Mapping Articulations & techniques in properties panel to relevant key switches of the sound library

Dorico
1

In the properties tab, there are a bunch of Jazz articulations and guitar techniques. I was wondering if there’s a way to link these to key switches in the sound library being used. I’ve been trying to figure this out for ages, and so far, the only thing that’s worked is mapping the Dead Note under guitar techniques to a key switch in the Guitar sound library I use. If this isn’t possible right now, would the Dorico team be open to considering it as a feature request?

2

You might want to start here to understand how key switches are used in Expression Maps:

You can then search that help site for key switches to get more detailed info.

3

Thanks kasky1.

The Dorico manual and Antony Hughes’ Expression Maps videos are incredibly informative. I’ve read the manual and watched the videos numerous times, and they’ve given me a solid understanding of EMaps. They’ve also helped me create expression maps for my libraries. However, the issue I discussed in my previous post is slightly different. Perhaps I didn’t explain it clearly enough, and I’ll try again with more detail for better understanding.

For instance, the ‘dead note’ technique in the ‘Guitar Techniques’ group of the Properties Pane is hardwired (I believe) to the ‘muted’ playing technique. I discovered this through trial and error. Now, in my EMap (say, for Shredded Guitar), I map the ‘muted’ playing technique to a relevant key switch in the library. This allows me to score ‘dead notes’ directly from the Properties Pane and have the EMap trigger the key switch during playback.

The properties pane also includes other guitar techniques like tapping and jazz articulations. Similarly to the “dead note” technique I explained earlier, if we understand which playing techniques are hardwired to them in Dorico, we can effectively use them to trigger the correct key switches via the EMap. I hope I’ve explained the issue I’m highlighting clearly.

4

Well, that is way past my pay grade so to speak. I’ll defer to others with more knowledge than I. :slightly_smiling_face:

5

Thanks Kasky1

Could the Dorico team please clarify? If that’s not possible right now, could it be added in the future?

6

If you hover over a jazz ornament in the side bar, it shows the name of the ornament. Then in Library/Playback Techniques dialog, you will find them under the ornaments category. This hopefully will get you what you need to create a technique for those ornaments. I haven’t tried this myself, but I don’t know why it wouldn’t work.

7

On second thought, those ornaments don’t have a playing technique assigned to them (e.g., something like pt.name). You can see the playing techniques that are defined by hovering over the symbols in the right pane under the playing techniques section. So if there is one there that you can use, then you can set it up.

You can create new playing techniques using the Library/Playing Techniques dialog.

8

Thanks dlb

I often use the sidebar and its ornaments and they work well for me. However, some new guitar articulations like AH and NH don’t seem to work. These do not even appear in the guitar notation when I use them. I have developed user playing & playback techniques for these articulations that I use.

I was only specifically referring to the few articulations like “in and out” for jazz articulations and “techniques” for guitar techniques that appear in the properties view. I find these a convenient way to manage my workflow. I can still access them via the sidebar as either user-created articulations or standard ones in Dorico.

9

It seems that AH, NH and PH all have the same playback technique (pt.natural). This looks like a bug to me. You can change this in the playing techniques dialog. Maybe if you make these unique then they might be useful.

Correction. AH, PH and NH do correctly modify the properties of the harmonic, but don’t show up in the tab staff. They show up as a harmonic note in the normal staff (if you have that enabled)

As for in and out in the properties panel. Those are scoop and fall respectively and are not in the playing techniques. So you’d have to add them.

10

Thanks dlb,

I’ve been using the ‘Harmonics’ group in the properties pane to indicate artificial or pinch harmonics in my score. To do this I mapped the ‘pt-Natural Harmonics 1’ and ‘pt-Pinch Harmonics’ to the relevant key switches in the sound library and they work perfectly. This meets my workflow.

I haven’t tried the same with Jazz articulation, but I understand your point. It’s to create a new pt for the articulation if one doesn’t already exist in the standard list (like ‘lift’ in Jazz articulation) and then map them to the relevant KS. I’ll give it a go, and I think it’ll work. Thanks a lot, dlb.