Imagine you’re happily entering triplets, as in the attached image. You want that orange F to be a quarter rather than eighth triplet. What to do?
If you’ve been inputting notes via the computer keyboard or MIDI, you can simply click on the quarter note icon and the orange note will change.
But if you’ve been inputting notes by using the Repeat Item command and then sliding new notes up or down the staff as needed to their destination pitches - common practice if you’re from the Sibelius world - you’re stuck. The quarter note icon (or any other duration-change icon) will light up but have no effect on the last pitch. You can’t backpedal out of your situation either; you’ve in a strange UI limbo where some things work and others don’t. You have to exit and re-enter Input mode to continue tupet entry.
Is this a bug? Intentional limitation? Is anyone aware of a workaround?
Duration before pitch is the way note input works. You’re asking for pitch before duration. I think the quickest way out of note input is Escape and the quickest way back in (after hitting “6” for crotchet/quarter) is Enter/Return.
For that matter, I’m very much “from the Sibelius world” and don’t find your method familiar - for nearly 20 years I used the number keypad and a Midi keyboard (and continue to). My fingers knew where Cmd-3 (Ctrl-3) was, for quick triplet entry, too…
Duration before pitch is the way note input works. You’re asking for pitch before duration.
Pitch before duration is entirely possible. You can change the duration of existing pitches with key commands.
But not within Note input mode.
Hmm. You appear to be right.
I guess what I need is the ability to change a note’s duration to a tuplet in Edit mode, as you can with non-tuplet rhythmic values. I am very much of the “give me a quarter note and then I’ll decide where it goes” workflow. Dorico accommodates this very nicely, except with tuplets.
As of 1.2 you CAN (in regular edit mode) turn an existing note (or a pair of notes) into the start of a triplet, I think using the triplet button in the top left panel - it’s also possible to assign a shortcut key to that function by carefully editing the JSON file. Turning existing notes into tuplets seems to have slightly odd results, judging from related threads on this forum; you’re probably better off defining the rhythm first, if you can bear re-training yourself.
The good news is that typing the right rhythm and pitch is WAY quicker than using R, just as in Sibelius.
I’ll check that out. Thanks!