One little thing that could be improved is the program’s behaviour on tie chains.
I understand that Dorico “thinks” of tied notes as one large entry but when trying to place dynamic markings and other notations (like technique transitions eg from sul tasto to sul. pont.) having to invoke the caret for every single entry and move with the arrow keys is unintuitive.
The same applies with slurs. Of course there is the option to choose where the slur to be positioned (end or start of the chain) but it would be great if we had the option to freely select where to place the slur…
Ideally, for dynamics and slurs there should be an option to place them on the selected note of the chain (and subsequently to enable an option to select only the clicked note of the chain not the whole duration)
And you can change the position of the element indepentendly from the note length (which underlines, that the dynamic in this case was not attached to a part of the “chunked” note, but to a rhythmic position):
To change from the selection of the dynamic (or slur, or …) hit the Tab key, so you don’t have to lift your hand to the mouse - I personally find this way to work very fast.
And:
It’s a bit of a concept to get accustomed to, admittedly
Indeed, that’s what I am referring too. There are of course many ways to place things during tied notes but the most obvious way is missing!: to click on the desired note - place the marking end of story.
. Compared to Sibelius (which the excerpt was made) the total number of clicks - keystrokes is significantly larger in order to achieve the same in Dorico esp. when someone inputs all the notes first and then places the dynamics (I am talking about use on-the-fly ease of use during composition. If I was just copying or engraving this, Dorico’s way is just fine).
You can double click in any staff at any point (read: explicitly click the staff lines, not any notes) and the caret will be placed there. In the same way you can alt-click dynamics to these positions in the staff.
What I’ve started doing, instead of moving the dynamic after placing it, is cut the ties using the scissor tool, put the dynamics in, and then put the ties back in. It works. I agree it would be nice to be able to just select the note and enter the dynamic whether there was a tie involved or not. But the way I do it works, and slows me down only a wee bit.
This is the closest to do but as you can see on my example, if the complexity of the score is a bit high, cutting the ties and then placing them again is a method that may lead in musical mistakes esp after long hours of staring on the score…And as far as I know (I was an ex-finale power user but I know very well Sibelius and MuseScore), Dorico is the only of them that has this “limitation”…
Hi @aquarius55, here a possible workflow that doesn’t take much time: you input the desired dynamics for the tied note (that has force durations) all at once, and then you can just drag the immediate dynamics under the right note, and the gradual dynamics will adjust automatically (I suggest start dragging from the last immediate dynamic):
[Just noticed that @meixner came to the same workflow suggestion ]
All of your suggestions are very interesting esp. those regarding typing everything at once in the popover! But the main “request” now seems like it’s gaining some more value I guess because apparently there is no immediate way of achieving what I am looking for and to be honest I was hoping I am wrong and there would be a preference somewhere to tick.
I mean, technically, is adding the option to place “whatever” during a tie chain forbidden due to the way the software is fundamentally programmed? Or, may that be considered for a future update?
Tied notes are not just long notes. Some times duration is not the only factor and even during a tied note there can be many timbral variations and embellishments and being able to place notations at any point on a tied note with one click (or with the least steps possible) would be a super nice addition. And, at the end of the day, I think that constant feedback from composers and copyists for decades shaped and “matured” the two older professional programs (Finale and Sibelius)…
My suggestion allows for exactly that. Dynamics, playing techniques, lines, clefs, keys… everything that’s rhythmically attached can be placed anywhere on a staff, no matter if there’s a note, a rest, or a tie chain. Just double click the staff.
I misread your previous comment; you are right so I guess this solution is the closest to what I am looking for… I’ve just quickly tried it and it seems to work.! But being able to click on the note is a nice and more logical addition regardless.
@aquarius55
Yes there are several methods, and you choose what fits best for each scenario.
Here jet another method suggestion , to put the dynamics"on the fly" and already correct positioned. Be sure to set the note value to eight note (for this example), so that the space bar prolongs the gradual dynamic one eight note on each press (or set the desired value depending on the context), and prolong them with the space bar till the dotted connection line reaches the note where you want to add the next immediate dynamic, and the caret will be moved automatically:
We know that more flexibility over selecting individual noteheads within tie chains in Write mode, for the purposes of adding other notations at that position or similar actions, is desired by a number of users. It’s on the radar
I feel like a simple measure selection would be a huge help for many things in dorico, this being one of them. Where you could select a measure and then things you add or change only effect this measure. it would also be super helpful for working in scores where rests in blank bars is turned off.
I’ll admit I’ve been using Dorico for a few years and while I knew you could enter note entry by double clicking, I wasn’t aware you could do it over a long tied chain based on the grid value— or rather, in that context, I never really thought to do it that way To OP’s original point, I don’t think that is immediately apparent from a user perspective when in every other case (non-tied notes) you can simply select any note (or rest) to attach a dynamic to them, so having a consistency with that behavior would be nice. Great to see that Lillie has stated it’s on the radar! And thanks for sharing your suggestion.
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To OP’s original point, I don’t think that is immediately apparent from a user perspective when in every other case (non-tied notes) you can simply select any note (or rest) to attach a dynamic to them, so having a consistency with that behavior would be nice. Great to see that Lillie has stated it’s on the radar! And thanks for sharing your suggestion.