It seems somehow related to the plugin I’m using (Vhorns).
When I change the plugin to for example Dorico beep (while keeping the original expression map) the note starts are adjusted in accordance with the % entered in the playback options.
It puzzles me how the plugin selection can affect the note start positions?
Do the notes in your brass instruments have any playback overrides? Dorico won’t apply humanisation to notes that already have overridden start or end positions.
@dspreadbury what do you mean when you say playback overrides? If your question is if I did any changes in the midi editor (such as changing the beginning/ends of notes): no I never touched any of the notes in any of the midi parts (my general approach is to minimize any manual intervention on midi level)
The Vhorns plugin itself has a “note start randomizer” but I don’t see how this could retro-actively affect the midi values in Dorico itself.
As a temporary workaround I’ve set it to 60ms in the plugin for every instrument, but I prefer to keep that value 0ms and let Dorico control all the humanization.
Thanks for attaching the project. This is a subtle one. The humanisation that Dorico produces won’t deviate by much more than 10 ticks, and sometimes this will pull the start of the note forwards by a few ticks, and sometimes it will push it a little later. However, in order to avoid problems with key switches or controller changes not being adjusted by the same amount as the humanisation interval, Dorico only applies the offset if the note’s position considering the offset is later than the start of a playing technique region. If the note would start just before the region position, then the offset isn’t applied.
The phrases in your brass parts have lots of playing technique changes (staccatos, accents, slurs) and so each note is more or less in its own playing technique region. Dorico wants to apply tiny negative offsets to these notes, but it doesn’t do it because they coincide with the start of a playing technique region.
Thanks @dspreadbury for the analysis of my project and your explanation. It’s good to know/understand that playing techniques limit the humanization possibilities.
Fortunately the plugin itself has a time delay randomizer and that seems to help in de-quantizing simultaneous note starts.
Because the plugin receives midi it obviously can only apply “delays” compared to other instruments, no anticipations, as opposed to two-directions humanization. But that limitation isn’t really noticeable to my ears, and acceptable in view of the hours of midi tweaking this feature saves.
