Question about the Playback Technique Editor

Dorico
1

Wrapping my head around the playing/playback technique system. The videos have been very helpful but a few things I’m confused about. These are noob confusions, not complaints. Thanks!

  1. In Dorico Elements, what is the use of being able to create a playback technique if I cannot edit/change a playing technique to actually use it? If I create a playback technique called Cheese, I can add it to an expression map, and it would never get called. Even if I define Cheese as an alias of Accent, any accent marks in the score just still use the Natural base switch (unless I add the actual real Accent playback technique to the expression map).
  2. What is the purpose of being able to edit a playback technique to be an alias of itself?
  3. If I edit the name of a base switch, Dorico will sometimes helpfully add a colon with the actual original name of the playback technique it references, but only if I edit the beginning of the name. If I edit the end of the switch’s name, Dorico ignores. i.e., changing Accent to my_Accent behaves different than naming it to Accent1. I assume that’s just cosmetic behaviour?
  4. Why is the “Playing Techniques” lane in the Play tab named “Playing Techniques” when it is primarily displaying the expression map switch names (playback techniques) being enforced?
2
  1. Dividing functionality between different variants of the software is always tricky. In general our aim is to make the playback template system fully available in Dorico Elements, but not to provide full customisation over engraving and graphical appearance (for which you need Pro), so the Library > Playing Techniques dialog is not included in Elements; but Playback Techniques is included because it’s part of the playback template system.
  2. There is no specific purpose for this. Ideally we would remove the entry corresponding to the current playback technique from the list of playing techniques you can choose to be an alias of.
  3. In general Dorico decorates the name of a base switch if the automatic name contradicts the playback techniques assigned to that switch.
  4. This is indeed not really correct, and is something we should probably change!
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