Can someone explain why on some condensed parts, they are allowed to share stems when moving in similar motion and on other condensed parts, the stems are split? See below. Both of these are in the same piece and same measure. The Clarinet 2, 3 part quarters are allowed to share stems while the Trombone 1, 2 part is not; they are split. I see no reason why the Trombone part split the stems here. I’m sure it’s something I’ve done incorrectly or haven’t checked a box properly. Thank you.
Condensing works on a phrase-by-phrase basis, meaning series of notes between rests. Any of a number of circumstances may cause Dorico to split the condensed passage into separate voices.
If you wish folks here to offer more specific help, you would have to post a Dorico file containing the passages, or an excerpt that contained sufficient measures on either side of the phrase(s) in question that we could see the entire passage at a minimum.
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Thank you. Attached is a snippet of a score (Dorico file) I’m working on. I’ve removed chunks of it and silenced the playback template to reduce the file size.
Note specifically that the Clar. 2, 3 part (condensed) shares a unison part without split stems. In m. 4 it divides but they still share the same stemming.
Trumpets 2, 3 in m. 1 also starts out unison and it seems like they could (and should) share the same stems. It would be my preference that they do. In m. 6 they do, for some reason, begin sharing the same stems.
Note also the Trombone 1, 2 part (beginning in m. 1) which is essentially the same part as the Trpt. 2, 3 an octave lower. Here, Dorico chose to have them share the same stems.
It would be nice to know the reason why this is the case but more importantly, I need to know if there is something I can do on my end to achieve a particular result, i.e. where possible, have condensed parts share the same stems. My client does not want them split stemming in some places and sharing stems in others. I need a consistent overall look.
This was originally done in Finale by the composer (not me) and I created the musicXML file and converted over to Dorico (no notes input by me).
Also, Picc./Fl, Bsn. 1, 2, F Hn. 1, 2 & F Hn. 3, 4, Tuba/D.B. are not condensed parts; the publisher wants them to share a part. However, the other parts (Clar. 2, 3, Alto Sax 1, 2, Trpt. 2, 3, Bones 1, 2) were separated out by me and then I created custom condensing groups for them since the publisher wants those parts split out as individual parts.
Thanks in advance for your help. I’ve only been using Dorico for about 9 months (Finale user for 30+ years) so I have a lot to learn.
Example_1.dorico (2.6 MB)
I will be honest with you: I have no idea why Tpts 2 & 3 would not condense to a single stem at the start of your file. The parts do some strange things switching back and forth in their stemming during the passage you sent. I have no idea whether something has been embedded in the XML import that we cannot see clearly.
I finally used a manual condensing assignment to stem the start together.
Thank you for the tip on manual condensing; I didn’t know about that. It seems to work well except how do you fix situations like this in m. 21-22 of the file?
Is there any way to keep it like this? And it really also needs a slur from the whole note C under to the B.
Uncondensed, there is a slur in the trumpet 3 as shown below. For some reason, Dorico combines slurs when condensing when really, each part should have its own over/under slur.
Go back to manual condensing and do a Reset to let Dorico take over the job again until you reach another special case.
Thank you both. The manual condensing option allowed me to achieve the look I need. But good grief, the back and forth, looking for split stems to force onto one, then looking for notes that are sharing stems that should not be and resetting is a lot of added work when automatic condensing should minimize it. But you’ve given me a solution so I’m checking the box on this one!