The playback section is the part of the manual that I haven’t studied in detail, because I am not interested in doing anything advanced with that. (I like the manual in general, and find that I usually can find any answers I need there. 95% of my remaining issues are solved by searching this forum.) My main goal with the playback is to check that I haven’t made mistakes. I’m not looking for a result that sounds good - that’s what the musicians are for. So diving into and learning the Play mode seems like massive overkill for me. I have only been using the defaults and tried to fix the massive imbalance between different instruments with the mixer.
Is there a simple way to easily / quickly set up all used instruments to be balanced with each other?
I mainly write for concert band and big band, and with the default settings the saxes overpower everything else while the trumpets and trombones are still on the soft side even after maxing them and pulling the saxes down to -9. (Btw, why is everything - instruments, reverb and master - in a new project set up at max volume rather than 0? Is there something wrong with my Dorico installation or is that how it’s intended to be?)
So, am I missing something or are my options to either
continue the way I am doing things or
put in the time to learn the details of the playback settings and spend the time to tweak things when setting up a new project? (I am assuming this is possible.)
In a way, I was happier with the bad general midi sounds we had in the 90s since they worked well with each other out of the box. That’s more important to me than “realistic” sounds. So if there is an easy way to sacrifice the “good” sounds to get something that just works, I’d be very interested.
NotePerformer is not geared for Big Band, but the consensus is that their various sounds tend to give a realistic balance against each other. Someone with more Big Band experience can likely expand on how well that would work with sectional clarinets, etc. than with solo instruments.
Thanks, but I’m not looking to purchase an expensive sound library for my notation software. NotePerformer seems quite good, but overkill for my use. (Ok, not that expensive. I have spent a lot more than that on other sound libraries that I use when playing with my DAW, but it is a large enough cost to me that I can’t pay it without thinking seriously about it first.) All I want from Dorico’s audio is to be able to check what I’ve written.
I also worry that introducing another component could complicate things more. I’m already confused by the different sounds installed with Dorico. A bunch of different sound libraries with names that don’t indicate what they’re for. I have only left the playback template on Auto.
But maybe your suggestion is the only way to get what I want: Sounds that simply work together. It’s good that the advanced options are there and I’ve seen that the playback is very important for some people, but it would have been nice with a simple default.
You might be happiest using the most basic of the libraries bundled with Dorico (Halion Sonic Selection). You can experiment with different playback templates to hear how each sounds (Play>Playback templates… click the show all factory button and choose one that starts with Halion Sonic Selection. If you want to use Groove Agent for drums, choose one that ends GASE).
Also, set up a Live Stage template for your ensemble. I find it really helps.
You may well be able to use the libraries that you already use in your DAW. The only difficulty is setting up expression maps, but for many of the common libraries you will find someone here has already created one that works (even if you need to tweak it to meet your personal needs) - search the forum or ask the question.
The simple answer to your question is no as far as I’m aware. In an ideal world, all instruments and articulations would be correctly dynamically balanced but the reality is very far from that as this would require perfect sampling and rebalancing. Some companies do a better job than others (VSL tend to be above average in my experience if far from perfect) and it’s probably easier with a largely modelled library like NotePerformer. As Derek said, I would agree that NP is fairly good at balancing dynamics appropriately (if again far from infallible) and if you’re looking for something which scores in that department it might be a decent bet – except for the fact it doesn’t particularly specialise in marching band stuff.
In the end, as you don’t seem very interested in the sonic quality, you have to decide how much time it’s worth spending getting to know the library of choice and where its specific weaknesses are regarding overall dynamic balance and making appropriate changes in the mixer or Expression Maps. I guess that reducing the overall dynamic contrast in the playback options (such things as dynamic curve and min/max levels) might possibly make the job easier. As for me playback is the most important side of Dorico, it’s worth, a) getting decent libraries to begin with and b) learning how to use them. Your priorities seem to be different.
I’m not sure if this is affecting you, but you might want to turn off the various playback humanization options such as automatic polyphonic voice balancing and pitch contour emphasis. This can be powerful tools when handled well but can cause some weirdness if left unattended. These are found in Playback Options → Dynamics.
