A lot of steps? You add the symbols to the music and they play. You write pizz. you hear pizz., you write col legno, you hear col legno, etc.

You don't have to trigger any keyswitches manually, it's all automatic.

The steps are, you use the Dorico Wizard in the Vienna Assistant and save your playback template. Then go into your file in Dorico and apply the VSL playback template in the play menu (the one you just created in the Dorico wizard). Hit play and you hear it play back with the techniques you have assigned in the score.

@mducharme said:

A lot of steps? You add the symbols to the music and they play. You write pizz. you hear pizz., you write col legno, you hear col legno, etc.

You don't have to trigger any keyswitches manually, it's all automatic.

The steps are, you use the Dorico Wizard in the Vienna Assistant and save your playback template. Then go into your file in Dorico and apply the VSL playback template in the play menu (the one you just created in the Dorico wizard). Hit play and you hear it play back with the techniques you have assigned in the score.

Thanks for your advice

Maybe this tutorial can also help you when you want to stick to key switches (glissando example):

Yeah you *can* use MIDI trigger regions to trigger keyswitches manually, but it is generally not necessary and makes it less user friendly (who wants to have to remember keyswitches when you can use a word like "slow octave gliss." instead?). The only reason that example uses the keyswitches to trigger the glissandi is that the default map doesn't give you a way to trigger those, and keyswitches gives you a way to do this without editing the map. But in this case, what I would do is make a duplicate copy of the VSL map with my initials in front, add my custom techniques to that map, and use it instead of the regular VSL one. Then I can actually write "slow octave gliss" instead of having to memorize keyswitches or have a text file open that shows me what keyswitches are there.

@mducharme said:

Yeah you *can* use MIDI trigger regions to trigger keyswitches manually, but it is generally not necessary and makes it less user friendly (who wants to have to remember keyswitches when you can use a word like "slow octave gliss." instead?). The only reason that example uses the keyswitches to trigger the glissandi is that the default map doesn't give you a way to trigger those, and keyswitches gives you a way to do this without editing the map. But in this case, what I would do is make a duplicate copy of the VSL map with my initials in front, add my custom techniques to that map, and use it instead of the regular VSL one. Then I can actually write "slow octave gliss" instead of having to memorize keyswitches or have a text file open that shows me what keyswitches are there.

My situation is somewhat comparable to Music Paul's, but I wanna make the switch from Cubase Pro to Dorico, using Vienna Synchron instruments. I'm just starting, experiencing a lot of difficulties. As far as now, I get the sound to respond to dynamic marks and articulations, but there are severe differences in playing volume, even with the simplest score. Example Using Duality Strings Violins 1, I write quarter notes in legato (a slur in the score) and then eighth notes alternating with eighth rests. In the Synchron Player, I see the setting move from Perf. legato/normal, to Short nits/Detache. The last ones are incredibly louder than the legato, while when playing such a score every musician would stay in the same volume range, like keep everything in mf instead of going from p to ff (that's how much the difference is. I wonder what the reason could be and, more important, how can i avoid this unwanted effect. Any suggestions?

@mducharme said:

A lot of steps? You add the symbols to the music and they play. You write pizz. you hear pizz., you write col legno, you hear col legno, etc.

You don't have to trigger any keyswitches manually, it's all automatic.

The steps are, you use the Dorico Wizard in the Vienna Assistant and save your playback template. Then go into your file in Dorico and apply the VSL playback template in the play menu (the one you just created in the Dorico wizard). Hit play and you hear it play back with the techniques you have assigned in the score.

My situation is somewhat comparable to Paul, but I come from Cubase Pro. Just started Dorico. As far as now, I succeed using the VSL expression map for Duality strings Violin 1. But I experience a very big unnatural difference in playing volume between long notes and legato on the one hand and short notes on the other hand. A simple score with legato quarter notes and then eight notes with eight rests between them would be played at a pretty uniform volume. Instead what I here is that the short notes are in ff and the rest in p. Any suggestions what I can do to level this?

@DirkMM Can you upload a simple Dorico file that shows this problem and I'll have a look? I have Duality Strings too, so I should be able to open it.

Download "Demo scales.rar"

@mducharme said:

@DirkMM Can you upload a simple Dorico file that shows this problem and I'll have a look? I have Duality Strings too, so I should be able to open it.

Thanks for your fast reply, mducharme. This is a simple demo that I quickly made for you. Duality Strings Violin 1 are used. I added a few dynamics in the score, just to make clear what works, and in what way. Almost nothing sounds like I would play it, when I had this score before me. This is so confusing to me. I hope you can clear the fog. ☺