Dorico seems to let me set the playback tempo to anything I want, but the tempo in the score is rounded up or down to the nearest whole number.
Is there a way to override this and set the tempo to, for example, 149.3 bpm?
Not at the moment, but this is something we plan to do in future (as you no doubt know, it’s sometimes required for pieces with electronic elements, or when playing to a click for sync).
After six years, are there any changes for this issue?
I can’t find a way to write the tempo such as 83.4 bpm.
I need to write it for recordings in sync with movies.
(I’m still using Dorico Pro 4.3.30)
AFAIK, Not yet.
EDIT:
(Apparently I am mistaken.)
The actual tempo will correct, but you’ll need to use text to display the correct numbers.
(Once you’ve created one text block with the note and numbers, you can copy it to other locations.)
This has been available since Dorico 3.
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This setting has always seemed like it belonged more in Layout Options than Engraving Options to me. Recording musicians do not need to see that level of exactitude on the page, are annoyed by it as it is cringe, and can’t play that exactly anyway unless they are playing to a click, in which case only the conductor / producer / sound engineer needs to see it to set the click properly. It’s rare for anyone to use a metronome mark with decimals as a landmark at rehearsal (“let’s take it from quarter equals 161.803398, ok?”) so it seems fine to me if parts and score don’t match exactly with this.
Scenario #1: The arranger or transcriber needed that level of decimal places to sync with a source or sample, but the source or sample won’t be included at the performance or recording. No one needs to see decimal places.
Scenario #2: Recording to video, so precision is obviously important. Only the score needs decimals to correctly set the click. No decimals needed in parts.
Scenario #3: Musicians recording independently to a click, like during COVID lockdown, or due to time constraints can’t record to a rough mix by other musicians, so need an exact tempo down to the decimal for some reason. (IME usually bass and/or drums lay down their parts first for these things, then everyone else ignores the tempo markings and plays to that track.) Fine, put decimals in the parts.
The overwhelming majority of the time there’s not really a need for decimal places to occur in a part though. As long as whoever is setting the click has the exact information, the decimal can be left out of the parts as no one playing the part will realize that the click is actually at 251.625 instead of 251. Including information in the part that everyone will ignore, and couldn’t notice or play anyway, just seems like unnecessary clutter. I would definitely have most part layouts set to not use decimals, but would include them in the score if this was an option.
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