Single Line instrument playback question - why Piano?

Dorico
1

I created a single-line flute instrument. When inputting notes and in playback, the instrument that’s sounded for the single-line flute instrument is the piano. I know this can be changed in the NotePerformer mixer, but is this expected default behavior? Sample project attached.

Be careful, if you try to edit the single-line flute instrument while it is held by another instrument (the flute in this case), you will crash Dorico 5.

Flute_FluteSingleLine_playback.dorico (497.1 KB)

2

If I open your file, and save that instrument as default, here’s what it looks like:

flute
flute933×301 40 KB

Compared that to the “real” flute that’s in instruments.xml which is this:
instruments

Playback Templates use the entityID (I think) to assign the sounds. As there’s nothing set up yet for your new “user” flute sound, I guess it defaults to piano. If you want the new “user” flute to be in a Playback Template, I think the instrument with that entityID needs to be added to an Endpoint.

3

Thanks, Fred. The point is that when setting up the new instrument (which is a copy of an existing instrument - in this case, the Flute) there is no way to specify the playback endpoint. It defaults to piano for some reason. Why doesn’t the new instrument inherit the playback qualities of the instrument from which it’s made?

4

They said the Instrument Editor was a work in progress. Or could be a bug. All my custom instruments default to Piano as well.

5

Just speculating here, but if they kept the entityID the same as the parent instrument, then there wouldn’t be a way to assign a new instrument an original sound, which is likely one of the main reasons to create a new instrument. Perhaps there could be a clearer mechanism to distinguish between a variant of an existing instrument and a brand new, completely different instrument.

6

At least in the interface one uses to create a new instrument there should be some method to assign an instrumental sound. As it stands there is nothing. For example, in the case I posted it would be nice to be able to assign some percussive key clicks to the single-line flute.

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