Btw, the instrument name on the first measure appears on the part over the staff, so, if I write it manually on the score, it appears twice on the part. I tried to put “Show: Local Only” on the score, but it keeps appearing on the part.
Also, is there a way the changing of clefs happen at the beginning of the measure instead of at the end of the previous one?
Thank you.
No, it’s standard practice to show clef changes before barlines (except sometimes for cues, which Dorico does by default).
Yes, there’s a Layout Option to show instrument change labels at the start of the flow. I believe it’s on the Staves and Systems page in Layout Options. No need to add manual text.
Try checking in Engraving Options > Instrument Changes for project-wide defaults for their appearance/position. Instrument change warnings and labels use paragraph styles for their text formatting also.
Hi. I’ve found it. It is on Players in the Layout Options.
However, the name is hitting the name on the next measure.
In this case I might have to replace it manually on Engrave Mode.
But is there a way that all instrument names over the staff be a little further to the left?
The Instrument Changes in Engraving Options is only for vertical spacing, not horizontal. I haven’t found an option to change the horizontal spacing of Instrument Change Labels on paragraph styles either.
As for the alignment of the name before the staff, did you find out how to centralize it when using the Rename Player dialog?**
PS: @dspreadbury I guess the issue is not the clef changing before the new measure, but the number of lines changing as well. Is there a way the number of lines doesn’t change on the measure before (like the example blow done in another notation software)?
Thank you for your help.
The way Dorico handles clef-changes incl. changing the number of stafflines before the new measure is standard practice in music engraving. Is there a special need why you want to change the clefs as in your example? (as it surely is bad practice for the common situations)
Any names shown to the left of the initial barline are staff labels, and use the corresponding paragraph style’s alignment by default. Search the manual for “staff label paragraph styles” for more information.
Hi. Here’s the part of the manual you referred to:
I went to staff labels, and apparently it can centralize the text horizontally, but not vertically on the staff, and Staff Labels (Percussion Grid) didn’t change the alignment.
So, as far as I could experiment, apart from changing the instrument name, pasting on Rename Player dialog doesn’t make the name aligned/centralized vertically.
And I wasn’t able to change the placement of the Instrument Change name a vit further to the left in an automatic way (I can do it manually on Engrave Mode).
Ah sorry, I didn’t realise you were still talking about vertical alignment - I don’t have anything new to add to my previous comment in this thread, I’m afraid.
I’m getting this result without manual adjustments which I believe is what you desire. I only added the initial “Tub. Bells”. You don’t need to (or should you) rename both the player and the instruments they hold, just the player. Keep in mind the horizontal space of measures will adjust (increase) depending on if there are other notes in other parts in the Full Score. If there are no other notes, (and the measures are less wide), you could decrease the size of the font to avoid collisions or move things as needed, or stretch the measure manually in Engrave mode.
Hi.
Renaming the instrument indeed makes it centralized vertically, that’s what I did before, but apparently there would be an option in which you don’t need to rename the instrument (by renaming the player). However, if I rename the player by pasting on Rename Player dialog, it doesn’t get centralized vertically. So I guess the only solution for now is to rename the instrument.
Regarding the “Tub. Bells”, you said you added it. So, didn’t you use “show instrument change label at start of flow” from “players” in Layout Options, but rather you added a text? I guess this would be the equivalent of using the “show instrument change label at start of flow” and changing its placement manually in Engrave Mode. In other words, manually it is possible, but apparently the automatic option is limited in this case.
Yes I added it manually - I didn’t know about this option, thanks. So that manual addition was unnecessary. (This option must have been added at some version). I did not have to change anything manually, but I did have some notes in other parts which “stretched out my measures” a little more than yours.
I am in a similar boat today – I have a Cymbal player juggling various types of cymbals on one staff. My question: is there any way to force it to show instrument labels no matter what? The issue I have is that it doesn’t show the name of the first instrument to be played. However, under Layout Options > Players > Instrument Changes, I can select “Show instrument change label at the start of flow.” However, they don’t come in with their first note until awhile after the start of the piece. I don’t mind it being at the start of the flow, but I would prefer to force it to be closer to where the player’s note comes in. I played around with the other settings and nothing appears to allow me to show it there. Of course I can manually fix this in Engrave mode, I was just wondering if there is an option somewhere to force labels always?
No, there’s no option to force a label at the first actual note, but depending on what kind of percussion instrument you’re writing for (e.g. whether it’s a kit, and whether it’s showing a grid or five-line staff presentation) you could potentially add a percussion legend at the position of the entry.
