Usual disclaimer: I have searched the forum for the answer.
Here’s my question:
In some cases, to achieve desired audio quality, I have to edit a few parameters in HALION SONIC SE for respective instrument(s).
For example, to make Yamaha Piano sound less ‘percussive’, I open HALION window, go to to EDIT panel > Amplifier section and increase the ATTACK time and to compensate for that, increase the LEVEL.
That works acceptably well, yet, Dorico doesn’t seem to register the adjustment(s) - the indicator in the upper left corner of the main window doesn’t prompt for saving.
So, the next time I open Dorico, the settings for that project in HALION SONIC are at their factory defaults.
Is there a way to save project’s edits in HALION SONIC?
As of Dorico 3 you could create a playback template to achieve this. For example, load a new instance of HSSE and load the piano patch, then make the adjustments you need. Hook this up to the piano instrument in your score using the track headers in Play mode. If you use a specific expression map, make sure that is chosen in Endpoint Setup. Once you’re happy with the way everything is set up for the piano, click the Save Endpoint Configuration button in the Endpoint Setup dialog and call it e.g. “Piano”.
Next, go to Play > Playback Templates and create a new playback template: first add your manual “Piano” endpoint configuration, then below that in the list add “HSSE+HSO (Pro)” from the auto list.
You can now specify this as your default playback template in Preferences, and every project you start will use this playback template with your tweaked piano, loading the default patches for everything else.
From your original question, currently Dorico doesn’t know whether there are any changes to the plugin that you aren’t saved. However if you do press Save then it should remember those changes.
The reason I missed such a natural way of saving edits is that whenever I want to explicitly save any edits in any app, I automatically hit ‘Command + S’.
Yet, with HALION SE window having focus, pressing that shortcut results in a ‘quack’ sound - i.e. the app tells you that you’ve attempted to do something stupid.
To the contrary, in the same situation - HALION window having the focus - if I go to File > Save, apparently Dorico reclaims the focus back and does save any edits including the edits in the plugin.
Good to know
