Hello, community. Sorry to bother you again, but I was wondering if I’m doing something wrong.
Firstly, I have Dorico Pro 2.2 and NotePerformer 3.2 on Windows 10.
NotePerformer 3.2—according to this Scoring Notes post—is supposed to allow multi-articulation support in Dorico. I am currently attempting to score a simplified piano version of Giazotto’s Adagio in G Minor for private use after purchasing the piano sheet music. I have reset the NotePerformer expression maps to defaults so it says version 12.
Unfortunately, despite the claim that multi-articulations are supported, I’m still having problems with natural and staccato notes in a piano score. The very first chord in the right hand is supposed to be natural and the left hand chords are supposed to be staccato’d, but all notes play back as if they are staccato’d. Interestingly, the final chord in the right hand plays back correctly because it is slurred into from the previous measure. I found that when I put the slur back a note, the chord played back as if it was staccato’d.
I have asked about this before when I had NotePerformer 3.1, and was told that removing the control changes from the staccato expression map and saving the results as a separate library file would fix the problem. And it did. But not anymore with 3.2. So for me, currently 3.2 has sadly made things worse.
I was wondering if I’m doing something wrong. Sorry if I sound annoying with these complaints—especially since I’ve voiced them before—but for me this is a thorn in my side.
Here’s the zipped file of the Dorico file I’m working on: Adagio_in_G_Minor.zip (397 KB)
This is a documented limitation. See page 56 of the NotePerformer user guide.
Dorico may collapse grand staves to a single staff in playback.
If a single Layout > Solo Player is assigned to multiple staves in Dorico, these staves share a
common MIDI channel.
What this means is, all articulations unavoidably spill over to the other staves in playback…
NP does support multi-articulations for monophonic instruments.
A workround is to go to Play mode, click the cogwheel “tools” icon for NP in the VST Instruments list in the right hand panel, and change the expression map for the piano to CC11 Dynamics.
That will stop NP recognising anything except dynamic marks and the adjustments that Dorico makes to the length of notes for staccato, etc, but it does get rid of playing techniques spilling over onto the wrong notes. Note, you still can’t have independent dynamics on the two staves of the piano grand staff.
The “next level” of workround is to have two separate piano instruments with one staff each, so NP plays them independently. It depends whether the playback or the written score is more important for you.
Thanks for the reply. I’ve tried the first workaround and so far, so good. I didn’t know about that trick. I just thought 3.2 would have fixed the problem. I’ll use your suggested workaround until Arne can get it fixed.
I think it needs both NP and Dorico to do things to fix it.
NP uses a midi controller (CC11) for volume for all instruments, including keyboards, which is a bit strange since it means you can’t have different notes of the same chord (played with one hand by a human) with different dynamics - which is a basic part of piano technique, once you get beyond “beginner” level. And Dorico will need to play different “voices” on one staff with different articulations etc, as a general purpose option to use “human readable” scores for good quality computer playback.
I don’t know if this is the same issue but I’m finding that if a slurred piano line (on the upper clef) includes tenutos, the tenutos are playing back like staccatos.
So you are looking for more of an accent/pressure from the tenuti under the slur.
The different interpretations of tenuto by different instruments have long confused me. In wind instruments they are sometimes interpreted similar to slurs (joining notes together) whereas in piano music they imply pressure (not surprising for a percussive rather than sustaining instrument).
And of course whether staccato or tenuto under a slur for “half-tonguing” wind instruments must really complicate the job for synth programmers.
