I’d rather not mess with hidden tuplets. I’ve tried the notehead set thing but am clearly not totally understanding it. How can I create a new notehead set that allows me to easily click to change certain notes to unfilled?
I duplicated the regular notehead set, called the new one “Chant,” and made half notes the only notehead type. But why is it changing the entire project? I duplicated the notehead set before I changed it!! Argh.
Dan, this has tripped me up too. I figure you’ve tried several things so please forgive me if this reads like I’m typing to a novice!
Creating a duplicate notehead set was the correct first step. Then you’ve got to create a duplicate of the notehead you want to replace, using the “New from Selection” button in the main pane of the dialogue box. Then, you have to remove the notehead you made the duplicate of, so only your duplicate and not the original notehead remains in your new set.
That third step is tricky visually because the duplicate notehead looks identical to its source; you have to be careful not to delete the one you just made. When you’ve got the original notehead deleted from your new set, what’s left behind is your notehead (say, a black crotchet-style notehead) that isn’t used anywhere else. Then you can edit it as needed — making it a minim-style note, for example — and apply the notehead set only to the note you want to graphically edit. That should do it.
It’s not pre-defined, though. It’s a copy… which should make it fair game.
When I duplicate a notehead set and give it a new name, I would expect I can freely change any noteheads in that new set without anything in the project changing, since I haven’t assigned that new set to any notes yet.
TonH, when Dan said “delete the old one,” I think he meant the old notehead, not the notehead set.
Dan, sorry, I left out a critical detail. Select the original-notehead and use the icon immediately beneath the noteheads-display to “Remove Notehead from Set.” That icon is one of a pair, and it looks like a U-shaped bucket with an arrow pointing upwards-then-rightwards out of it.
The trashcan icon is indeed grayed out, because deleting the original notehead is impossible, as it’s in use in the default notehead set.
I wouldn’t use hidden tuplets here. I did a bunch of scores recently that needed only a handful of notes to use Renaissance notations, and I found custom notehead sets to be exactly the right tool for the job.
Well, I tried it again and it worked… because of course it did.
I think it has something to do with the fact that I had messed around with these values for the half note before attempting to remove the other noteheads:
You don’t have to remove the other notehead types, thankfully. As long as your set has what you need in it, you can ignore types you won’t use.
I recreated this on my end and here’s how I got the result you want:
Create the duplicate notehead set
Duplicate the notehead whose appearance you want to use — the minim. (Earlier I gave the example of the crotchet. Ignore that. Sorry.)
Remove the original minim from the set. Now you’ve got a set with only a custom-minim.
Select the options to use this notehead for all durations shorter and longer than actual minims.
Click OK and exit the notehead-sets editor.
Right-click the note you want to convert to a white note, and select your new notehead set.
The fact that you’re only applying the notehead set to a handful of notes is why it doesn’t matter what else is in the set.
Remember, by the way, that Dorico will still handle horizontal spacing as if the note is a crotchet. Having read a bunch of your posts over the years I know you’ll fix that, though!
Yes! Those settings are the key. It’s less about deleting other things from the set and more about what those checkboxes are actually set to. You’ve now got a minim notehead that gets used for all durations of notes that use your custom notehead set.
(I had to un-tick the boxes for black noteheads, too, so there wouldn’t be a conflict.)
I’s not sure why one does not just use a half note and hide the stem. Is it a question of fewer key-presses over a large project? For playback, I would expect one to want to hole the final note of a phrase.
