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 
It’s extremely annoying. Slurred phrases come out backwards! Instead of:
Ta, la, la, la
Phrases come out as:
la, la, la, Ta.
I’ve been crying about this since Dorico 1. We’re on 6 now and legato, or anything else that needs to happen ‘between’ notes instead of ‘before’ them is broken. The delay setting in expression maps doesn’t work for me either.
My personal work around has been to pipe everything through bidule, or use full HALion. For instruments that have no user ‘scripting engine’ like HALion, I can host it in an instance of bidule and take care of it there.
With bidule (or HALion via LUA script if the instruments aren’t locked down in some absurd way, like Iconica happens to be) I can filter and delay events a few ticks.
I.E. Legato assigned to CC68@128, delay x milliseconds. Let CC68@0 pass through without delay.
Same approach can work with key switches…
note 37 ON, delay x milliseconds. note 37 OFF, let it pass through without delay.
Here’s an example with Opus hosted in bidule. Program changes can cycle instrument slots. Program changes, key switches, or CC events can be gated through various delays as needed.
With HALion, sometimes I can inject a function via LUA script that looks something like this (delay the legato pedal on events).
Years ago I experimented with doing my own framework for HALion Symphonic orchestra specifically to deal with Dorico’s atrocious legato implementation. The layers were unlocked, while the Macro Editors were locked down, so I just rebuilt the entire Macro in order to be able to have a tweakable delay for Legato. While I was at it I shaped up some experimental articulations (Most based on the main sustain samples, just some tinkering with dynamic and filter envelopes) and rebalanced a lot of things.
I probably could have achieved the same thing with a script, and not bothering to redo the entire Macro but it was a good project to learn some ins and outs of HALion with.
It’s wild how something like a broken legato can drive a person so crazy they’ll learn LUA and HALion trying to get around it. Ugg…
Here’s how Dorico Overture sounded ‘out of the box’ (If you look at the Score you can see the Legato marked phrases sound backwards):
Here it is with HSO reworked. Yes, the down/up bow attack is too much in some spots in this rendering. It’s not too hard to back that off adjusting some dynamic curves and such in Dorico and/or HALion, but at the time I did the rendering my intent was to exaggerate the phrasing on purpose to point out that legato phrases typically begin with a bit of up or down bow at the beginning, and then it should be smooth and connected all the way through to the last note living under a slur (Ta, la, la). Dorico tends to get this backwards (la, la, Ta) with one library after another unless it’s custom scripted with Dorico in mind. I was also ‘experimenting’ with martele and sautille like effects on notes with dots over/under them that live under a slur.
What an incredible difference between the two mp3s!
