playback techniques?
Perhaps somewhere along those lines, I duplicated the map and created a new one in which I selected from the Dorico-available playing techniques (e.g. nat., legato and sul tasto) and defined each one to match a corresponding one in the original guitar-map. But unfortunately there must be more to this than meets the eye (or it has to do with Element limitations) but those remapped nat., legato and sul tasto markings don’t render.
So I added playing techniques whose names are “as shown in lists in the Edit Playing Techniques, Expression Maps, Playback Technique Combinations” (such as “NV 1st pos.”, “legato NV”, “no nail 1st pos.” and “tirando 1st pos.”). But I cannot add those into the score using popover.
Tks Daniel. I understand that you are using the Playback Techniques editor to map a newly defined string “pm” onto an available tgechnique called “palm muting”. But what is an available technique in this list that corresponds to “tirando, 1st position”, or “no nail 1st pos.”?
Say I choose “pull” from the list; then, supposing I can type “tirando, 1st position” into the popover, which connects to “pull” as a playback technique, then I would need to have “pull” in the list of techniques listed in the expression map. But there isn’t any.
Woops, why would I add “tirando 1st pos.” to the BASE or as an Add-on Switch when it already exists? I just want to use that same name/string “tirando 1st pos.” as a marking in the score.
Well, if it’s already there then you don’t need to.
You just need to ensure that your Playing Technique of choice is triggering the Playback Technique that is listed in the Expression Map. You can check this in the in the Custom Playing Techniques dialog.
If you have followed these instructions and are still having no luck, attach a cut-down version of the project and we can take a look.
I would now like to add a playback technique “tirando 1st pos.” I can add “tirando 1st pos.” in the Playback Techniques Editor and perhaps map it onto “pull” but certainly not “tirando 1st pos.”.
