Overriding the tremolo on suspended cym?

Dorico
#1

custom cym roll.jpeg
custom cym roll.jpeg861×667 61.9 KB

I’m struggling on this one. Trying to override the default tremolo to play a custom cym roll playback playing technique (through the setup as in the attachment). Although my custom playback playing technique is triggered correctly, the default tremolo behavior is still there (ie. the sample is triggered repeatedly). The strange thing is when the technique is set to “Roll” instead of my custom one (with “Roll” mapped to the correct sample), then it works properly (no default tremolo behavior). But I do need multiple techniques to trigger different samples.

For a pitched instrument, using the expression map to override the tremolo works wonderfully. But for unpitched percussion, it seems to be another story. Any insights? Am I doing it wrong?

BTW, setting up a custom playing technique that looks like the tremolo mark works, but it is such a hassle to position the tremolo marks on the stems.

#2

Strangely, change technique to “Buzz roll” also works. Really don’t understand why using custom technique won’t cancel out the tremolo behavior.

#3

Well, as far as I can tell, on unpitched perc, the tremolo marks can only be overridden to trigger the playback playing technique “Roll” or “Buzz Roll”. It should’t be that way. Please consider to fix it in the future.

#4

I wonder whether the issue might be that Dorico doesn’t know that your defined technique and the Tremolo playback technique are mutually exclusive? In your expression map, have you put both your new technique and the Tremolo technique in the same mutual exclusion group?

#5

I thought expression map has nothing to do with unpitched percussion. Things should all be set in the percussion maps dialog. Am I wrong?

#6

Hello scoreR,
Here is my solution to this problem of the tremolo sign, tremoloing a tremolo sample. Currently you cannot suppress a tremolo sign, although I have requested this in the past. What I do in these situations is to ‘create a staff below’…then copy your notes onto this new staff, remove any tremolo signs on these copied notes, select all the notes in the original bar and suppress playback. Apply your specific playback techniques to your new staff, then select that bar (or the first note) and select ‘Remove staff’. These commands are all in the staff menu. You can add and remove these extra staves whenever you need them throughout your score; there will be a signpost too so you can see where they are if you need to edit them again.

The fact that you can write notes into an extra staff below, then remove that staff and have the notes persist is a great feature for me, and very useful in these kind of situations. Some people do find this behaviour counter intuitive, but that’s how it functions. I have key commands for ‘create staff below’ and ‘remove staff’ as I come across this often with all my percussion parts where I want to notate with a tremolo sign rather than a trill (for a roll). You can suppress a trill if you prefer that notation.

#7

Thanks Grainger2001. Your workaround solution will work for sure. The other solution, which I think is less hassle, is to just create fake tremolo-look-alike technique.

I seriously think that if they allow you to override the tremolos on pitched instrument (in custom ways), the same thing should also be possible to unpitched instruments. If it’s an oversight, it should be fixed in the future.