I have a contrabass clarinet part that is not playing all notes during playback. Nothing below a written C will sound. A quick search of the forums seem to point to a limitation of the sound engine. I’ve already cycled through the different playback templates and I can get the notes below the written C to sound with the template HSO, HALion Sonic Sel, Olympus, Gase. But the sound of the instruments is rather electronic-ish. I much prefer the Icona Sketch, HSO, HALion Sonic Sel, Olympus, Gase template.
I’m a former Finale+Garritan user so I was already familiar with the range limits but I know those were not nearly this constricting.
Is there anything I can try or did I already find the only work around for my problem? Thanks.
It’s not the sound engine but the VST/library - and I say that only to point you in the direction of a solution.
Because it is up to a given library, you would want to look at different libraries to find one you like that gives you both the range and tonality you wish. I would guess that if you want Bass Clarinet, that there are a bunch of other not-as-common instruments you’d like? That would steer me more towards EWQL, or similar. I hope that helps, and nice to meet you.
Sorry misspoke on the sound engine part, meant library.
So silly question…can my Garritan sound libraries work with Dorico? I’ve used it for so long that I already know the range limits for most of the instruments. And with trying to unlearn 30 years of Finale it would be just one less thing for me to worry about.
I did a quick forum search for Garritan GPO5 (assuming that’s what you’ve got). @benwiggy is one of our “resident experts” on using it in Dorico, so you’ll see a number of really helpful posts from him along with others here:
No I’ve always used Concert & Marching Band 2. But I’m assuming that shouldn’t make a difference as far following any instructions I’m able to find. Just replace GPO with my libraries.
Before I go down this new rabbit hole, would either of you know if this is a fairly simple process or will it take some major tweaking to get Garritan to work with Dorico?
To allow any library to work, you will need a set of expression maps that are specific to that library. (Expression Maps ensure that when playing techniques and articulations are encountered in the score, the correct key switch and cc# messages are sent to the VST to trigger the appropriate sounds)
AFAIK the only Garritan maps that have been created so far are for GPO and JABB. I am unaware of any for Concert & Marching Band (COMB2). So I think your plug 'n play assumption might be optimistic!
Basically, you need to create a document with the Dorico Player/instruments that you want to assign to COMB, and then add the ARIA Player VST to each one, with the samples that you want; and an expression map.
Then, save that as an “Endpoint”, and combine one or more endpoints to make a Playback Template.
When the template is in operation, it will apply what you’ve done to any similar instruments in any documents.