Zombie-note playback?

I’m having troubles understanding why Dorico will play a note that is not there in the score attached. It’s as simple as it gets: there’s just one single rest, and still I get the playback of a low piano note. Why?

Thanks so much,
Daniele

PS. Sometimes the application on startup says that it can’t connect the audio engine, and then quits. This is not a huge problem though, as it usually opens fine afterwards.

TEST.dorico (991.4 KB)

Stray low notes are most likely MIDI keyswitches, used by some sound libraries to change from one type of playback to another. They become audible when the expression map doesn’t match the sound library. Re-applying the Playback Template (somewhere in the Play menu) will mostly solve it.

As Pjotr points out: many sample instruments use low notes (outside the normal register) to set patches. e.g. a mute, or staccato.

If you hear the note, it usually means that the Expression Map is set to play a key switch, but the sample instrument is not the right one for that map. Change the map, or the sample.

That was traditionally because the Audio Engine was still running, after the Dorico app quit. If Dorico crashes out, rather than quits cleanly, this could happen.

However, the latest version of Dorico has improved handling of this situation. Make sure you’re up-to-date.

Thanks to both of you!
Indeed resetting playback helped, although I’ve lost my custom changes in the HAL setup. Those notes just appeared out of nowhere as soon as I added a second voice, but even when I deleted the second voice, they kept playing.

In any case I’ve solved, thanks again!

(PS. I am on the latest release, so the startup issue still remains for me)

If you changed the instrument in the HALion player, then that was probably the cause.

If you create a Diagnostic Report from the Help menu, and post it here, then one of the team may be able to investigate your startup problems.

Here it is! In any case that isn’t a deal breaker.
I’ve had a couple of crashes when changing Accidentals setting (24-TET) and Nonstandard clefs, those were more worrisome to me… I suppose they should also be included in the report? They date from today.

(And no – my custom changes involved no piano whatsoever and they had always worked fine until I introduced a second voice today, so I don’t think they are the reason of the issue…)

Thanks so much again!
Daniele
Dorico Diagnostics.zip (1.1 MB)