Clefs for Transposing and Concert Unassignes Instruments

Dorico
1

I’m working with a big band file and wanted to set some of the saxes into different clefs for transposed scores. I was able to do so using “Edit Instrument Definition” in the Setup window and change the clefs for transposed and concert to what I want to see while working on the project.

But when I did this it set those parts to not playback. When I look in the Play window/VST and MIDI and click on the gear icon for those instruments (Atomic Big Band Horns, in this case) I see that those Assigned Instruments are blank. All the others are fine.

How can I reassign those instruments to the correct setting so that they play back? Or otherwise set up my transposed and concert clefs without changing the playback?

Thanks,

Dave

2

If all you did in Library > Instruments was to change the clefs, then Dorico should still retain the existing playback routing. Are you working with a custom playback template, or did you manually assign the instruments in Play mode? If the former, try re-applying the playback template via Play > Playback Template.

3

  1. You don’t need to create a custom instrument definition here. Dorico already has a Bass Clef Concert Pitch option in Setup that you can use.

    bari1
    bari12020×1254 175 KB

  2. Even if you’ve already chosen the “wrong” instrument, you can add an explicit clef, then specify the transposed or concert definition.

    bari2
    bari21666×1664 189 KB

  3. If you open the endpointconfig.xml for the Atomic Big Band template, you’ll see that the Bari is defined with the instrument.wind.saxophone.baritone entityID. If you’ve created a custom Bari Sax instrument that doesn’t share the same entityID then reapplying the Playback Template will not work with the default template and you’ll need to create a custom one.

    bari3
    bari31584×270 33.8 KB

4

Thanks, dspreadbury and FredGUnn.

BlockquoteIf all you did in Library > Instruments was to change the clefs, then Dorico should still retain the existing playback routing.

When I set this up before I changed it in Setup mode, expanded the instrument, clicked on the “…” and went to “Edit Instrument Definition.” Going to the Library > Instruments as you suggested led me to the same window and did the trick. It does set up a new VST and MIDI instrument using the ABBH for just the three saxes I wanted to change instead of setting them up with the rest of the horns. This won’t affect anything in my work flow, but I was assuming I needed to fix this in the VST gear window or something.

Blockquote You don’t need to create a custom instrument definition here. Dorico already has a Bass Clef Concert Pitch option in Setup that you can use.

That works just fine for me with the bari sax, but I prefer to look at tenor saxes in concert view in tenor clef. I know, I may be a little weird here, but my C clef reading is pretty good (lots of classical trombone playing) and it also makes it so that the tenor sax parts sort of look the same between concert and transposed views. It helps me keep an eye on the range I’m writing with a little less mental processing and fewer ledger lines when working with those saxes.

At any rate, it’s working for me now. I appreciate that help.

Dave

1 Like