I’ve been using Dorico since v. 1, and have loved every new upgrade. I have wanted to ask this question for a long time. I know Dorico does its best to format music so that the user needs to do as little formatting work as possible, so I always try to let it do its thing.
However, I struggle with this issue often when Dorico can’t quite seem to get horizontal spacing right on its own.
In general, what is the most efficient and Dorico-friendly way of fixing problems like this without messing up other parts of the score? Thanks!
I often find reducing the default note spacing will fix this kind of thing (in the Layout Options). My default in the first box is generally 4, so changing it to 3 would reduce the "system percentage full” below the 100% threshold, and thereby give it more space to automatically adjust for other collisions, like in lyrics.
Greetings from Canada. I am a “basic user” of Dorico6.02, and note spacing and similar difficulties have made it impossible for me to import XML files into Dorico from MuseScore4. Most are simple (single piano): the results are unpredictable and useless. A few glitches include the last half of a piece being absent, but the worst is the smashed-together notes, the inability to use Setup to specify parameters like note spacing, number of systems per page etc. These settings are just ignored, though I am quite aware that this may just be lack of knowledge on my part. The cursor for playback could not be repositioned except to the beginning, bar numbers are bizarre —it goes on.
I attach a zip file of the Dorico file and hope that it is helpful in getting this sorted out.
The main problem is that you have System Breaks on every line, and a very large staff size.
So Dorico has got too many notes on each line, and can’t change the bars on each system.
Simply deleting the Frame and System Breaks gives a much better result (you can Reset Layout in Engrave mode); though it uses more pages. You may want to experiment with allowing more systems per page (or letting Dorico put as many as will fit); and reducing the staff size slightly.
There are options in Preferences for how much data Dorico obeys in a MusicXML import. (This includes system breaks.) As contrary as it sounds, you may want to uncheck some of these, in order to let Dorico have more control of the layout.
The end of the piece missing suggests some barring error in the original. Check that your MuseScore document has got the correct number of beats in the bar at the point where the music stops, or that there’s no other notation error in the music.
Incorrect tuplets can do so. There’s nothing inherently problematic about tuplets – I’ve just done a quick test in Finale of creating a bunch of tuplets and exporting; and only the ones which made no notational sense caused a problem.
So, again it may be worth looking at the MuseScore document in this case.
Ben, if that is now the case, that tuplets pose no problem, I am glad; but searching the forum for “tuplets xml” turns up a number of posts from folks that have encountered this problem.
About system breaks: I was surprised to see System Breaks everywhere. Like many novice users trying to write a piano piece or a trio for 3 diffferent instruments, I’m not sure what they do. and in a previous attempt, I deleted these.
The result was that the measures crammed with notes and some other problems improved, and the look of the pages was spacious as I had intended, but that the second half of the text was replaced by a Tacet.
Many dynamic changes etc, remained but were ignored in playback and I could not add or change (for example) a dynamic from the panel. It could be selected but not moved or pasted/inserted). Opening a popover gave me a space to enter a dynamic but it would not be captured and simply vanished upon entry. The text space with the popover became blank.
Number of notes on each line: This appeared when I opened the imported XML file in Dorico. It was the last thing I wanted to see. My intent was to have a Dorico score with generous spacing, partly because I am (nearly 75 yo) still using pencil to sketch ideas and make notes to self on the pages. My intent was to have maximum 4 bars/system and 5 systems/page but I see that a maximum of 5-6 bars/system should work.
I’ve learned a lot from this and I’m grateful to all who wrote back. Using Engrave rather than Setup seems an important lesson. Unless anyone thinks that taking the clotted Dorico score into Engrave mode and working on it there is a non-starter, I think that should be my next step.
If there are still squished systems, it means there must still be System Breaks with the property ‘wait for next system break’ switched on. This often happens when importing MusicXML containing unnecessary formatting.
Off the top of my head, there is a command to reset the whole layout (I think it’s also a button in Engrave Mode). This will get rid of anything that could mess up optimal spacing, which Dorico is actually very good at, provided you let it run its own course.
Dorico works best when you let it do all the work. The more constraints that you specify, the greater chance you will see something you do not like.
You will nearly always get acceptable results by playing around with just two settings: Space size (which sets the basic size of the stave), and Note Spacing (which controls the distance between notes). Note spacing can be changed wherever you want, if necessary, throughout the piece.
Both these are Layout options, so you can have completely different settings in the Score layout from each Part layout.
Using features like casting off to force x bars/system are (IMO) a false economy. Especially in the score you posted, where you have a mix of simple and more complex passages.
If you are importing an XML, turn off all the options in Preferences>MusicXML Import options. This allows Dorico to apply it’s own rules to the layout.
Thank you. I will see what I can find to reset in Engrave Mode. Is there a property sheet to adjust properties for any system break on the fly, or must these be set beforehand?
Yes, you can set some properties of individual system and frame breaks in the property panel at the bottom of the screen, which you can show/hide with Cmd-8 (on Mac) or Ctrl-8 (on Windows).
Make sure you have the signposts for these breaks visible, using the View Menu, and select only the signpost for the break you want to inspect or adjust. Its properties are shown below.
