Brackets dynamics

How can I make [mp]? When I put it in brackets, it appears Italic.

I’m assuming you mean the round brackets ( ) because the square ones [ ] don’t work in the dynamics popover, but the brackets indeed come in italic if the Dynamic Text font style is also set to italic. If you want the brackets to appear regular, you could edit the font style (go to Library>Font styles, select Dynamic Text and set it to regular), but that means that all text in dynamics will appear straight (poco, più, etc.).

Alternatively, you could create a music symbol by replacing another dynamic that you’re not using (e.g. ffffff or pppppp). Go to Library>Music Symbols, select dynamics in the left hand panel and choose the dynamic you want to replace. Next, in the right hand panel choose the font you’re using and then also select the dynamics category. Delete the existing glyph with the trash can button and add your glyphs of choice (bracket, dynamic, bracket). You’ll probably want to offset the Y position of the brackets, I chose +3.00 in the example below.


1 has the brackets as music text, 2 and 3 are edited music symbols.

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You can just use the prefix and suffix properties, adding [ and ]. But they are not as close together as round brackets (parentheses).

…and they will also be in italic. :slight_smile:

Fair point.

To my eye, using oblique brackets with italic text looks much more ā€˜of a piece’ and in alignment. Although some claim that it was typesetter’s practice to use straight brackets, most metal type sets of italic included oblique brackets and parentheses; and there are plenty of examples of their being used by professional typesetters in the zenith of the art.

… but I digress. :smiley:

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I want to make it like the 3rd one, but how can I create an additional one in Music Symbols when the regular mp and [mp] are on the same page?

By replacing a dynamic you’re not using in the project, e.g. ffffff. In the Music symbol editor, delete the ffffff glyph, add the [mp] and save. After that, entering ffffff in the Dynamics popover will give you [mp].

I’m not near my computer right now but I’ll see if I can make some screenshots and/or upload a Dorico project with that dynamic later today.

If you replace fffff with [mp], then playback will be all over the place!

I’d suggest that using playing techniques would be better. Or even text. It wouldn’t take long to create the commonly used symbols, and then alt-click to copy them.

True. I keep forgetting because playback is not at all important for my workflow.:sweat_smile:

Having to align text or PT with dynamics is something I’d like to avoid, but if you need playback that’s probably the better option.

It’s also important to remember that Dorico ā€œknowsā€ what symbols mean, and interprets them accordingly. If you make one symbol take the visual form of something else, then this has repercussions for not only playback, but MusicXML export, and anything else where Dorico needs to define and interpret that symbol.

Thank you for your answer.

Thank you for your answer