Solo Indication (play out)

[judddanby]

@Dima-S

But I understand you as wanting to raise only the “volume” — i.e., amplitude — of the sound without any other changes. Have I read you correctly?

Yes, so that the instrument is the most prominent among the others.

@Dima-S

I need the instrument to sound in a soloistic manner in a particular passage.
As you said, this would mean precisely adjustments the timbre, the amount of vibrato, and other non-purely-“volume” aspects of the sound that help the line “sing”.

Which do you want: “volume”-only or “soloistic,” with all of the other aspects that entails? (This is an either/or choice.)

@Dima-S

What you demonstrated above (manually dragging the control points of the MIDI dynamic), do I understand correctly that this only changes the volume level, not the Expression (or Velocity, well, I do not know what to call it most correctly)?

If you listen again you’ll hear Dorico + NotePerformer is shaping things well beyond pure loudness. It’s automatically adding in variations of MIDI velocity, thereby causing timbral adjustments well as loudness, and bringing the top line out over the lower one without my having to do anything other than write mp < mf > mp. (I did no manual MIDI controller writing whatsoever until I tried out CC7.) Whether it sounds “realistic” or not is somewhat a personal musical determination, but you can experiment with the Playback Options > Dynamics settings I mentioned above.

@Dima-S

Let’s say we can entrust the precisely adjustments to the “intelligent” contextual interpretation of the VST itself. The question is, how to make it clear to VST, where exactly to apply it?

In using NotePerformer I am by default entrusting a lot of this to “the machine,” since to my ears it renders quite musical performances — certainly good enough for the purposes of a playback demo — without my having to futz around much (unless I’m writing jazz…). In so doing I am also “surrendering” control to some extent, since it’s designed to do so much.

@derAbgang

@Dima-S

What difference does it make which instruments/libraries I use?

… because each instrument in each library controls articulations, dynamics, volume and vibrato differently.

As pointed out, the library makes a huge difference in playback response to things.

Others here are far more experienced in working with porting Dorico into DAWs to do the “hardcore” shaping of things, so I should probably step back now and let them offer their wisdom to assist.

P.S. — I see that you’ve also got this parallel thread going, touching on related issues: Interpretation of CC11 (expression) / Velocity midi. Perhaps you’ll get your answer there.