extensive sound library expression maps vs. just using Note Performer (opinions sought!)

Brian_Roland · July 16, 2020, 7:36pm

robjohn9999:

This gets me back to the other parallel discussion I first raised in this thread re: Note Performer. What I’m finding is that after trying to program my “better” virtual instruments in Dorico, I get bogged down in the technical part of building appropriate expression maps, programming appropriate sound choices, etc. and it just feels easier to do it in a DAW to get the expression and realism I need (as Brian has also suggested). The only exception to this I’ve found is to simply use NotePerformer in Dorico for playback which - while sacrificing some depth vs. the deeper libraries, etc. - offers the advantage of effective, expressive interpretation of the score automatically based upon the notated articulations and dynamics.

So will it ever be fully “worth it” to extensively program all one’s virtual instruments in Dorico? Is it worth going down the “rabbit hole”? Or should Dorico perhaps be trying to find a way to expand the NotePerformer concept instead, somehow? (licensing Arne’s technology but building richer “built-in” libraries, expanding to other musical styles like jazz more effectively, etc.?) Again just curious what people think.
Thanks -

D.D.

Once these signals are connected, more instruments will come about that can better sort options automatically.

Time Singature
Key Signature
Tempo/bpm
Anything else helpful that the VST protocol has to offer.

Note Performer won’t need the delay anymore to attempt to ‘calculate’ these things on its own.

HALion, and other sound engines with scripting abilities can use that data to make more, and better choices out of the box.

Example:

For a bowed string player…sometimes we want a dot over a note to mean staccato, sometimes it should mean martele, and so on. In general, tempo is what a musician uses to choose what that dot means. Often the time signature can play a role in the better articulation for that dot. Sometimes velocity or level of aggression comes into play. If the dot also lives under a slur it can give yet more hints, Etc. Expression maps can also stack even more clues to help the plugin’s scripts make smarter choices, through attaching events to instructions like Dolche, Rubato, and so forth.

The same goes for using alternate tuning schemes. If one wants to use just tuning, then the plugin needs to know the key signature so it can make adjustments if that changes. Yes, there are ‘work-arounds’ to use CCs and what not to convince a plugin to bounce to a channel that has the proper tuning set and ready…but the way expression maps work…we end up having to duplicate a LOT of entries in our expression maps, but with that one extra node (a good xml editor can help automate some of this, but even so, it’s a lot of work).

So…

Once those VST pins are wired, and Dorico keeps that information updated in all the plugins as a score plays, library developers can use the scripting abilities of their plugins, and get to work sorting and building intelligent expression maps and marry those to scripts in the plugin.

It’ll take time though! Making scripts to rough in the choices might be relatively simple for someone who is quite intimate with the library and knows the samples and parameters provided inside and out, but running lots of scores though it, for various styles/tempos/grooves and tweaking it out will take loads of time. Note Performer has been working on theirs for many many years now. It didn’t just happen over night.