I didn’t usually use playback until recently, and am now adapting some pre-existing scores for that with NotePerformer.
With percussion instruments there are many instances where I want to change the default NotePerformer instrument (which is either “Drum Set (sticks)” or “Orchestral Percussion”) to something else—as it often plays back incorrectly, e.g. a cymbal or gong might play back as a drum, or a snare might sound like a conga etc., but I don’t see any way to edit this in NP—and am attempting to do so by overriding this with a HALion Sonic instrument instead. However when I do that there are a number of instruments that still don’t play back as the correct one.
Is there a 101 tutorial for editing percussion kits and maps? Specifically for how to assign specific sounds to specific staff lines/spaces, as was possible in e.g. Sibelius? I don’t want to have to redo everything, as attempting to use instrument changes seems to delete dynamics, articulations, etc.
I’ve never encountered such an issue with NotePerformer.
If the (Dorico) instruments are assigned properly and the NP playback template is applied all percussion instruments play back as expected.
Unlike in other notation programs you have to define only the instrument in Setup Mode, and in case of a percussion kit which percussion instrument is assigned to which position in the staff. The percussion map will do the rest, it simply maps the MIDI notes of NotePerformer to the Dorico instruments.
The Dorico instruments must not be assigned properly in that case. Have done a bit more research and experimentation, and part of the problem is that the percussion kits for Players 1 & 2 are assigned to a NotePerformer “Drum Set (Sticks)” instrument in the NP mixer, which lacks sounds for a number of orchestral percussion instruments. This instrument cannot be reassigned to “Orchestral Percussion” (nor can “Orchestral Percussion” be reassigned to “Drum Set”).
I found this out by resetting the playback template to Silence and back to NotePerformer and reloading all instruments. Now a number of them (e.g. Side Drum, Suspended Cymbal, etc.) play back as a piccolo (?) because this is an orchestral score and apparently Dorico is just fetching the very first sound loaded for them.
You can create an empty percussion kit which is not a drum set (there is a checkbox) and add all kind of unpitched instruments. However those instruments are displayed in a staff with larger gaps between the staff lines.
I think being able to change this to “Orchestral Percussion” would enable the currently nonfunctional sounds to play back but obviously don’t know for sure since it isn’t possible.
This may well be an artifact of the project file having been created in an older version of Dorico before I had NotePerformer, and thus may not be replicatable. I found that if I created a new “Orchestral Percussion” instrument (in this case a cymbal) and then deleted it from the score, the instrument slot remained active in NotePerformer and I could expand the percussion kits in Play mode and route all the individual percussion instruments within each kit that weren’t playing back correctly to that slot in the NP mixer, where they do work. So the sounds are correct for now, I just have to make sure not to ever reset the playback template…
