While struggling trying to come up with a percussion map for Jazz and Big Band Fusion Kit (the general midi one generally works fine with Dorico) it dawned on me…is there a shared resource where folks can just share their various percussion maps for third party drum kits? Maybe someone has already done this and I can just “import” someones percussion map instead of trying to understand the technical aspects of matching everything up.
Chances are users would share those maps here, but to the best of my knowledge nobody has posted one yet. If you come up with one, feel free to export it and attach it here, and perhaps you can start a trend.
There are some maps (Toontrack, …) posted on the Cubase forum, those would work, wouldn’t they?
B.
Dorico’s percussion map format is not the same as Cubase’s drum map format, so you can’t import them into Dorico, I’m afraid.
Can Sticks (the sound of drumsticks being hit together) be added to the list of instruments available for Percussion maps ?
You can add any playing technique you like by clicking the ‘Edit…’ button next to ‘Playback playing techniques’ in the Engrave > Playing Techniques dialog.
Thanks Daniel. It’s not the technique I’m after - it’s the instrument. Drumsticks hitting each other are, in themselves, an instrument. Much like a pair of hands hitting one another are. Handclaps are in the list of instruments, but sticks aren’t. I can’t find a way to add to add instruments to the list so I assumed one has to request them.
As an aside, I found what might be a bug while adding Playing Techniques. I added a technique and used it within a Drum Map map but later thought the better of it and deleted the technique. When I went back to try and amend the map, I couldn’t change or delete that particular entry.
David, use any instrument you like then edit its name in Setup mode. There is no need to request instruments.
Thanks Leo.
I’m after having Sticks included in the list of instruments that appears when you’re making a Percussion Map (picture attached) I’ve just changed a Wadaiko (?) to sticks in Setup mode, but it still shows up as a Wadaiko on the list.
If I’m going about this the wrong way please let me know. Thanks.
Ah. Sorry David, I misunderstood. I’m not entirely sure how that dialog is propagated.
I think it’s the same list of Unpitched Percussion Instruments available in Setup Mode but I may be wrong about that.
In that case - and bear in mind that this one’s outside of my comfort zone and I’m prepared to be wrong - I think the instrument name is probably cosmetic.
If, for example, you edit the name of the “Zills” instrument in Setup mode so that its long name and short name are both “Sticks”, it will show in the score as “Sticks”. It will show in the part as “Sticks”. In the Percussion Maps dialog you’ll have to refer to it as “Zills”.
Am I right?
Yes, this works. If I combine Zills with a drum set, it still shows up as Zills in the Percussion Kit but is shown as Sticks in Write mode.
My initial thought was that if the Instrument names in Percussion maps are cosmetic, it wouldn’t matter if Dorico allowed users to add as many names as they liked there. But now that I see that there is a relationship with Setup/Percussion Kits and Play/Percussion Maps that wouldn’t be the case.
If I was doing this for myself, your approach is the easiest way. However, my intention was to do what Daniel suggested and post a couple of Percussion Maps here to get the ball rolling. I’ll find one that doesn’t use Sticks and start with that…
Thanks Leo.