From time to time a topic comes along about Noteperformer’s legato playback, but I haven’t been able to find something that solves this issue. Why is it that NP plays back this:
If I switch to the Auto playback template, this plays back fine. Reapplying the NP playback template doesn’t make a difference. I never made any changes to the Expression map, Playback options or anything like that. Removing the slurs or changing them around (including one long slur over the whole thing) doesn’t change anything either. Neither does resetting playback overrides (not that there were any to begin with).
I don’t specifically need playback for this project but this is really annoying. I always use NP and I’ve noticed some silly things in its interpretations before (and asked a question or two about that here) but this particular quirk is new to me.
Is there anything I can do to remedy this? Thanks in advance!
Thanks @Derrek and @Janus! I’ve had an issue before where my project file played back differently on my own system, but as expected on someone else’s. So this does seem to be caused by something in my setup, but it is strictly limited to Noteperformer, I never get these issues with the Auto playback template.
Restarting Dorico or my laptop didn’t help. I completely removed and reinstalled Notperformer, but that also didn’t change anything.
Indeed I’m hoping @Wallander will have some insights!
However, in your project file, the notes don’t overlap. Since NotePerformer assumes overlapping legato notes, this will break legato playback. See screenshot below.
I don’t know why the default played durations are too short in your project. Maybe @Ulf has an idea? I tried resetting playback overrides and reapplying the template, but was unable to fix it.
Changing the played length of Legato Notes in Playback Options / Timing / Note Durations doesn’t appear to be delivering what might be expected. For example, if I set the Play as a % of written duration to double the note length, the view in Played Durations suggest it’s actually been set somewhere around 30%.
Add in humanisation and there are times where it’s shorter still (and obviously some are longer). However, all the notes under a slur overlap, therefore they are Legato. If NotePerformer requires a minimum note length of 105% to trigger playback of Legato, the Play as a % of written duration setting in Dorico needs to be around 120%. The piece above appears to play back Legato at that setting.
Thanks all for chiming in so far! I’m really curious where this will lead, also because Janus doensn’t seem to have any problems with my file’s playback.
@David_Tee Interestingly, when I change the value for Play as a % of written duration on my end, this doesn’t change anything in the way NP plays this back. I always thought this was expected but I’m completely out of my depth on this subject.
You’re right - I can’t get the legato lengths to change if I use your file. I tested it yesterday entering the music into a new file which I’m attaching below.
I’m not sure why you’re unable to change the lengths in your file. I’ve had a quick look and can’t see anything obvious. This thread suggests that legato lengths can be limited by text-based markings, although I can’t see why that would be the case here.
Nice find @johnkprice ! I played around with different tempi but it didn’t occur to me to change the beat unit. I can confirm that changing it to q=300 restores playback to what it should be. Very strange indeed. In my actual file there is a tempo mark with only text shown and the metronome mark hidden, but the behavior is the same: setting a beat unit of dotted halves messes up the legato playback.
I’m glad I can work around this for now, but I’m still hoping that a cause an subsequent fix can be found. This is still not ideal in situations where one needs the metronome mark to be shown (and for obvious reasons wouldn’t want it displayed as q=300).
Edit: got curious and the exact same phenomenon occurs here:
