Issue: Incorrect Stem Direction and “a2” markings after Condensing Group Modification
I am experiencing an issue with condensing after redefining a condensing group to include only Flute 1 and Flute 2 (Fl 3 was previously included). This is occurring in the first flow of the project.
Goal: I want the condensed score to display stems up/stems down to visually differentiate the Fl 1 and Fl 2 parts, and without “a2” above every note.
Observation:
In the measures following the change (e.g., from m. 13 onwards), the condensed staff now shows “a2” above every note and the stems are all pointing in the same direction, instead of the desired split (up/down).
There is an intentional difference in m. 13, where Fl 1 and Fl 2 now play an octave apart.
The condensing group currently contains only Fl 1 and Fl 2. How can I restore the individual stem directions and suppress the repetitive “a2” marking? I should clarify that I am not hiding the ‘a2’ labels.
Extensive Troubleshooting Steps Taken (Issue Isolation Confirmed):
Project Isolation Test: Created a minimal copy of the project containing only the problematic passage, and the issue with the “a2” marking and stem direction still persists, confirming the problem is local to this section/flow. I’ve attached a copy of this minimal copy of the project with silence as the template.
Re-entry/Cleaning: Manually deleted and re-entered all affected notes (from the second half of m. 14 onwards) and dynamics/markings to eliminate any hidden properties or corruption.
Condensing Reset: Applied and removed various manual condensing changes (whole phrase, mid-phrase, note amalgamation) and used the Reset option to ensure no previous settings are influencing the current section.
Player Order Check: Experimented with changing the player order in the setup, although I had to revert this change to re-enable condensing.
Context Check: Confirmed that the issue is isolated, with no linking elements like tempo changes, and is not affected by notes immediately preceding or following the phrase (e.g., deleted the last quarter note before the phrase and confirmed a rest follows the phrase).
Outcome: Despite all these efforts, the condensing result still does not match the desired original appearance (stems up/down, no constant “a2”).
I’ve attached a diagsnotic file, my pc’s system info file, and a minimal project exhibiting the issue described.
I guess there are som stem directions to fix, but the main problem is gone, right?
Edit: Circling the offending stems in Engrave mode and executing Remove forced stem solves the stem problem; there were no flipped stems in Write mode.
I don’t think there’s a setting called ‘Prevent mid phrase unison’ as you can see from the screenshot below, and besides that, if there was such a command that would be counterintuitive to what I’m trying to do. Please give me the specific steps you took to solve the problem:
Okay, that finally worked! Thanks Jesper. I thought that if I just unselected using the toggle to the left that that would do it. I guess you have to be very specific.
Thank you, Christian! There’s so many places to look to find things. I am not a full-time musician, so I guess I need to start watching more of Anthony’s videos!
A global option (one that you choose in the dialogues that you can invoke from the Library , as Layout Options, Engraving Options, Notation Options…) tells you exactly what you are choosing.
An override (made in the Properties Panel or in a dialogue, in this case the Condensing Change dialogue) works differently:
you first check the blue switcher to activate the override, then you choose what you want to obtain, with the checkmark.
Thank you for the explanation. That helps. To summarize to make sure I understand, the global options you mentioned are obviously what you would do most of the time; the overrides let you fine tune things such as in this case.
The vast majority of the time, I want ‘Allow mid-phrase unisons’, but in this case obviously to apply an override.
There are two Anthony’s?! I was thinking of Anthony Hughes. I am English speaking. I wish I knew German!
Whoops! I’m a little derious as I think I have Covid and sick at the moment, sore throat, fatigue etc. I get it, you meant the Anthony I’m talking about.
Good that you got it sorted! Yes, the best way is to set your notation options as you usually want the condensing to be, and then do local changes when there is a need.
Activating the toggle tells Dorico that you want to override an option. Leaving the checkbox blank tells Dorico not to apply that option. (Had your default option for condensing been to disallow, then you could check the box to allow it in this instance)
This logic is consistent across the program and this method applies to many properties.
