Can anyone explain me why the first harmonic in my example is playing back as it should, while there is simply no sound at all for the second one?? This is a completely normal harmonic for the violin. I tried to browse the forum and the interet, but didn’t find anything helpful. It’s also very unclear to me how I can change the sound library in Dorico and how I would know what to choose instead.
What sound library (playback template) are you using?
HALlion Sonic it says
The second harmonic in your example produces no sound because that pitch is just outside the range of the Iconica Sketch violins. One solution is to use HALion Symphonic Orchestra (HSO) instead of Iconica Sketch. Go to Play > Playback Template and search the list for a template beginning with HSO. If you can’t find one, click on the button Show All Factory. Then select a template beginning with HSO and click on the button Apply and Close.
Thank you! I didn’t know about that! Now that note is sounding, but weirdly, the double bass is not sounding at all now, even though it has completely normal notes in the middle of its range. How is that possible?
That is, short notes in the low strings play as they should, but long and suspended notes not at all. That’ doesn’t make sense to me.
Can you upload the file (or a part of it that shows the problems)?
Volvox example.dorico (3.4 MB)
Here I extracted just the first bars which illustrate the problem: In the previous setting, the e flat harmonic on the violin is not sounding, and the triangle neither (There is actually no triangle until later in the composition, but I added some triangle notes to illustrate the problem ;-)).
If I change to HSO, the triangle and the harmonic are sounding, and the winds are in general more audible and more distinct, but there is no sound from the long suspended notes in the double bass (and later on, the cello). It seems like this template only can play shorter notes on the low strings. Very weird if you ask me…
The harmonic problem was explained by @johnkprice - it’s a limitation of the Iconica Sketch library.
The bass notes play OK with both Iconica and HSO (you did apply an HSO Playback template, didn’t you?)
The triangle also plays with both, but is very quiet using Iconica Sketch.
for me, the suspended bass notes are not playing at all…
How do I know which of the different HSO templates to choose, by the way?
That suggests you did not apply one of the HSO templates… which further suggests you just dragged an HSO instrument into the Bass slot of Halion… which means you likely did not change the expression map for that instrument… which explains the inability to play sustains (because the wrong keyswitches are now being sent for that instrument - note: the default patch for Iconica is staccato).
The factory templates are named in a hierarchy: Iconica… HSO… Halion Sonic Selection etc.
If you choose one without Iconica, no Iconica sounds will be loaded. The reason the other libraries are included is that some instruments are unavailable in Iconica (eg Solo Strings only exist in HSO). Sonic Selection is a final catch-all but the quality is low.
What does that mean? 
I did exactly as instructed, Play > Playback Template and chose one of the templates that begins with HSO. My question merely meant that there are two of those in my list “HSO, HALion Sonic Sel., Olympus, GASE 2” and “HSO, HALion Sonic Sel., Olympus”. I have no idea how to change the expression map for an instrument, nor what that means, nor did I drag any instrument in any slot.
Could you please explain me what to do with indicating which menu etc.? Or link to the relevant part in the Dorico manual? I have no idea about this part of the program and I find it hard to find help in the Dorico manual, since I don’t really know what to look for. I simply need a setting where I can hear all my instruments and notes, it’s merely for me to control I diodn’t write any mistakes.
In the latest version, one could probably just choose the Auto Playback Template to start and be just fine.
I tried your suggestion, but then the harmonics above d and the triangle are not sounding, same problem as with Iconica…
ok, it seems like the basses are just at an extremely low volume when I choose one of the templates that start with HSO. If I put a fff, then I hear the double basses in my example. But of course, that makes no sense. And now, also the harp stopped making any sound. I have no Idea what is going on.
OK, it seems just like the strings are at an extremely low volume compared to the winds when I switch to the HSO template. Does anyone have an easy suggestion how to fix this?
ok, and, still with the HSO template, the contrabassoon is not playing any of the notes belowe the written B. Why??? None of this makes any sense. If anyone has an easy solution so that I can hear all the notes as I should, that would be highly appreciated.
For the quickest solution, you’ll need to post a sample project here. You can delete all the notes, leaving the Players and VST setup.
(Interestingly, I note that harmonics are not included in any of the HALion expression maps, yet Dorico still generates them for Iconica and HSO, so that must be magic…)
I now found out how I can change the expression map for individual instruments in play mode. There I saw that for the contrabassoon, Dorico had chosen “bassoon”, so I assumed that was the reason that the lower octave didn’t sound. I changed to the Iconica Contrabassoon expression map. But first, the problem stayed the same, and after restarting the program, the contrabassoon makes some weird high-pitched saxophon-like sound, and is constantly sounding even when it has no notes 
. Something seems to be really wrong here!
Also, the harp seems not to have any expression map to choose, just something called “deafault”.
Sample project.dorico (2.9 MB)
Thank you. Here it is.