Condensing Breaks issues

Hi all,

Playing around with the 3.1 brand new feature condensing change, but not getting a great deal of joy, as in not being able to get the result I want, even though my wishes are reasonable…

To begin with, a “condensing change” is apparently not the same as a “condensing break”, if I understand things correctly. For example, in the first example, I introduce a condensing change in the bassoon section, after which there’s only first bassoon, but the second bassoon still shows up as rests. Presumably this indicates that Dorico looks back PAST the condensing change to establish phrases etc. I can set “hide rests” as part of the condensing change, but in that case it doesn’t show a “1” label, for unclear reasons (which in this particular instance is very misleading).


Also, can I set “Minimum length to hide rests for silent players” to 1 as a Dorico default, somewhere? The default 2 often leads to problems (as in condensing changes not having any effect), such as when a 3-bar phrase straddles a system break.

In the second example I want to show two dove-tailing flute parts with labels but without ANY rests (the Dorico 3.0 condensing shows rests for the inactive fltue AND a label “1.”, “2.”, i.e. not industry standard). I just can’t get rid of that extra quaver rests, and I’ve tried lots of things (further condensing changes just before each entry, etc.). In some cases Dorico gets really confused and drops slurs (no matter what I do for “amalgamate slurs”) or adds strange “a2” in random spots.


It would be great if we could have a Hangout video with lots of condensing change issues…

Update:

The “minimum length to hide rests for silent players” can be changed in notation options (sorry, I had only checked Engraving options). By changing those options I’ve also made the bassoon example better, though it’s a mystery how (as these same options are also part of the “consentation change” options.
Anyway, flute example still a problem ,and would still appreciate a Hangout video!

Oddly, if I set things in the Notation Options, it puts the labels in the wrong spot (see below). It doesn’t do this if I set it in Condensing Change options.

If your “FluteWrongLabels” picture, are you sure the “1” in the second bar doesn’t belong to the staff below?

All the other labels look in sensible places to me.

The length is in quarter notes, not bars.

You can set the default in either Engraving Options or Notation Options - I forget which, but it’s clearly labeled.

Hi Rob,

Thanks for your reply. :slight_smile:

Yes, on further reflection, you’re right that those labels in the flute part are in the correct place (the others are indeed other staves, I wasn’t talking about those). They are not where I want them (I want them one quaver earlier), but they are in the wrong place (for me) because of that quaver rest I can’t get rid of, so the two are related.

Thanks also for clarifying that parameter is about crotches. This is spelled out in the Notation Options, but not in the Condensation Change dialogue, so I’d misinterpreted that. It does make things even odder though: the following is an excerpt of two bars oboe 1 solo (sandwiched between bars rest).

The first is with that parameter set to one (crotchet):
1Crotchet.png
The other with two (crotchets):
2Crotches.png
There are no other differences between these two screendumps, and “Hide rests and label active player” is switched on in the Notation Options… I had a few other similar occurences, prompting me to desire that parameter to always be set to one (crotchet). [I don’t know if it’s related (probably not), but if I set that parameter to 1 crotchet (and press apply) in Notation Options, it still defaults to 2 crotchets every time I insert a condensation change).

I’m happy to look into issues with condensing, but only if you attach a project rather than tiny pictures. They just don’t give enough context for me to say anything with certainty, and I’m sorry to say that the demands on my time are such that writing exploratory texts with guesses isn’t something I have time for.