anacrusis

Is there a way to insert a pickup bar that doesn’t involve lots of keystrokes? There’s a check-box for it in the right panel, but clearly I’m doing something wrong because it doesn’t appear to be doing anything.

A 4/4 measure with a quarter/crotchet pickup would be notated in the SHIFT-M popover as 4/4,1.

So how do I get an 8th note pickup?

Try a decimal value and see. :wink:

Ha… like an idiot i was trying to do it with fractions. Thanks.

I wish this behavior was updated a bit… I find the sorting out the proper decimal in complex meters to be a bit of a hassle. I’d like if if we could just do the meter [comma] [number for the corresponding note value as if inputting notes]. Hopefully that makes sense. Ie-- 4/4,6 would be a 4/4 bar with a quarter note pickup. 4/4,5 would be 4/4 with an eighth note pickup. etc. I was in a complex compound meter one time trying to figure out a dotted 16th pickup and it took me many many attempts to figure it out. I would have loved to just type, “9/8,4.”

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Where it gets even trickier is when you are in double-length time signatures such as 4/2 and you need a small note pickup. Good luck with that. Had that happen too. “4/2,5” would be a lot easier than “4/2,.25”. There’s no math involved.

Even better, how about something like Guitar Pro has where you just check a box to turn a measure into an anacrusis? It works flawlessly every time and that’s in a little $60 guitar tab editor. I’m surprised all notation software hasn’t had that long since.

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Sorry, but I disagree. The popover is the superior option in this case, and doesn’t introduce a new GUI. Consistent design is crucial for a smooth UX.

I do like Romanos idea…

Yeah, Romanos’ idea sounds very straightforward.

I’m sorry to intrude here… This topic has already been talked about (a long long time ago), and it appeared that… the team had really thought this out in a brilliant manner. How would you notate an almost full bar pick-up bar (three quarters and a dotted 8th in a 4/4 bar) with Romanos idea? Well, the math is pretty easy now in Dorico, if I write 4/4,3.5 in the popover I get exactly the result I want and superfast.

TBH, I find having to calculate the decimal fraction from the beat unit not entirely intuitive. It makes the value of the upbeat dependant on the time signature, and therefore inconsistent in itself. Most of all, using a decimal fraction doesn’t ‘feel Dorico-like’, and not musical. It’s as if one could also use 4/4,0.3333 or whatever (which Dorico happily rounds down to a 5/64 note value = 0.3125 of a quarter note).

I’d suggest using rational fractions for the anacrusis as well. E.g.: 2/2,1/8 and 4/4,1/8. No math needed, and exactly how a musician interprets it.
If you want Marc’s example, you’d enter 4/4,15/16.
And Marc, in your example you had the math wrong :wink: For three quarters and a dotted eighth you need 4/4,3.75.

I suspect that the problem with that is that if Dorico sees a “/” in the meter popover, it’s expecting another meter; it’s perfectly possible to input aggregate and interchangeable meters using the popover.

Yes, but such an interchangeable meter needs the / surrounded by spaces. The comma exclusively indicates the pick-up bar.
Right now, Dorico simply ignores anything after the comma if it’s not a number (integer or decimal). I tested inputting 2/4|3/8,1 in the popover. I could not predict that the pick-up would be 1/8, I’d say it’s ambiguous. I would have preferred to enter something like 2/4|3/8,1/8 or 2/4|3/8,1/4 to be explicit.

Alternatively, you could just repeat the unit as many times as needed: 4/4,665 (two quarters and an eighth).

I know this is an old thread, but I just wanted to point out that using the keyboard shortcuts would be a very broken interface for those who change the keyboard shortcuts.

I do like the idea of using a rational fraction, though. (e.g., “4/4,3/8” is more intuitive to me than “4/4,1.5”).

Not for the popover use.

EDIT - Oh I understand what you mean, that’s why I never changed mine.

I haven’t either, but if someone did, then… ewwwww… :slight_smile:

Or what about putting in “4/4,q” for a quarter note pickup, or “3/4,e” for an eight note? Or “6/8,q.” for dotted quarter?
Food for thought!

Cheers, Benji

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GENIUS
This suggestion is the most elegant solution.
Select the bar, tick “Anacrusis”, and Dorico makes it so.
It couldn’t be simpler.

I can’t believe that 5 years after this thread, I break out in a cold sweat whenever I try to sort out the pickup bar.