Phantom Articulation

Dorico
1

I’ve written an arrangement, and spent far too much time troubleshooting Dorico/HALion behavior that shouldn’t require you to understand MIDI routing and keyswitches.

I may have something to do with using instruments not associated with voices. I don’t like the Ahhhs and the Oooos which is why I’ve changed the instruments.

Soprano playback suddenly becomes staccato at beat 4 of m.13, with no staccato markings

I’m using Dorico 6.2 with HALion Sonic 7 and Iconica Sketch/Violins.

My score has four staves: Soprano/Alto, Tenor/Bass, Piano, and Cello.

The Soprano playback is legato up through beat 3 of measure 13. On beat 4 of measure 13, it suddenly becomes short/staccato and remains that way.

There are no staccato articulations in the score. The notes at that point include dotted-quarter notes, and the notation is correct.

I muted the Tenor track, but the problem remained.

I also checked the HALion instrument. The Soprano is routed to 02 - HALion Sonic, Port 1, Channel 1, and that channel is using Iconica Violins I. The HALion interface shows articulations including Staccato, Sustain, and Legato.

What could cause Dorico to switch the playback articulation at exactly this point in the score?

The problem begins exactly when the Tenor enters, even though muting the Tenor didn’t solve it. That’s a useful diagnostic detail for someone who understands Dorico’s playback system.

I’ve attached the project:

God’s Gracious Love_Arrangement_R8c.dorico (2.0 MB)

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Connie

2

Is it intentional for the piano to actually be strings? You have routing problems otherwise. Sop. staff and Piano are routed to the same port and channel (1, 1) the tenor is routed to channel 4 and using the HSO Trumpet Solo expression map. The actual instrument on channel 4 is the French Horn Ensemble.

To get everything back to a stable state, go to menu Play → Playback Template and reapply Auto and close.

If you want different sounds without having to fiddle with routing and VST slots, create the instruments in setup that you want the voices to sound like and just … Edit names.

3

Understanding HALion Sonic is a basic but critical step. I couldn’t quite walk away from it, so I used AI to help teach me. AI definitely has its place. It isn’t always right, but I think I’ve managed to get things back to their original state.

My original reason for changing the instruments was to get away from the “Ahhs” and “Oohs” that the voices seem to default to. I think I understand it now. Somehow, in trying to get away from those two sounds, I managed to corrupt my sound settings. I’ve also incorporated a staccato sound in the soprano that I’ve decided I can live with.

Thank you for taking the time to look at this and for your reply. Dorico has a huge learning curve. My biggest handicap is that it’s a hobby for me. If I could work with it every day, I’m sure more of it would stick.

Thanks again!

Connie