When I input notes and then tie them, they start out very quiet, almost inaudible, then crescendo. This occurs even when I delete the phrase and reinput it, even in different measures, and also when I create a new document. I’m new to Dorico, totally mystified.
I just noticed this isn’t happening to all tied notes, just the ones in a particular motive and only in the violin part. I’m trying to reset playback options to defaults (although I didn’t knowingly change anything to begin with), to no avail.
Hello Sean, Welcome! I’ll answer the question best I can, although probably the most responsible thing for me to do is refer you to the great teaching videos- knowing how one question leads to another.
But anyway… at any given moment there is a “Playback” technique Dorico is using to control the playback of an instrument. By default that technique is “natural”. There is a pretty good chance that you entered a slur rather than a tie, which indirectly cause Dorico to use the “legato” playback technique instead for at least part of that phrase, and it switched back to “natural” playback at what it consideredthe appropriate time.
The good news is that you have a great deal of control over when they occur and what they do regarding volume, dynamics, which technique or sample gets triggered , etc … the bad news is, you have a lot of control so just messing around, there is a lot you could have done in your settings, instrument choice, playback template etc. to make the playback ah “interesting” and remain so between new projects. 
The key editor is good place to look first to see what is what.
I do strongly recommend the videos and tutorial projects. But if you post the project we might be able to help you more specifically to see what’s happening.
Thanks for your response. It’s definitely a tie (added them using “T” and the note plays back as a tied note.
Can you upload a cut-down version of your project that demonstrates the problem? That would help people figure out what’s going on.
Sure thing – here it is.
Crescendo problem.dorico (822.7 KB)
Someone who knows more about Dorico playback than I do can fill in the details, but that seems to be what the default HSO Violin Solo does with longer notes, I guess to try to “humanize” the sound.
If you open the Key Editor, either in the Properties panel or in Play mode, you’ll see that the eighth notes get a playing technique of “Natural, Note Length <= Medium”, and the tied note gets “Natural, Note Length > Medium”.
These are defined separately in the expression map for HSO Violin Solo, which you can examine by pressing the Examine Expression Map button in the Track Instpector in Play mode.
Thanks! I’ll check it out and I guess eventually figure out how to change it if that’s possible. It must be a quirk of my computer, because the way it sounds, no human would ever play it like that – it sounds as if the bow isn’t touching the string and the beginning of the note is silent.
Thanks for your help – I just deleted "“Natural, Note Length > Medium” from the expression map and now the tied notes are sounding. I suppose that means the overall sound output won’t be as good until I figure out how to improve it, but at least it’s functional again.