Percussion Kit export/import issues

Dorico
1

I know there have been threads about percussion maps/kit problems already ([Percussion map problem - #3 by Laurent_Colombo]), but they seem to be at least 2 years and one major update ago.

I’ve attached a very basic project to recreate the following issue:

  • create a empty kit and assign some (here only 2) instruments
  • make sure they play back and get written when imputting corresponding midi-notes correctly.
  • export kit
  • import kit in a new player
  • try to input one of the instruments via midi-keyboard.
    → only hihat is notated correctly (maybe because it’s the first instrument?), but not it’s playing techniques such as open hihat. The tom already is off. When using several instruments in the original kit there are several instruments off (and it looks like common instruments like hihat, tom, ride are more likely to be off, whereas caxixi, tambourin are preserved - at least in my experience)

So the question is if somebody has the same issues or if anybody made it work as expected and can help me figuring out what I do wrong?

tl;dr
Exporting/Importing a percusion kit doesn’t work as expected, as it is losing it’s mapping

PercMapTest.zip (548.3 KB)
(basic dorico project & exported percussion kit)

2

Yes, I’m afraid there are some lingering problems in this area. When you export a percussion kit, Dorico updates the internal IDs for the instruments in the kit to make sure that when you import the kit into another project, it won’t unexpectedly interfere with e.g. the percussion playing techniques you have set up for the same instrument used in a different kit in the new project.

Unfortunately there are a couple of bugs in the code that maps the MIDI note you play on your keyboard to the right percussion instrument in the kit via the percussion map that means some of the mappings will fail for an imported kit (with modified IDs) that work fine for a kit in the project in which it was originally created.

I can only apologise for the inconvenience caused. We have fixed these problems in our development builds, but it wasn’t straightforward to include the fix in the most recent updates. However, these fixes will definitely be included in the next major version of Dorico when it appears later in the year.

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3

Dear David, thanks for the honest and detailed answer!

4

It’s Daniel, not David…

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5

I’m sorry, Daniel!
Thanks PjotrB

6

Any sort of update on this bug? I am having the same issue. I setup a single VDL rack perc kit in my project, and when attempting to export it, it won’t save the file. No error message, just doesn’t actually save the kit file when i click “save” after the file explorer opens up.

The workaround I have at the moment is to duplicate the player that the kit is in, as I need 3 of these rack kits in the project.

7

Yes, the specific issue described in this thread is fixed in Dorico 5.

However, if you’d like me to investigate something here for you, please provide your project file and the steps required to reproduce the problem, and I will look into it.

1 Like