Composing in Dorico for Live Performance

Stories from the Trenches
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I’m working on a new project with Gig Performer. I’ve got a fully featured controller rig with two keyboards, a Zen Drum, a breath controller, mic, guitar, and various MIDI pedals and knobs. As we know, Gig Performer enables me to configure this however I want, and the configuration can change instantaneously.

My project is to write original material, specifically for this instrument. Most everything would be played live, some would be looped, and I’ll resort to backing tracks as little as possible. (I might trigger a longish audio sample though.) This would allow me to improvise and lengthen or shorten sections on the fly.

I just recently got Dorico for writing the guiding score. I’ve found that it’s reasonably powerful in sending out external MIDI, based on the notation, and I can customize it to a reasonable degree. The MIDI and sounds would be used as composition tool, not as live sequences. It lets me hear a preview during the composition phase, score it on staves, rather than piano roll, and use the notation in Mobile Sheets during performances.

The composition part has interesting challenges. Think of Moonlight Sonata. It’s composed with three voices on two hands. Whenever the melody goes high, the middle voice is played with the left hand. When the bass goes low. the middle voice is played with the right. In my case, the two hands can touch guitar, keys, pads, or controls, while the feet work pedals and the breath does it’s thing over loops and samples. Note that the approach is more like sparse classical music than pop pieces. I’m not trying to play the full arrangement of Rosanna, solo. I do have a fanfare with horns trumpets and timpani though. I can improvise a fanfare today, but an intentional composition (maybe with some improv) will sound stronger.

For the score, I’m thinking of including a staff for control. So, in my fanfare example, I would have Trumpets, Horns, Timpani, and Control. The control track would include any key switches, pedal activations, and MIDI messages used for selecting Gig Performer Songs and Song Parts.

Anyway, it seems that Dorico Elements is up to the task. It has “Flows” which can have wholesale instrument changes. So, if I were to go from the fanfare to Flute and Piano, I would use a new Flow, and the Control staff would tell Gig Performer to select a new Song (and it would tell me which button to press during a live performance.)

I’m thinking that triggering light effects to match the music would help engage a modern audience. That’s v2.0.

I’m just starting the project, but so far, it seems to be viable. My improv with some of the instrument groupings is a successful proof-of-concept. Compositions and arrangements (with the underlying programming in Gig Performer) should take it to the next level.

To be sure, without Gig Performer, I would have never attempted this - or even conceived of it. It’s no understatement to say that Gig Performer is a game changer.

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Impressive! You’re redefining what it means to be a one-man band. Please keep us updated with your progress. :+1:

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So far, so good. I ended up spending the cash for the Pro version of Dorico. Elements doesn’t support custom instruments. I could do workarounds, but I think I’ll be happy to have the full set of features. (I was getting information about doing tasks with menu items that didn’t exist in my version. This is like GPS telling you to turn onto roads that haven’t been built!)

Dorico supports Flows, which are excellent. It enables me to change instrumentation in a well-structured way. Unfortunately, I can’t set up MIDI messages at the Flow level. Here’s what I did…

In addition to staves for the various instrument sounds, I have a three-line staff for a custom instrument called, “Control.” This staff represents my hardware, such as pedals, breath controller, Joystick… I can write simple text there that gives me cues about what to press or wiggle. Independently, I can have it send CC values to emulate my physical playing. Lo and behold, I’m using CC#119 to tunnel Patch Changes to Gig Performer. A short script in Gig Performer does the trick.

As usual, Gig Performer is a MIDI Swiss Army Knife.

My proof-of-concept is complete. Now, all I have to do is compose good music and learn to play it well!

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You should post your experience in the Dorico forums……I have Dorico as well, used it mostly for dealing with orchestral transcriptions which are the. Imported into a fascinating tool called Note Performer (no relation😀) which produces a really nice interpretation (leveraging the dynamics and articulation markings in the score) as a collection of audio tracks

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This is true.

Users are always invited to share their experiences with Gig Performer.

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Yes! I shared my question and solution regarding Program Changes (which ended up being via CC message) over there. I posted a shorter story about the use case, noting Gig Performer as the host and its support of scripting. I’ll post more there in the future.

I spent a decade or so doing (amateur) scoring to picture, and though I’d play each part in live, It was definitely a non-real-time process.

With Gig Performer, I’ve done live mixing, and I’ve put together live covers with backing tracks, but never did live cover shows. Covers with tracks can feel constrained, and there’s that uncanny valley between doing a perfect replica and doing a unique interpretation.

Doing new compositions with filmic sounds and just a few, well-mixed layers is turning out to be lots of fun. There’s no click, so I can play rubato. Did I miss the switch to the next Song Part? I’ll just improvise another few bars.

For composition, all of my layers are available, simultaneously. I just play around and jam until I find some nice elements. I notate it, play it back to check it, and I don’t care if the notation playback is robotic. The end product will be played live.

Another cool thing is that, unlike in classical music, I can go way off script. Sure, I’ll have the score in Mobile Sheets, but it’s optional. In an orchestra, we need to play as written to avoid chaos. When playing Beethoven, we have to stick to the score due to tradition. Playing my own stuff solo, and having the controls at hand, I can pretty much do whatever I want in the moment.

There are additional advantages. Some local places here in Southern Oregon don’t pay for all of the live music licenses. BMI has been sending out reps to find violators. Venues with low margins are now asking for originals only. The other advantage is that my performance will be quite unique, with film score sounds and art music. It won’t appeal to everyone, but it will surprise people. The main challenge is to write good material…

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FWIW, I posted the following in the Dorico forum…

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