Really, the expression maps (in concept) have most of this covered. Of course it’ll be nice to see improvements to the system. I.E. Where we can do things like drop a direction playing technique on the score that’s not necessarily bound to a specific note. In short, a stand alone event…like just a send a single CC to add a mute, without binding the the node to a specific note…and later do the same to turn the mute off.
As it is now, if we want a sordino and con sordino option, one has to duplicate a bunch of entries in the expression map.
normal (must include the CC to turn mutes off)
normal.mute (only difference here, is one CC is turned on)
staccato
staccato.mute
accent
accent.mute
Or…use a technique that isn’t sticky (only applies to a single note), but one still needs at least one ‘custom/oddball’ duplicate entry in the expression map with the mute node to get the relevant CC sent.
Or, leave the user to dot it in on a CC lane…but, the current CC lane implementation is not conductive to placing single/isolated CCs. It refuses to let us enter terraced style CCs on these lanes.
Or, since Version 3, we can now build custom playing techniques, and give them nodes with unique names. Something I haven’t experimented with much at this point.
It gets pretty annoying as an instrument builds in complexity. The good news is that every release since version 3 first hit the streets has unveiled significant improvements to the expression map/technique system. It IS getting better…
The parts that are currently missing to build much smarter instruments with much simpler expression maps are current tempo, current key signature, etc. It is part of the VST protocol to supply that information at all times, but it’s not hooked up yet in Dorico (I don’t think it is in Sibelius or Finale either). In the old GM protocols, RPN events exist for transmitting this type of information. Either way…once we get it, smarter instruments without added latency are more plausible.
Theoretically, one could do in HALion the same things NP does. HALion has very robust scripting abilities. It can get its first cues on how to pick a sound template/sample from the Expression Maps (some event means a note has a dot over it). Buffer, analyze, and make even more subtle choices from there (if tempo, or if note length is is in range x, pick staccato, in range y, pick spiccato, or in range z, pick martelli, and so forth).
Using Bidule, I can do something similar for any plugin I like, with zero added latency by sending the click track to it, and letting it calculate the tempo. It’s one beat behind on having the proper tempo, but still useful for helping choose articulations without a lot of manual intervention with the score on my part. Of course, I can also buffer, time-stamp, and analyze everything between a given note-on/note-off event to make choices from that data as well, but this approach requires code to keep things in proper relative sync, and adds latency.
Give me those tempo and time signature pin…and without added latency, I can do in HALion what would otherwise take a MUCH more complicated expression map, or require the user to go in and manually tag up individual notes. I could even give the user a page in the macro of the instrument to over-ride or make adjustments to whatever it’s picking by default for a given combination of symbols on the score.
I.E. If the default were to choose martelli for any note with a dot, also living under a slur, if the tempo is between 70 and 90, the user could pull up a page and change that to use spiccato instead. It wouldn’t be too difficult to also give the user up to 127 of these pages (on the fly changeable with a CC), in case the user would like to have different slates of options for different sections or movements of a piece.
Give me the key-signature pin, and I can free you from the bondage of using equal temperament tuning in a more automatic fashion.
The HALion engine is really powerful, and very efficient at sample and waveform based type instruments. The synths are impressive too, though of course they eat up more CPU (I don’t know enough about synths to compare it in terms of efficiency with other sound design engines).
It’s a shame that first impressions of the HALion engine aren’t all that great these days (in part due to the default, out of the box settings of apps like Dorico), when in fact, the engine is HIGHLY capable, if not out right superior to most other sound design options on the market these days.