Hello Chris!

I recommend disabling CC11 for expression and just using it for Velocity XFade. This way you avoid double dynamics that cause your problems of all dynamic values below mf being too soft.

Are you using the Vienna Symphonic Library House Style? In this file the values for all dynamic levels have been optimized for our sample collections. If you haven't done so yet, you can download it here:
http://www.vsl.co.at/en/68/141/460/576/655.htm

For further finetunings you can change the Dyn.R. setting of your Vienna Instruments in the Control Edit/Edit Cell menu. The higher this level is, the higher is the dynamic range of the instrument and therefore lower the volume of the low velocities. Please be aware that this level is set for every cell seperately.

I hope this was helpful.

Best regards,
Andi

Hi Andi,

Thank you for replying. I've tried disabling CC11 for expression, but the problem is that things such as descrescendos do not work as expected (the change is not as smooth or as complete as I would have expected). 

I installed the VSL House Style. How can I be sure that my score is correctly making use of it? Is there a particular value I can check? As far as I can tell, it is being used. 

I'll check into the Dyn.R too, if nothing else seems to correct it. I'll be playing around with this over the next few days, and I'll let you know if I continue to have problems.

Thank you,

Chris

Hello Chris!

The Vienna Symphonic Library House Style has to be loaded for every score you want to use it with. When you are in doubt, if it is loaded, just load it again. In order to keep your layout and just add the dictionary and instrument entries, check only the boxes for these two categories in the Import House Style menu.

For me it works well, to use CC11 for Velocity XFade only and disable it for Expression.

Best,
Andi

Hi Andi,

I double-checked, and I had correctly loaded the house style. Would I be correct in stating that velocity cross fade is most useful when working with the more complete instruments, and not so much with the Special Edition instruments? As an example, a descrescendo from pp to ppp makes no audible difference at all for the English Horn in the Special Edition. I find similar problems with other dynamic gradients. 

I have settled on a solution that allows me to remove the use of a limter by enabling CC11 for both expression and velocity cross fade, but manually tuning the response curves for each instrument. It provides reasonably acceptable results.

What I intend to do soon to further improve this is to notate a number of examples from the Adler orchestration book in Sibelius, and use the accompanying CD material as a reference while tweaking those curves to ensure that I am getting a good approximation.

Anyways, thank you for the response.

-Chris 

Hello Chris!

Our bigger collections offer more velocity layers for most articulations. So you are right, that these will work smoother with Velocity XFade. However, we didn't record samples in ppp. So going from pp to ppp will always make the pp-samples only be played a little softer and there will be no difference in timbre.

Best,
Andi

Hello umarekawaru!

Did you select another controller than CC11 or none for Expression as suggested eartlier in this thread?

Best,
Andi

This does not answer your problems, but is an oboe and English Horn capable of playing pp or ppp. Seems to me that the instruments cannot play that soft. It really cuts through the sound of an orchestra. If the oboist plays a wrong note, the whole room notices.