can someone point me to where you go to change the default size of the square bracket around a notehead? I know it is not possible to put brackets around groups of notes (which is deeply unfortunate) but can I at least make the individual notehead brackets bigger?
I can see how to move them around in engraving mode, but not how to make the lines thicker so they show up better.
Thanks in advance, JW
Library > Engraving Options > Bracketed Noteheads is the place to look.
I’m now trying to create a bespoke notehead set that will have custom size brackets for right and left brackets so as to simulate the function of bracketing groups of notes. I can’t for the life of me figure out how to get the noteheads I’m creating to work as a set. (or how best to do this). It is maddening that there is no automatic function to be able to bracket sets of notes without having to make all of these custom things.
and of course I have managed to change the default notehead to one of the bracketed ones, and can’t figure out how to change it back.
Surely you just use the Engraving Options, as Leo points out?
Bracketed Noteheads > Design.
Thanks much,
I’ve actually moved on to trying to create noteheads so that I can do what I actually want to do – enclose multiple notes in a bracket (rather than have brackets around multiple individual notes).
What I don’t understand is how to use the notehead sets function. I can see that there is a dense, impenetrable topic about it in the Dorico help so I’ll try to interpret that. and come back two weeks from now when I have time to spend with it.
To bracket more than one note/chord, I would just place text blocks at the beginning and end, with Avoid collisions turned off, and place them in engrave mode. Then you can have any font & size you want and precise placement, which will differ from case to case.
I think you would need to create a notehead set for each the left bracket and the right bracket separately. I don’t see how you could tell Dorico which to use if they are both within the same notehead set, as the noteheads are automatically chosen by duration and stem orientation only.
Hi Mark,
While infinitely logical, I have absolutely no faith that the text would stay where intended or that the notes around it could be spaced accurately and consistently. Furthermore, sometimes it would be useful to have the bracket be tall – like sometimes very tall – and the only conceivable workaround I’ve heard of for this basic feature problem is to create notehead sets. I crashed into that problem this morning and will spend the next days trying to figure out how to create one set each for right and left brackets, square and round.
Thanks klafkid,
I’m going to do the note head version workaround. I’m not convinced that the line workaround will be satisfactory. apparently when you print out pdfs with this on it there’s a hairline. I’m also not convinced that the spacing won’t become a nighmare of fiddling – much of which doesn’t actually stick when you work and re-work files (I’ve certainly experienced that with the text/images boxes that are placed in page templates). At least with a notehead there will be a default consistency in spacing and it should automatically shift notes around it (fingers crossed). We are looking to do engraving for print so refinement in layout and spacing is important. thanks tho.
I use Lines to draw lines like this all the time, and am convinced by its satisfactoriness.
Are you talking about lines that have zero-width drawing as hairlines in a PDF? As long as you actually want lines with a defined width, this isn’t an issue.
I think that using notehead sets for this is going to be much more complex and error-prone than any of the other methods.
Hi Benwiggy,
We don’t want lines, we want to be able to put brackets around groups of notes and do not want to have a visible hairline print out in the PDf files. I’m sure that doing the noteheads will be a pain in the neck – I already know it is because I tried to figure it out yesterday —— but there doesn’t seem to be an alternative. What would be awesome would be for dorico to attend to this feature request and make it possible to make open brackets (or to delete half of a bracket like on Muse score). seem to be a priority we’re left with cludgy workarounds.
Realize that Ben is talking about vertical lines with opposing hooks depending on whether you are creating a starting or ending bracket. So you should not be dealing with zero-width lines.
And please do not start a new thread on the same topic. It wastes the time of those (including members of the Development Team) who read every post.
Yes, I’m not suggesting using zero-width lines.
I think it would help if you show us a visual example of what you’re trying to achieve, and then we can see what the best way to do it is.
Currently, I don’t understand why both vertical lines with hooks (brackets, you might call them), and the actual existing bracketed notes feature, don’t do what you want.
Derrek,
I am trying to find a solution to the problem that Dorico does not support bracketing groups of notes with either square or round brackets.
THAT IS THE TOPIC I AM TRYING TO DEAL WITH.
That fact that several methods to work around this problem have been suggested on various threads does not alter that fact that these are WORKAROUNDS TO THE MAIN PROBLEM I AM TRYING TO DEAL WITH.
The fact that you believe that all of these workarounds should be posted on different threads lacks logic from the perspective that I am coming from, namely, that I am trying to figure out the most efficient way to visually represent brackets (square or round) around groups of notes.
Now I understand that there are THREE ways to potentially deal with this issue.
I take strong exception to being gaslighted by you because I am not conforming to your desired format for asking questions. In this instance, I spent a significant amount of time yesterday looking for existing threads on these topics so that I could find the most efficient way to deal with this issue. After that research I have settled on a desired methodology and am earnestly trying to figure out how to get my desired results using the available tools.
Hi Benwiggy,
I do not want to bracket single notes. I want to bracket groups of notes.
unlike Musescore, it is not possible to simple delete the left or right side of a note bracket. With the vertical lines, there is no tall curved parenthesis (like in Sibelius), and the left hooks pointing square bracket attaches to the left and side of the note, not the right, which means that you have to put it on the note that follows the group you are trying to create, which adds to visual problems / fiddly adjustments in engraving mode.
I just want to do a basic music notation task and have now spent hours going through cludgy Dorico workarounds and trying to understand the opaque process of creating notehead sets.
I can’t show you the thing I want to create because I CANNOT CREATE IT in dorico. We are doing annotation work on handwritten notation, not simply reproducing the handwritten notation. To create what I want in Sibelius I have to fire up an old laptop that has my last version of it on it and I’m not going to do that today because it in no way furthers the actual project I am trying to work on.
Like this?
Yes, but I do not want the right bracket (with the left pointing hooks) to be attached to the note that follows it, I want it to attach to the right hand side of the right-most note in the set.
