I’m writing for a group that has 3 (jazz/latin-oriented) percussionists, each of whom may choose to play any of 3 parts I’m laying out. I’d therefore like them to all have the same, single percussion part that has (in both the score and parts) a multi-line staff that has triangle on the top line, shaker on the 2nd line, and congas (high low) on lines 3 and 4, with all 4 parts completely independent of each other (ie. each line with its own, uncombined stems). I was experimenting with creating a Percussion Kit but this seemed to create complications. Does anyone kindly have a quick explanation for my best course of action to create this? Thanks in advance!
I’ve been reviewing the Dorico videos on percussion and am getting a better handle on things now. I realize that I can set up a Percussion Kit for my 3 instruments and specify whether I want it displayed on separate staffs or some other presentation, separately for Full Score and Parts, in Layout options. However, I’m now having difficulty hearing the actual assigned instrumental sounds. I’ve assigned my 3 percussion instruments to the built-in Halion library, assigned the Percussion Map to “General Midi”, and chosen the “Latin Percussion” sound in Halion. I also hear the appropriate sounds from this combined patch when I hit the appropriate MIDI keys, and when I use my MIDI keyboard to enter the notes on the staff of the appropriate instruments, I hear the proper sounds (though they appear by default on a single line since they are unpitched). HOWEVER, when I play back, all the sounds default to something different than the actual, underlying pitches I entered. How do I change this? Thanks for any help -
Well, I suspect the problem here is that the “Latin Percussion” patch in HSSE doesn’t match the note assignments of the “General MIDI” percussion map, so nothing is going to make sense when Dorico tries to play it back. It will be looking, say, for a shaker sound in the percussion map, and in General MIDI that might be (say) note 50, so because you’ve told it it’s General MIDI, it dutifully plays note 50 during playback. But if the shaker sound is actually on (say) note 52 in the Latin Percussion patch, then you’re going to find that you get a different sound.
So you need to choose the ‘HSSE Latin Percussion’ percussion map in the Endpoint Setup dialog, or let Dorico do it itself (reset the playback template via Play > Playback Template) and all should be well.