Hello all, I was wondering if there is a bug with the way condensing handles labeling when two different instruments are condensed on a same staff.
In this picture I have three basic trombones so they all get labels 1 to 3. On the second stave a tuba has been condensed with the third tr., but for some reason the “3” disengages from near the bracket. I would like the “3” to stay next to the bracket to be in line with all the other instrument numbers in the score. Is this possible somehow? (This likewise happens on consequent pages when instrument names are abbreviated.)
I don’t think it’s a bug. The top staff has two of the same instrument, the bottom staff has two different instruments, one of which happens to be called Trombone 3.
I’m not sure it’s a bug exactly, as I think it’s probably working as designed, but obviously this is less than ideal. The problem is occurring because you have your Staff Labels paragraph style set to center alignment, and there’s a substantially longer label somewhere in your score that’s not visible in that screenshot. Dorico is centering the whole label “Trombone 3” with the longer name, pulling the 3 off the staff.
I like the look of centered labels with the numbers right-aligned against the staff too, but this isn’t really possible in Dorico without workarounds like adding spaces. As a result, I don’t find centered alignment really usable. The only way to confirm the numbers will all be aligned is to use the right-aligned setting in paragraph styles:
Even with this, the two “Trombone” labels aren’t quite aligned though. If there’s a setting to specify the distance the top Trombone label is from the numbers, I haven’t found it, but would love to have these aligned as well.
You can use left-aligned too, but then I often still end up needing a workaround to get the alignment correct. The 3 here was typed in (not automatic) in order to add a space to get the alignment correct.
Dorico’s staff labelling options seem like 90% there, but there are still lots of little tweaks and workarounds required. It would be great to have a few more alignment options with these.
@Janus: The three trombones here are duplicated copies so they are exactly the same instrument though.
Thanks, FredGUnn, for the insight! I figured as much, that this is something not currently fully customizable and so not much to be done in this particular case about it. I will have to think of a slightly different way to label these trombones to get a workable and visually acceptable solution.
Forgive me, but if the 3rd Trombone part is suitable to condense with Tuba, wouldn’t it usually be played on a bass trombone anyway? That would obviate this tiny labeling inconsistency.
