Expression Maps

Dewdman42 · August 12, 2018, 7:31pm

Daniel at Steinberg:

djw:

As you probably know there’s a list of compatibility issues with Dorico on the NotePerformer site (here). Is it realistic to expect these to be ironed out in the 2.x updates, or ever?

Well, several of those compatibility issues arise from differences in design approach – Arne has been very vocal to me about what he thinks is appropriate for a notation program to do with its playback, and what it is not. That amounts to a difference of opinion and I can’t guarantee that we will simply acquiesce to whatever Arne says he thinks would be best for NotePerformer, though I would hope that the fact that we have already done a substantial amount of work to help him deliver a working version of NotePerformer for Dorico demonstrates that we see the real value in his work. But some of the issues, like the fact that some combinations of articulations and techniques don’t work together, of course will be taken care of in the future because they have a general impact, not only on NotePerformer (though I can’t say exactly when).

That is all very reasonable. I just want to say that I recently picked up NotePerformer and I’m blown away by it. I will be using that almost exclusively for my work with Dorico. If a certain project needs to get mocked up more elaborately with VSL or whatever, I will export it to my DAW and work on it there outside of the notational domain. I understand that Dorico has its own goals, as it should, but hopefully NotePerformer and Dorico will be able to synergistically come together to resolve the couple of issues the exist to make the experience seamless. Right now, Finale is even less seamless then Dorico, but Sibelius apparently has the best integration with it for whatever the reason. NotePerformer might be the perfect orchestral sound source for working with a notational product to hear the results as notated. For my own workflow, I will be using NotePerformer through most phases of composition. However, for final mockup to distribute, if needed, I will export project to DAW and use VSL or other libraries, with all the tools in the DAW to craft the best mockup I can.

The simple truth is that articulation handling is right now a very moving target. All of the DAW’s handle it differently, some don’t handle it at all. The various sample libraries all handle things differently, in some cases substantially so. There are some interesting challenges to deal with when you start digging into it, and it gets even more complicated once you start combining different sample libraries in one project. People need to be realistic about an expectation that they will be able to get NotePerformer-like automatic articulation handling with all the different sample libraries out there, at least not any time soon. NotePerformer is simple the best alternative at the moment for automatic score reproduction without having to fiddle around with articulation management.

The best two DAW’s for handling sample lib articulations are Cubase and Logic. Cubase has expression maps, and Logic has articulation id, plus a javascript engine that can be used to do almost anything you want. I’m not a cubase user so I can’t really comment about expression maps, but generally my understanding is that there are pros and cons to both approaches. In any case, having followed this topic for some time, I can tell you that there are plenty of users that run into complicated problems to solve inside both DAW’s when it comes to articulation management, particularly when multiple sample libraries are used in combination. In short… its a moving target and its not even close to standardized. Babylon waves is trying to come up with a subset of standard input key switches to use that map to myriad of output key switches for any given library…and sometimes its not trivial to do that, depending on the sample library, in some cases Babylon waves can’t really accommodate all of the flexibility built into many sample libraries, due to limitations in the DAW’s themselves more then anything, and the desire to have a common front end, which is a lowest common denominator.

I think it would be good if Dorico at least duplicated the functionality entirely of Cubase expression maps. Articulation handling will evolve in Cubase and Dorico along with it, but people need to realize, that there is a lot of fiddling often, even with expression maps. If you need a top quality mock up, then that is worth doing. If you just need quick and easy score playback that sounds something close to what you intend, then NotePerformer with Dorico is, IMHO, the way to go for the foreseeable future. Notion also has done a pretty decent job with this, but not as good as NotePerformer and Notion is not that greatest notational program either.