Trouble with percussion playing techniques

Dorico
1

Hi all, I’m trying to incorporate the VSL “Full Percussion” kit that comes with Kontakt Factory Library. It has six instruments with multiple articulations, most of which have alt versions on different keys.

What I’m aiming for is this: I play something in, Dorico plays it back out. Somewhere in between, Dorico puts x’s & o’s on a grid and I move on with life.

To this end, I’ve:

  • Made a percussion map, for now ignoring the question of alt versions (e.g. Snare Left 1 / Snare Left 2) in hopes that Dorico would play back the same note I played in

Assigned that percussion map to the correct channel/port/instrument in the right panel of the Play mode

Set up a Percussion player and kit

Set the Full Score to show percussion on a 5-line staff

…so now as I key in notes, Kontakt is playing everything per usual; Dorico is recording the correct kit pieces, but flattening out all the articulations. I went back and tried to add in playing techniques, but (a) this is a lot of extra work which I thought the percussion map was supposed to take care of in the first place, and (b) most of the techniques are either not working after I add them, or not appearing in the popovers. Also, (c) the shift-alt-up/down arrow command to cycle through techniques isn’t showing the techniques from my map, only rim/sidestick on the snare.

e.g. I lay down a bunch of snares and add LH / RH marks, but they still trigger the same sample
e.g. “Roll” appears in the percussion map editor, but not in the techniques panel, nor the popover

So I guess this all boils down to two questions:
Can I get Dorico to just play back what I’ve played in?
Are the playing techniques still in development, or is my software buggy?

Thanks for reading.

2

So you’ve set up a percussion map for the VSL Percussion Kit, but have you also set up appropriate playing techniques for the percussion instruments in your kit instrument? To access specific playing techniques in the percussion map, they have to be mapped in the instruments themselves. Go to the Edit Percussion Kit dialog, select an instrument, and click Edit Percussion Playing Techniques to assign the desired combinations of articulations, tremolos and notehead types such that the various techniques you’re playing from the percussion map can be mapped onto the instruments correctly.

3

Ah, I totally overlooked that page, thought it had only to do with engraving…thank you much.

4

Daniel:

In the “Percussion Instrument Playing Techniques” dialog, is it possible to add more “Playback Playing Techniques” to that list that pops up and is titled “Playing Technique Combinations”. As I try to align names of drum set sounds from EZ Drummer or any other VST, there are often many MIDI note numbers for different types of playing techniques of say a “Ride Cymbal”. However, not all that I’d like are there and I’d like to be able to add more custom ones.

Thanks in advance.

5

Yes, you can define more playback playing technques via the Engrave > Playing Techniques dialog.