Assignment of voices

[nunzio52]

Hello everyone.
I’m hoping someone can help me understand what’s happening in Dorico. After writing a three-part piece, I assigned a different color to each voice, saved the work, and closed the software. When I reopened it, I noticed that the third voice was no longer configured as a third, but had been merged into the second. Believing I’d made a mistake, I recreated a third voice and reassigned all the musical phrases that had been moved to it; I saved the work and closed the software. Unfortunately, when I reopened the piece, I still noticed that the third voice was gone, and all its notes had been assigned to the second voice.
How is this possible?

Nunzio

[asherber]

It would be helpful to see a screenshot with voice colors on, and then also the Dorico file. I have some ideas about what’s going on, but I can give a better answer if I can see it.

[nunzio52]

Hi. I don’t think it’s possible to upload a file on this platform. I tried, but the file won’t upload.

[Janus]

@nunzio52

I don’t think it’s possible to upload a file on this platform. I tried, but the file won’t upload.

Either drag a file onto this message area, or use the upload icon…

You can upload dorico files, zip files and graphics (png etc.)

[nunzio52]

samba.dorico (1.7 MB)

[charles_piano]

There are indeed three voices in every bar of your file here Don’t you get that when you open the file?

[nunzio52]

@charles_piano

There are indeed three voices in every bar of your file here Don’t you get that when you open the file?

There should be three voices: 3 for green, 1 for red, and 2 for purple. If you click on each voice, however, you’ll see that the green and purple voices have the same numbering, 2. I’ve tried changing the assignment of the green voice to 3, several times, but when I reopen the file, save it, and close it, the voice 3 reverts to 2. This is the problem.

[Janus]

@nunzio52

If you click on each voice, however, you’ll see that the green and purple voices have the same numbering, 2.

Up stem voices are completely separate from down stem voices.

[nunzio52]

@Janus

Up stem voices are completely separate from down stem voices

So what? I already have the three entries, you might say, but I want a third entry with independent numbering, and since the software allows me to do so and save the function, I don’t understand why when I reopen the file I still find myself with the previous numbering.

[Janus]

@nunzio52

So what?

(IIRC) Dorico garbage collects empty voices when you save. So you cannot have downstem voice 3 if there is no downstem voice one and two.

[nunzio52]

At this point, shouldn’t the system give me the option to create a third entry numbered 3!?

[Janus]

It creates voices in order. You can certainly create three upstem voices numbered 1,2,3 (and no downstem voices) - but you may be dissatisfied with how they appear on the staff.

[nunzio52]

Ok. Thank you for helping me.

Cheers

[asherber]

Adding to the information from @Janus, here’s a post I wrote yesterday about voice numbering and “garbage collection”.

Cleaning up voices from XML files

Personally, I wouldn’t worry too much about which specific voice things are in, unless you start seeing problems (e.g., notes that won’t tie because they’re in different voices, or something like that). The basic distinction is between upstem and downstem voices, to make sure that the stems behave correctly when you’ve got multiple voices in a passage. Remember too that Dorico will “clean up” unused voices for you when you save a file. So if you enter notes only in upstem voice 1 and downstem v…

[nunzio52]

@Cleaning up voices from XML files

Personally, I wouldn’t worry too much about which specific voice things are in, unless you start seeing problems (e.g., notes that won’t tie because they’re in different voices, or something like that). The basic distinction is between upstem and downstem voices, to make sure that the stems behave correctly when you’ve got multiple voices in a passage. Remember too that Dorico will “clean up” unused voices for you when you save a file. So if you enter notes only in upstem voice 1 and downstem v…

unless you start seeing problems (e.g., notes that won’t tie because they’re in different voices, or something like that)

[nunzio52]

In fact, my problem is precisely that I find myself in this situation. There are notes that do not respond to changes precisely because they are shared with another voice.

[asherber]

Can you be more specific about what you’re seeing? Which notes, which bar, what are you trying to do?

[Janus]

@nunzio52

In fact, my problem is precisely that I find myself in this situation. There are notes that do not respond to changes precisely because they are shared with another voice.

I suspect that is because every note in the project that you uploaded has a forced duration.
If you remove that constraint does it work better?

[rpearl]

Not a full solution to your problem, but you can tie notes in different voices: select the first note> then Command -click the second note you wish to tie> hit T. Let us know if that doesn’t work.

[nunzio52]

I will Try