VST octave playing transpositions

Dorico
1

Hi! I’ve searched a bit and found info about instrument transpositions, but not specifically in relation to VSTs.

The question I have is : is there a way to adjust at which octave is MIDI data sent to VSTs?

In my specific case, I was trying to write a “Bass Synth” part. When I play it through Halion, it sounds right, but when I route it to an Arturia synth, it sounds one octave too low. The VST itself doens’t have an option to switch octaves up/down.

I’ve read that instrument transpositions are hard-coded, so I cannot edit instrument properties like in Sibelius (and I can understand why - to make Dorico smarter at knowing how to notate things). But is there a way to adjust the playing octave in the Play tab, when it is send to the VST? In a DAW such as Live, I would for example simply drop a MIDI pitch change plugin before the VST.

Thanks!

2

You can change the transposition in Halion. Open the Halion window and switch to the MIDI tab and you can set a transposition for each channel. Alternatively you can use the ‘Transpose up 1 octave’ expression map. Just press the gear icon on the ‘VST Instruments’ section in play mode and set the expression map for the desired channel.

3

Thank you, like I said it was working in Halion already, but I had a problem with an third-party VST. The expression map solved the problem, thanks! However, I see there’s only the “1 octave up” one. What if you would like something else, is there a possibility to create your own expression maps (yet)?

4

Yes, there’s an expression map editor in the Play menu. Just duplicate the ‘1 octave up’ one and adapt it to go down.

5

Amazing, thanks!