When exporting to a midi file in Dorico, I get a very hard ground noice. I searched a lot but have no idea where this is coming from and can’t get it away.
Here an example of a new file with only a few notes written in Alto Sax. I doesn’t matter what or where I write. It’s always there.
Can someone help me with this?
Example - Full score - Flow 1.mid (308 Bytes)
This appears if I import your MIDI…
Perhaps you have to append the project file…
I suspect a wrong CC… (11?)
Can you reapply the standard playback template?
This is almost certain a Key switch, caused by using the wrong Expression map for the instrument in Play mode.
Thank you for the feedback. Selecting another template solved the problem! I’m going to take a deep dive into playback templates and try to understand what was happening there.
I keep having troubles with the different playback templates. I only use factory templates and as far as I know nothing has been altered. I have two questions about this:
Q1: When I use a factory playback template, it adds a low ground noise to the midi extract. The only template that doesn’t do this is the first one, the HALion sonic selection. All other will add in one way or another some low ground noises in extract, playback gives no issues. That makes me think the problem is in ‘Olympus’ because that’s the name that pops up in all the other ones. Not sure about that btw… Anyone have an idea?
Q2: Because I had the issue above, I tried Noteperformer and installed the trial. In playback it sounds great, but also the midi extract gives a problem. No ground noise, but all instruments changed in one other. Trumpets into bells for example.
Either way, does anyone have an idea how to solve the above? Still learning Dorico every day, but I haven’t found a solution for this yet…
Thank you!
I’ve taken the liberty of moving your new post to your existing thread from yesterday, since this is the same issue.
When you export MIDI files, all of the instructions that Dorico uses for playback are included in the exported MIDI, including all of the key switch notes specified in the expression map.
If you don’t want those to be included, before you export your MIDI file, go to Play > Playback Template and choose the HALion Sonic Selection playback template and apply that. These sounds are the simplest ones, and don’t require any key switches, so no extra notes beyond the written ones in the score will be exported.
Sorry about that. Wasn’t aware of the possibility of ‘reopening’ the topic.
When I understand you correctly this is a sort of workaround for the problem with the outcome the exported midi sounds very simple. But what I do not understand is why an export with other templates creates extra (ground) notes. Isn’t there a way to fix this? And in what way a key change causes this?The midi files are used for background music so the quality is quit important. The closer to real life, the better.
It’s because if you use the MIDI export in your DAW (with the same VSTs) all the articulations should playback exactly as they do in Dorico.
The explanation is that many VSTi’s have recordings of many different articulations of an instrument as different samples. For instance, a string library may have legato, staccato, spiccato, pizzicato, col legno, sustained harmonics, etc. Because MIDI 1.0 doesn’t have a built-in way of switching between techniques, a lot of libraries use a technique called “key switching”, which is where notes outside of the normal playing range of the instrument are used as triggers for switching to a specific articulation. These are often different for different libraries - for instance, there are no standards for string libraries regarding which key switch should be for legato vs staccato, etc. For composers working in a DAW, they will often manually add these key switch notes to their track at the right spots, and they trigger these articulation changes.
In Dorico you wouldn’t want to have to include key switches manually when switching articulations, so generally the expression maps will be programmed to add these key switches to the MIDI data automatically for the instrument you are using so that when you play back, you hear the articulation changes without having to add keyswitches yourself in Dorico. Similarly, these key switches will be also included in the MIDI export. The reason is, as @Janus explained, if you want to use the same sample library in a DAW, you’ll probably want to be able to plug in the same MIDI and have the key switches take effect. If you’re taking the MIDI into a completely different virtual instrument, though, the key switches probably won’t have the desired effect, and if they do fall within that instrument’s playing range, then you would hear them as either very low or very high notes that are not supposed to be there (which is what is happening here).
Generally it is expected that you would be using the same virtual instrument in Dorico that you use to export the MIDI as you use in the DAW where you are importing the MIDI, and there, the key switches will be correct and will change between articulations at the proper times. If the MIDI you are exporting is intended for a different virtual instrument than you were using in Dorico, there will always be cleanup involved of the MIDI on the import, because of keyswitches that shouldn’t be there and perhaps incorrect MIDI CC’s (continuous controllers) that have a different meaning in the other virtual instrument, as these CC’s are also not standardized across all vendors.
Here’s Garritan’s brief discussion of MIDI Keyswitches:
And here’s a nice little DAW-oriented demo of them in action:
Thank you all for your info.
So, the chosen project template creates the key changes itself? In that case I understand what you mean and will use the suggested option to export the ‘simple’ halion sonic selection. Thank you all for the explanations.
