After struggling for months with these issues, I finally requested help directly from NotePerformer support. So far, no reply, but I’m reproducing an abridged version of my message here on the chance that other forum members may have encountered (or even solved!) similar issues. I apologize for the length, but, as they say, it’s complilcated. I’m using Dorico 4.1, Windows 10, hefty machine with lots of RAM, USB ASIO interface, etc.
I uploaded some screenshots to my Google Drive. Might be helpful:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_PFfpsbnklhRb5mBtH7cnRm33EUWG8ec?usp=sharing
============ SENT TO NOTEPERFORMER ==============
I’m trying to find documentation on the NP mixer pop-up beyond what’s in the User Guide. I need help with several related issues:
i) When I display the VST rack in Dorico’s Play menu, it shows two instances of NP64. I can even display two NP mixers simultaneously (in addition to the Dorico native mixer).
ii) My score has two cello parts. One of the NP mixers displays all instruments in the score (plus many others; see below), EXCEPT FOR one of the cello parts. The other instance displays only the missing cello part. Dorico displayed the two NP VST instances long before I added the second cello, so I don’t believe that adding the 2d cello created the duplicate NP instance.
iii) I can’t delete from the first NP mixer instance the extra (unused) instruments. I verified that they don’t play any content in any of the flows of my Dorico piece, and that they are not associated with any player or layout in any flow.
iv) Hitting the NP mixer’s RESET button does not delete the unused instruments.
v) Clicking the dropdown list at the top left of the mixer displays some sort of undocumented preset/filter dialog. This dialog lists four presets, which I may have inadvertently created when I first struggled to install the original demo version of NP earlier this year, before purchasing. Could this be related to the above problems? For now, I’m setting both NP mixers to the “Default” preset to avoid further complilcating things.
vi) Is there any documentation for mixer features not described in the little NP manual I downloaded such as: the preset functions, ways to manually delete unused instruments, the mixer’s A-B option, a way to combine two instances of the NP mixer into one mixer panel that shows ALL the instruments in my composition, and ONLY those instruments, etc.?
vii) Unrelated, but important: Is it possible to EQ the audio output produced by Dorico+NP? E.g., I find that NotePerformer’s “Electric Bass” patch produces far too much output for my ensemble in the 35-40Hz region, burying instruments like arco double-bass, bass trombone, and tuba. I would like to premaster the playback from within Dorico so that my daily work-in-progress output sounds more balanced to my remote collaborators. I’m hoping to avoid having to run every output file through a DAW or sound-editing program to simply apply across-the-board EQ to a half-octave of one instrument. And this is just one example – the ability to EQ playback is an essential function that I haven’t yet located in either NP’s or Dorico’s documentation.
I’ve spent four months on my current Dorico composition – a very large project, still only slightly more than half-completed – and am hesitant to make uneducated global changes that might greatly affect the sound, requiring a major rewrite at this late date. So I’m asking these questions before taking potentially irreversible steps like simply uninstalling one of the NP instances to see what happens.