A little condensing problem

Dorico
1

I finally got my brackets fixed, and everything is looking great… except now I’ve come across an oddity in my score.

It’s an issue with two flutes.
They are condensed where possible, and it all looks good… until this one spot where for no apparent reason, Dorico refuses to condense them. The previous system is condensed, the subsequent system is condensed, but that single system (5 measures long) is not.

The flutes are very simply playing in parallel 3rds (more or less) with no voice crossings. 1st flute the higher notes, 2nd flute the lower notes.
I’m not seeing any sort of condensing change signpost that affects flutes (there is one on the previous page, but it only affects the horns.)

NOTE: there MIGHT be something “invisible” in this particular non-condensing system. Originally, the two flute parts would trade places playing the higher/lower notes (flute 1 dipping below flute 2, and then vice-versa). I changed it because I felt it was pointless nitpicking to create inaudible voice crossings.

Without seeing the score file, I know, it’s hard to diagnose the problem.

But does someone have some idea of what might be going on?

(if I delete previous and subsequent pages then I might actually delete the problem itself, so I’d rather leave the file intact)

An Addendum:

when I go to Engrave mode, and select “manual condensing”, when I select my flutes and click on “manual condensing” at the bottom of that window, a small triangle with an exclamation point shows up next to the names of my flutes (at the top left). But I don’t know what this means.

A 2nd Addendum:

I was able to make the condensing changes manually (added a “reset” after that passage, then did the “manual condense” immediately before).

However, that still leaves the mystery of why that passage didn’t condense in the first place.

2

Without either the project or even a screenshot to show some of the musical context, basically impossible I’m afraid. You’re going to need to share something.

Do they have dynamics? Are the dynamics exactly the same (and whether or not they’re grouped counts towards being “identical”)? Do they have playing techniques? Have you tried deleting one of the flute parts, and copying/pasting the other part across then repitching?

See the manual:

3

I basically started from scratch and re-entered the notes for flute 1, then copied them and repitched them into flute 2. so the dynamics and everything SHOULD be absolutely the same, grouping, placement, etc…

those are actually the very first things I did when I had this problem. :wink:

I was able to get a condensed version of that system by applying a manual condensing change. I’m just really curious about why it by default refuses to see those notes as being able to be condensed onto one staff. it’s actually really simple music, parallel 3rds or 4ths, one dynamic at the start, a slur for each little group of notes. about as basic as it gets.

4

If you want an answer to that question, you’ll need to share the original project or a cut-down version of it.

5

is there a quick way to delete previous and subsequent pages?
I looked it up but my brain is in “d’uhhhhhhhhhhh” mode today. (it’s incredibly hot out today, and my processor is a REALLY old generation one, with definitely not enough RAM).

6

Have you checked signposts to see if something is hidden in the affected region?

7

yes, read my first post. I did mention that.

8

But that’s about page formatting (e.g. overrides to frames) rather than musical content. If you want to delete flows, see here. If you want to delete bars, see here.

9

I tried deleting the first 263 measures (leaving a page of music before the page containing the problem condensing).

The only problem is that in doing so, it deleted whatever has been causing the problem! In other words, once those measures are deleted, the condensing problem gets fixed.

Tomorrow I will try going slowly, and removing in smaller increments, until I find the measure that fixes the problem.