I created some custom techniques for selecting stops on an organ VST. They work, except that when playback goes past one of them a second time, it toggles it off again. Given that the VST doesn’t have a reset or an all off option, is there a way of initialising in the Init technique, or some other way of coping with this?
You can’t trigger the Init. switch via a playback technique, I’m afraid. I guess you will need to create an explicit “reset” switch that resets all of the values that you are otherwise using? Or perhaps you could use add-on switches for some or all of the stops, if you’ve not tried that?
Thanks Daniel. They’re already set up as add-ons. Without a reset switch in the VST, I think it would require if-then-else logic implemented to solve this from Dorico’s end – which I wouldn’t expect to see happening.
Really I was wondering whether other users had experienced the issue and come up with workarounds. Meantime, I’ll ask the VST mfr. to add an all-off switch (there’s a slot available, I think).
Hi. How do you make these changes of stops? For example, if I want measure 1 to be principal+mixtures and measure 2 flûtes+gambe (or any contrasting stops Dorico offers), how do I do it?
It would help to know which organ sound set you are using.
The organ sounds included with Dorico don’t provide different registrations. If you’re looking for a more flexible church organ, you will need to investigate some third-party solutions. For example, the organ included with Garritan Personal Orchestra has a few different stops and is relatively inexpensive. I believe NotePerformer also includes a small number of stops you can combine flexibly. If you’re really serious about church organ playback, you should look at something like the VSL Vienna Konzerthaus Organ, or perhaps even Hauptwerk.
For the record, I was using the organ in Rinascimento (Fluffy Audio)
I’ve just bought NotePerfomer 4. I might also look into VSL Vienna Konzerthaus Organ or Hauptwerk. But how do I switch from one sound to another for the same organ staves? For example, one sound for measure one and another for measure two.
One can assign different voices to different “stops” or one can read the VST’s instruction manual and create Expression Maps to handle channel changes if the VST provides them.
NotePerformer uses cc103 to set different combinations of stops. Use the stops calculator to find the value you need for each registration. It’s a bit tedious because there’s no simple way to combine these.
The following project demonstrates the Great and Swell stops on the NotePerformer pipe organ:
NotePerformer Organ Demo.dorico (611.7 KB)
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That’s what I need. How did you do it?
I suppose it has something to to with Library → Expression Maps (although Dorico’s manual say “Play” instead of “Library”), but it is confusing.
In my organ demo project, I made a copy of the NotePerformer expression map called NotePerformer Organ. I changed the endpoint setup for the organ instruments to use this copy of the expression map. I created seven playing techniques in the Keyboard category labeled R0 through R6, each of which is linked to a playback technique with the same name. Each playback technique Rn triggers an add-on switch I inserted in the copied expression map which sets CC103 to select the desired registration, in this case setting CC103 to 2n to hear each stop separately.
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Thanks. I am trying to follow your instructions, but I got a bit lost on the playback technique. Here’s what I got so far:
- Library → Expression Maps → Duplicate “NotePerformer” and name it “NotePerformerORGAN”.
- Play → Endpoint Setup (gear besides “e”) → Expression map: NotePerformerORGAN.
- Library → Playing Techniques → Category: Keyboard → New (+) → R0 to R6.
So now create Library>Playback Techniques to correspond to each Playing technique. Then add the switches in the Expression map to trigger the correct cc103.
Go to Library>Playback Techniques and create new techniques named R0 through R6, giving each the Attribute articulation type. Then go to Library>Playing Techniques and set the playback technique for each playing technique you previously created to have the same name. Now go to Library>Expression Maps and create the add-on switches in the NotePerformerORGAN expression map associated with the playback techniques R0 through R6 to set CC103 to select the desired registrations.
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This confuses me. Surely it should be a direction - ie the stop is selected until overridden later by a different one?
If an expression map for an organ were created from scratch, the playback techniques to set the registration should have the Direction articulation type, the expression map should use base switches rather than add-on switches, and a mutual exclusion group would be needed to ensure that each change in registration cancels the previous one. However, the NotePerformer expression map is huge and I didn’t want to add additional base switches and a mutual exclusion group. The method I am using does maintain the registration from one change to the next even if it isn’t ideal.
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Appreciate that.