This is what I get…
(All my playback settings are Dorico factory defaults - and the instrument is the Etude Elements Concert Grand that Dorico automatically loads)
Thank you SO much for doing that, it sounds much better than mine! more expressive somehow, interesting, I think the anomalies are still there.
I made a mistake in the list earlier, it should read:
36 - suddenly very quiet
38/39 - accents on the melody
then it continues loud
44 - suddenly quiet
45 - suddenly loud
46 - “normal”
47 - first 3 crotchet normal, 4th loud
50 - first crotchet loud
Well the mystery continues, thank you everyone for your thoughts so far, very much appreciated.
If anyone could advise as to how to shrink this file so I can make the diagnostics available that might be the next step…?
I’m on Dorico 5, I’ve bought the upgrade to 6 but not installed it yet, might that be relevant?
Thank you
I’m sure that others are using Dorico 6 to play back your project, Fiona, so yes, I would advise installing your Dorico 6 update and see how you find it there.
Hi Daniel,
Thank you for your message.
I installed Dorico 6 and had no sound at all, I found an old thread and followed your advice : Play - Playback Template - Apply and Close and now I have sound which is great, and a general improvement on Dorico 5 which is also nice, but I now have a dull thud accompanying every beat, which is awful. I’ve looked for other threads on the forum but can’t find any, could anyone help with that please?
Meanwhile I’m continuing to play around: removing all dynamics made a difference to the behaviour, removing the accompaniment also changed the behaviour of the tune but I’m going round in circles really…
If anyone has any other suggestions, including how I can reduce the diagnostics zip folder so I can include it here, I’d be very grateful.
Thank you.
Maybe try this: create a brand new project. Then cut and paste the notes from the old to the new, and see if it does the same thing?
I done have any special knowledge, just a suspicion based on situations that I’ve encountered myself.
Hi Gregory,
Thank you I will try that now.
Unfortunately no change, and still this thud…which is present in other projects as well.
The playback is very quiet, if I increase the volume by going to Play and moving the lever in the bottom right the volume is better but I hear this thud…
Sometime later:
Update, if anyone’s still awake…I’m fading out…
Most of the anomalies, sudden loud notes, have disappeared by re-writing, which didn’t work yesterday but have since upgraded to Dorico 6…? with no dynamics I have a neutral playback, which is what you’d expect. I haven’t tried putting in any dynamics, that 'll have to wait till another day…
Thud can be discreet if I turn down levels on the right and increase piano levels on the left…but still there…
Can you export an MP3 audio file from your project and verify that the “thud” is present? If so, please attach that MP3 here so we can hear it for ourselves.
Hi Daniel,
Thanks for picking up this thread again, much appreciated, and thanks to you and everyone who contributed and helped me last week.
Here’s the MP3.
At the beginning, when the chordal accompaniment is infrequent, a dotted minim, I barely notice it, but when the accompaniment becomes a dotted crotchet ie more frequent, and then a crotchet in the next section, it becomes more distinct.
Thank you for having a listen.
Sorry to take so long to return to this thread, Fiona. (I’ve been on jury service here in London for the past nine weeks so it has been a struggle to keep up with work while I’ve been in court most of every working day!)
I have listened to the MP3 file you posted, and compared it to the playback of your project directly here on my own computer, though like others in the thread, I don’t have full HALion installed on this Mac, so I had to reapply the Auto playback template, which changed the playback to Etude (the full Etude on my system, rather than Etude Elements).
I don’t hear the “thud” you’re describing, I’m sorry to say, neither in the MP3 you posted, or in the direct Dorico playback. I wonder whether anybody else hears it in the MP3?
If you temporarily delete the accompaniment chords in the left hand and play back, do you still hear the “thud”?
Hi Daniel,
No worries ( 9 weeks, good lord, I struggled with 1 ) and thanks for returning to this thread.
In answer to your question "If you temporarily delete the accompaniment chords in the left hand and play back, do you still hear the “thud”? - yes, the thud is transferred from the accompaniment to the tune.
But if no-one else can hear it perhaps I just have to let go of that!
And I wonder if could ask another question please?
As I’ve said I am new to Dorico and so don’t understand yet the “underlying programming” (if that’s even the right phrase) that determines how it all works. In relation to the playback this gives rise to some strange dynamic anomalies, I have worked out a few relationships which might explain some of the effects, but I have no dynamic markings in this part of the piece and yet some notes are markedly louder, if you have a moment could you have a listen please? Any explanations about Doricos’ “dynamics reasoning” would be really helpful.
Thank you,
Fiona
Hi there,
Thank you so much for responding, and so quickly!
When I turned them both off the chordal accompaniment was extremely loud and the dynamics I’d put at the beginning (not included in the recording) were a bit odd, sort of distorted) but when I turned “Use automatic polyphonic instrument voice balancing” back on it was so much better, the chords were an appropriate volume as compared to the tune and the illogical loud notes disappeared - phew what a relief, it’d been driving me a bit potty!
Thanks so much,
Best wishes,
Fiona
Hi there,
I am returning again to the issue of dynamics in playback and hoping someone will be able to help.
I’m working on a new piece now and have deliberately put in no dynamic markings at all in order to export a “neutral” MIDI file into Cubase. However despite the fact that I have added no dynamic markings Dorico adds them in playback, sometimes quite appropriately which is sort of ok, but I wanted a neutral file, but some times a bar, or 2 bars, are suddenly quiet and this information seems to be replicated in the MIDI so I don’t have a neutral copy to work with in Cubase.
I have similar questions in the past and have found that re-applying the playback template and turning off “Use pitch Contour Emphasis” to be helpful but they don’t seem to be helping in this instance.
Is there a way of creating an entirely “neutral” file in Dorico that you can then go onto add dynamics to yourself either in Dorico or elsewhere?
Thank you
WOW! thank you so much, that’s a life changing bit of information! That created a neutral file for playback in Dorico and as a MIDI file in Cubase. That’s great, I can go ahead and work in Cubase now.
Just so I can understand a little better do you know why Dorico created quiet bars all of a sudden, is there a way to rectify that without locking the velocities?
Thank you again
Not without seeing the file.
Jesper
Ah, well I wonder if I can reverse your excellent advice and create the anomalies again.
I’ll try and if I can I’ll attach it!
Thank you
If you had the file open all the time, Ctrl-Z might be your friend 
Or just untick the Velocity property again.
Jesper
Yes thanks Tony, actually I’d closed the file so I just unticked the velocity property and interestingly it displays the same behaviour, that of suddenly going quiet, but in a different place so I’d like to attach it and see what you think, I’m just wondering what sort of file you need?
Thank you