According to the relevant entry on the Vienna Symphonic Library Academy page, the Tenor Trombone’s range is from E2 to F5. Yet in Dorico Pro 6.2 the tenor trombone is only audible from E2 to A4… the colour of the note head does not change to red (indicating ‘Out of range’) at A#4, and above.
Similarly - according to the page there for Bass Trombone, the range is from Bb0 to F5. While it’s only audible in Dorico from F1 to C4.
What am I missing, please?
I’ve tried changing the values at Write > Library > Instruments in the ’Range’ area. That seems to make no difference.
What is implied by ‘Standard range’ and ‘Advanced range’?
Nor does setting Middle C to both C3 and C5 in Dorico’s Preferences > General > General Preference change to allow extensions to what I assume is available in VSL’s Synchron Brass Standard Library.
How do I get the greater ranges, please?
Many thanks in advance to anyone able to help here!
Please open the player of the instrument by selecting the track and clicking on the e in Play Mode.
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The white (and inclosing black) keys of the piano roll represent the audible range of the instrument.
Some of the instruments have a little double arrow at the right edge of the piano roll.
When enabled you can extend the range.
you need to be aware first of all that the Dorico range has nothing to do do with the playback range of individual libraries. I have VSL instruments that play happily into the red (which as you said you can adjust in Dorico so the red will disappear). And others which cannot play notes which are theoretically within the range of an amateur. With VSL libraries, @Vadian has the correct answer – in some cases an extension to the standard range is possible as he described. I don’t have the trombones so can’t check directly.
possibly, but VSL instrument ranges are among the most generous in general from any vendor. And with my Studio SE trombone, I can extend all the way up to an absurd D8 which of course is completely unplayable. But a small extension should still sound reasonably musical if you need that.
AFAIK with NPPE the range limitations of the underlying library remains. It is only NP itself that has no range limitation, because it is modelled rather than based on recorded samples.
Thanks again, David! I’ve always found VSL’s libraries (and software) to be the best (fit for me …). As you too say, @Vadian‘s kind direction is the answer.
I must admit I’ve found that for me VSL works best for chamber forces as for full orchestra they’re somewhat cool and clinical and here I prefer Spitfire despite the fact that VSL are in general better behaved.. Having said that, I know of one or two leading experts who are using more VSL stuff than they used to and I think the newer Synchron libraries can bring a new dimension – certainly I find in most respects that the solo strings for instance are a marked improvement in general on the old Studio set (though not everyone agrees)
You can mix and match, but I doubt the results will be satisfactory. You would need to define your own Endpoints (routings and expression maps) and combine these into a custom Playback Template.
Most of my symphonies now use the Spitfire Symphony Orchestra as a first choice, though in certain situations, the BBCSO Core is nice – there I tend to go with the NPPE (NotePerformer Performance Engine) version, though of course you can use John Barron’s maps or do your own. Certainly using VEP 8, you can combine libraries and of my primary templates combines Cinematic Studio and BBC Core. Of course VSL can also be added to the mix.
I can see how and why you make the choices you do.
I kind of abandoned NPPE when it began to be ‘unsupported’ (quotes intentional: we know why, and how far ). Looking that up, I see it was almost a year ago. So have the latest NP, 5.
I’m actually still angry about that but I guess no point in going on about it. Fortunately, I find overall I actually prefer my own maps for the SSO which is emphatically not the case with the BBC Core.
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