This would really change the quality of my life. So, I hope there is a way to do it.
With VSL’s recent instrument, the initial volume is set with the preset volume. This allows a realistic and coherent balance between instruments.
This volume is changed when Dorico sends a CC07 = 100 while starting playback. This could be avoided by (a) preventing the VSL preset to respond to CC07, or (b) using a separate expression map for each instrument, and using different Init values.
But,
a) would however prevent any control of volume during the piece. And,
b) would require a huge amount of expression maps, not always needed (many families are internally symmetrical, so a single expression map is enough for them; but the individual volume can be different).
What I do now is entering CC07 at the beginning of each track. Nothing too bad for detailed editing, but a catastrophe for quick listening of a piece with an alternative set of sounds (for example, momentarily switching from NotePerformer to Synchron for a quick check).
So, it would be great if there was a switch to prevent Dorico from sending these default values when starting playback. Maybe there is a plist to edit to do it?
I’m not convinced this is really such a problem. You can easily just change the overall channel volume with the sliders in VE (Pro) or even the Dorico mixer if using standalone instances. In any case, when experimenting a bit with this a while ago, I did not find the default CC7 values to be necessarily accurate and b) much more importantly, the balance between the different articulations which frequently is inaccurate is not changed at all. Have I missed something here?
Doing this for all the instruments of the orchestra is a problem. In any case, one would have to select the original preset again, read the original value, and set the volume in the mixer for each channel.
The original levels set by VSL are a reasonable starting point, from which to start adjusting to taste. It’s the same in MIR. This is much better than starting without any hint. So, my ideal workflow is to be happy of the original settings when prelistening, and doing accurate adjustments when doing the real mixing.