Cannot apply quarter tones

Dorico
1

Hello,

I having been trying to input a piece with quarter tones which I have written for the clarinet, but Dorico refuses to switch to the equal temperament 24 setting and input any of the quarter tone symbols. When I click on one of the quarter tone symbols the program reverts to the equal temperament 12 setting and does not place any accidental in front of the note I have highlighted. I hope that I am simply doing something wrong and the problem is not that Dorico refuses to add microtones to the clarinet. Any help will be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Charles Neidich

2

Dear Charles,
Please search the forum before you post :wink: However, here’s what you were supposed to look for, I hope it will help you (it should, read Pianoleo’s advice)

Welcome to this forum, and please do post your questions if you haven’t found an answer after 2min search!

3

Hello Charles! Here are the steps Marc mentions above - I’ve had trouble with this too, if you don’t do these steps in the right order it can be finicky. But overall Dorico is absolutely fantastic - especially the ease of writing without time signatures, if you desire.

  1. Select music.
  2. Set tonality to 24 EDO.
  3. Type Shift-K (there’s no need to deselect or reselect anything before you do this).
  4. Type atonal.
  5. Hit return.
2 Likes
4

Thank you very much. I had tried looking through the forum topics earlier, but somehow I missed the microtonal thread. I tried just what you said and got it to work. I think in Dorico help the type shift-K step should be more clearly emphasized. I didn’t understand that that was the only way to choose atonal.
I’m just beginning to learn to use Dorico. I am hoping it will be very useful. The stated ease of writing without time signatures and the ability to write tuplets over bar lines is the main attraction for me.

5

This isn’t working for me for some reason. I set the key sig to Atonal, and selected 24 EDO, but the quarter tone accidentals are still not going in. What could be the reason for this?

6

Nope – You have to observe the order of the steps carefully. Set the 24-EDO first and then enter the open key sig, otherwise the key sig is not in that system and the system is not applied.

1 Like
7

Aha! Thank you!