Technique label on single line percussion

Hi there. I moved from Finale to Dorico a few months ago and there are some things I can’t figure out on my own. Perhaps someone here knows the answer because I haven’t seen anything about this particular issue on the forum.

I am working on a template that includes percussion maps for both percussion kits and non percussion kits. When I select a note on a percussion kit a label with both the name of the instrument and the technique is displayed (if there is no technique other than natural it just displays the name of the instrument)

But when I select a note on an instrument that is not a percussion kit I get nothing.

For this particular instrument I have 6 different techniques that I can choose from and the playback tells me the change is taking place but I get no visual feedback. On the other hand, changing technique on a percussion kit tells me which one I just moved to.

Also, just to clarify, I do get the caret with the name of the instrument before I input the note, but not when I go back to a note already there.

Any ideas why there is no label for non percussion kits?

Hi @Maester_Ludwig, and welcome to the Forum and to Dorico!

This is because the name of the instrument is already clearly displayed in the Staff Label, so there is no need to specify which instrument, being it the only instrument for that staff.

I think you need to define the specific Playing techniques for your percussion instrument (so that they match what you entered into your Expression map), and choose a different notehead for each Playing technique:

Here an example with the factory Playing Techniques of the Snare Drum:

Here the Manual:

and

Also I suggest this brand new video series about Playback (and related topics):

Hi Christian! Thank you for the comprehensive reply. The thing is I am using the Percussion Technique dialogue, that’s why I mention I can hear the different techniques when I play it back.

In fact I find the percussion technique dialogue quite useful and easy to use; I just finished mapping all my percussion kits and this was the first non percussion kit I was mapping when I came across this issue with the labels right when I was about to change the noteheads :slight_smile:

I think you are right about Dorico not displaying the label because there is only one instrument on the staff and the technique label is a subcategory of the instrument label, thus it never gets shown.

Anyway I wish it did because sometimes it’s just easier to read the name you gave to a very specific notehead you are unfamiliar with or when you have variations of a specific technique with the same notehead (in this case it’s more like a round robin kind of thing that only affects playback but I like to know which one of the variations I am using just by clicking on the notes and reading it)

Ok, I understand now, @Maester_Ludwig.

You can easily overcome this putting the Anvil into a kit as only instrument in it. it will then show the Playing techniques just selecting it, as in the other kits :wink: (you can of course rename the kit or the player as Anvil, for better orientation) :

Yeah I was afraid that might be the only way to get the technique to show up. I still haven’t delved into the instrument library but I guess I’ll have to change every percussion instrument in the score to a percussion kit. Still, thanks for your input @Christian_R !

Edit: To anyone at Steinberg who might be reading: would it be possible to have the technique labels for non percussion kits in a future update?