Before I started with Dorico (V2) I have been a VSL fan. Their (VSL provided) expression maps are very complex however and I continue to struggle with getting satisfactory results. Many of the VSL Exp maps playback techniques do NOT have corresponding playing techniques as far as I can see. VSL offers no documentation or training as far as I know either. Other than the Dorico manual(s), are there any training videos, or could there be to cover this connection, especially the Playing techniques. As a FEATURE REQUEST, I would love to see the ability to manually assign a Playback technique from my expression map to avoid the playing techniques component all together if desired. Perhaps from the MIDI editing screen where the techniques already display? If not possible, a modified single screen that shows expression map/playback techniques AND playing techniques with ability to create new ones when necessary to assure the links required for playback are in place. Thanks for listening. Cheers.
The playback techniques that VSL adds do have corresponding playing techniques that they have added into the system folder, so you should see them. What are you missing? If you can give some examples, I might be able to assist.
I think probably what you might actually want is something that I have requested before as a feature request, and I think is being considered for the future, which is the ability to do an override for specific notes for playback purposes only, to choose a different base switch / add-on switch (or “slot” as in Cubase parlance) than the one that the specific set of playback techniques in force at the time would call for.
I understand the desire to manually assign playback techniques and I thought I wanted that too at first. However, to me the problem is that with the VSL libraries, some slots may only be triggered by a combination of 5 or 6 specific playback techniques, so if you are manually adding these then you’d have to put all 5 or 6 in the manual override for a single note, and that doesn’t really save a lot of work. So I agree with the idea of being able to do manual overrides of this kind, but it might be preferable on a slot basis (base switch + maybe one or more add-on switches) because that would allow for easier overrides by specifying less data (often just one base switch would be needed, and in some cases maybe one or two add-on switches, rather than needing to choose 5 or 6 playback techniques out of a massive list for a single note).
Such a manual override wouldn’t be a replacement for working with playing techniques, but simply an easy way to force a note to use a different technique than the playing techniques in force in that spot would usually result in.