I do a lot of transcription and it is pretty amazing how slight differences in presentation can help me pull out different parts.
SPL Marc One
Neumann KH 120 II
Focal Clear Mg
Focal Celestee
Thieaudio Monarch (mostly for travel)
The Marc One has a L/R > R/L switch to flip the panning, which sometimes can help too.
The thing that is harder for me to sort is reverb.
One set of speakers, I can hardly tell it’s there. The dry part of the mix cuts right through it…
Swap over to different speakers, and the entire mix is ‘swimming in muddy/syrupy reverb’.
HALion 7
I’m using Winds from way back in the H4 days I think. These are bits that don’t come with Sonic Collections…only full HALion 7. Later might try to post some stuff using Only Sonic Collections, and again with only Sonic Selection (what comes with Dorico).
There’s a lot more in here to explore, but here’s a first take. I’m using stuff without vibrato at this point. I’ve set up ‘short falls’, although there are longer versions as well.
Saxes…
Trumpets…
Trombones…
Mix…
All with freebie Sonic Selection but the Drum Kit. That’s the Groove Agent Studio Kit SE that comes with Dorico.
Yes, I’ve just bought the ‘full’ HALion 7 app, and noticed that there are some quite good brass and sax samples in the HAL Factory and HS Factory libraries. I can’t figure out how to do dynamics with them – most seem to use the Mod wheel for other things.
So this is a very basic rendition with no dynamics or falls.
The full HALion is immensely complicated (it looks like I’m back to watching video tutorials for the next few months…), but it seems that you could make instruments using these samples to Dorico’s best advantage – e.g. controlling things with CCs that expression maps could use easily.
CC11 and/or Velocity.
Most of the stuff that comes with HALion and/or Dorico is going to be velocity sensitive as well. Exceptions will be HSO and Iconic Sketch which I believe are designed so the user can choose.
Note, it is possible to convert the base ‘trigger’ dynamic controller from velocity to something else.
For Dorico…I initially recommend sticking with CC11 for expression volume for a number of reasons (Mod is used for other things in 99% of ‘performance oriented’ instruments. CC1 is usually going to do either: LFO Vibrato, Damping, or filter-sweeps.
In some cases you can indeed use both velocity and expression volume at the same time in Dorico and get good results. It takes a little practice to sort both ‘curves’ but it’s doable. Keep things simple out of the box tho’ and just go for the CC11 expression maps 
You can assign all sorts of things to CC control using a MIDI Mod (CC Mapper), or your own LUA scripts.
Note, HALion comes with alot of instruments that have locked layers,
as well as many that are unlocked.
For the locked stuff, it’s a bit more tricky to ‘change’ how they do dynamics, but it’s not impossible. The reason being, parameters that you’d typically link up with a CC Mapper won’t show up. In those cases one can usually add a new parent node and then get at quite a few things from there.
A good example of a HALion program to look at that allows users to select how dynamics are done are any of the HALion Symphonic instruments. The layers are unlocked in those, and you can see a way to implement a CC Mapper.
It is, but there is so much it can do. It can take some time to get used to the power user interfaces; but, once you wrap your head around HALion it actually speeds up the creative process quite a bit.
For what it’s worth, I’ve been using Atomic Big Band the Horns along with a combination of Band-in-a-Box samples to generate rhythm section and horns for my chart mockups. Here’s a recent MIDI realization:
How do slide trombones pull off a doit with a valved/chormaticish/scale rip?
Not saying it can’t be done. I just want to know how
Is it just a matter of lip slurring in the opposite direction of slide movement?
You got it. Here’s the first demo video I found:
Fred!!!
I love your writing!!!
They did for Chris Hein Horns! 
Just thought I would mention that VG Trumpets have a sale on until TODAY!!!
They have a range of brass and woodwind instruments – Saxes, trumpets, flugelhorns, clarinets, etc, which work either with Kontakt or with ARIA/Sforzando. (Make sure you buy the right one.!)
They seem to especially cater for the MIDI woodwind devices, like the Akai EWI.
I’ve no idea whether the sounds will work well in Dorico, but they are quite cheap.
Interesting … I’ve never heard of them before. Have you tried them? The “Total Bundle” for $219 is pretty cheap if they are usable. There’s not much info about ranges on their site. I’m curious what the range of something like the Jazz Trumpet actually is. The manual has this:
If middle C is C4, then C6 isn’t nearly enough, but if the blue notes on the keyboard are the usable notes, then there’s plenty of range.
I listened to the Alto Sax demo playing over “Stars Fell” changes in C. Meh. It’s ok but could maybe be improved with some tweaking. I’m curious if anyone has actually tried them with Dorico.
Articulations that end a phrase.
First hold the main note in the C2 - C6 range, then press a keyswitch
corresponding to the selected articulation.
Can’t use in Dorico, since we can’t fire keyswitches during notes. I’ve been saying this for a long time now.
Sincerely,
Benji
You can place a midi note during another note with midi trigger region by tapping shift + ) . It is also possible to place a playing technique during a note by placing the carret on the right spot during the playing note and enter the playing technique.
Perhaps this helps?
… and we also can’t differentiate first/last note under slurs 
