Inside Dorico I use NotePerformer for most of my orchestral instruments (including Synchron NPPE!). However, I much prefer some of my own pianos, harps, and percussion (including various extended technique libraries like VI prepared piano and XXL TamTam etc). This allows me to write with the best of both worlds.
However my Dorico templates have really grown out of control, starting at ~27 MB with a blank flow before adding a single note of music.
I tested by removing all but NotePerformer and a single instance of VEP. Now I got my template file down to around ~2 MB and it's loading way faster, so I think VEP is the way to go! However I have some "noob" questions since I bought VEP awhile back on sale but haven't used it much.
First let me describe my goal: alongside my dorico template with an instance of VEP, I could have a VEP template project file which automatically connects with a playback template (using overrides in Dorico for the instruments where I do not want to use NP). Inside the VEP template I could have my various pianos, harps, percussion, and alternate special technique libraries loaded. I intend to map each one via midi channel (which I will update my expression maps accordingly, this much I know how to do and have tested before). Finally, if I wish to make any changes on this particular project, I'd like to be able to save it so I don't overwrite my template, but have it accessible with that specific project.
So my questions:
- To achieve the above, inside VEP should I be saving as a 'Server Project' or an 'Instance Project'? Pretty confused about the differences there since I tried both and they seem to behave similarly. (I am going to go out on a limb here to guess that in a heirachy fashion, Instances are the 'children' to Server (parent)? So a server project saves multiple instances?)
- If I want to create a playback template in Dorico which always connects to a pre-loaded VEP template, how can I go about this? Would that require a server project or just an instance using the same name? What I imagine is that I could load this playback template and with VEP open in the background, it would know where to connect.
- Should I keep everything in one instance – or create separate instances for every instrument type? (e.g., should I create just a 'Piano' instance, 'percussion' instance, etc.? Or just keep them all in one until I run out of midi channels (16?)? Pros or Cons around that for my workflow?
- If I make changes to the VEP project which are specific to my composition, and wish to save it (I usually store this type of thing inside my project folder for the composition so it's organized with the dorico file) – will there be any issues with Dorico connecting to this new version when I reopen the projects at a later date? (or will it be confused, looking instead at the original template project?)
Hope that all makes sense. Any additional advice is welcome – thank you!
(also if tech specs matter, I'm using VEP7 on Mac (ventura) with Dorico 5.1)