Make ff result in cc1 = 127

Dorico
1

I’m new to expression maps and I’m trying to create a (personal, opinionated) expression map for VSL Synchron-ized solo strings. Specifically, I’m trying to get a typical lively, aggressive, nearly harsh string quartet sound in fast passages marked ff. For the ‘Velocity Crossfade’ (Vel.XF, CC1) setting in the Synchron player, I want to use the full upper half (values 64-127) for velocities ppp - ff. See the attached screenshot. (I’m further using CC11 to create more dynamic range, but the lower half of the Vel.XF fader sounds too gentle and ‘airy’ to me.) I never use more than ff so I would really like to map ff to the absolute maximum dynamic in the Synchron player.

My question is: is there any combination of settings in Dorico Playback options, Dorico expression maps, and Synchron player settings that would give me a dynamics curve like in the attached screenshot?

Another option for me is to use the marcato and ‘harsh spiccato’ patches from the VSL solo strings library for passages marked ff, but I see that immediate dynamics in expression maps do not yet work (?t=182789). Is there a workaround for this?

Thank you in advance.
Screenshot 2020-05-28 at 12.53.29.png

2

I don’t think there’s a way of getting exactly what you need, though you could something similar. Try setting the range for the dynamic in the expression map editor. Set the range from 64 to 127 and set the dynamic curve in playback options to 1.0.

The other thing to try is in Synchron Player to use the ‘Vel range: Loud’ with D#2.

We hope to add more detailed control over dynamic/CC mappings in the future.

3

Thank you for your answer. I may wait until a next Dorico version then before I start using the sample library, since it’s not an absolute priority for me now.

Unfortunately, as far as I can see, ‘Vel. range’ is not available in the solo strings library.