I noticed yesterday the VSL provided expression maps use velocity and CC2 (velocity crossfade) as the volume method for all the sustaining instruments. Wouldn’t CC11 make more sense?
What do other use? Have you modified those at all? I do have the Synchronized SE samples so I realize I probably don’t have many velocity layers available but to me a combination of CC11 and CC8 for timbre control would be more realistic.
I use cc2 (for velocity XF) and velocity in the expression maps for volume. I use cc8 (timbre adjust) and cc11 to manually adjust volume. I adjust cc2 also to manually adjust volume. In the music happens so much more than the notes and dynamic signs can tell. But the notes and dynamic signs are definitly a good base and also the dynamic lane and the micro adjusting that Dorico does in the volume data per note. I love working in Dorico, very comfortable!!!
In the older Synchron libraries, cc2 and cc11 are functionally identical. cc8 is a more recent thing, and distinctly different. I’m still using 2 & 11 as primary/secondary (rather than velocity+cc; just personal preference), mainly because I haven’t got around to playing with cc8 yet.
Thank you both for your input. I may make copies of some of the maps and experiment. I’m kind of new to Dorico but am taking to it quite nicely so trying to work out some of these details. I’m enjoying working in it as well.
Can I ask you both if your also MIR users? I’d like to be able to use it but on a smallish orchestra it made Dorico go unresponsive a lot.
velocity Xfade CC2 and CC11 are completely different. The former changes the tone via dynamic levels and the latter is simply a volume control. I always use CC2 as the primary controller with CC11 as the secondary just as @Marcabru and I’m convinced that’s the best way. You may want to scale the secondary with a higher floor because otherwise, I find the pp and ppp markings can be all but inaudible.
I can’t comment on CC8 as I don’t think any of my libraries support it but I’m sure it’s worth playing around with.
In principle they are completely different, yes.
Regarding the VSL libraries I have, I couldn’t hear a difference and so asked on the VSL forum. It’s possible that I misinterpreted the answer, but certainly the impression I got was that there is no functional difference in their implementation.
Re: cc8 – did you migrate yet? For me it just appeared when I did that.
I suspect the difference is more than instruments like brass where I can certainly hear a quite different tone, than with strings and indeed it will vary from library to library.
As for CC8 – I was actually thinking of checking whether that appeared after migration (I suspect it was introduced to selected instruments like Synchron Brass first and has now perhaps been rolled out further since the switch to iLok) as I have not yet done so. I guess sooner or later I’ll have to do so and my eLicenser protection plan expires in a couple of weeks. Not greatly looking forward to the exercise.
Also maybe because the Special Editions (which is mostly what I’ve got) are not as detailed as their full-scale versions.
The more stuff you’ve got, the more time-consuming the migration is – but once it’s done the new environment is a great improvement I think.