Hi all, I’m a new convert from Finale here.
I’m having trouble figuring our how to condense - I work primarily in barbershop, and I like to work in 4 staves while arranging, then condense down to 2 staves. In Finale, I would just copy and paste the parts into a new document, each time moving the newly pasted part into a new layer. The “condensing” feature in Dorico seems like it can cut down on that whole step, but I’m having trouble figuring out why Dorico chooses not to condense? I’m also figuring out how to transfer files between my laptop and iPad, so that’s an additional step.
Here’s a test file that I initially created on my laptop (created the divisi), transferred over to my iPad, changed some notes, and transferred back to my laptop. I added the lyrics after transferring back to the laptop, but with or without the lyrics, I just cannot get this to condense.
Can anyone help me troubleshoot? Thanks!!
[Uploading: iPad test 2.dorico…C()
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Many users would advise against using Condensing for choral music at the moment, and just use two voices per staff.
I understand that - it’s just frustrating for me when I’m arranging a piece and get constantly sidetracked because I inadvertently put notes in the wrong voice/layer. That’s the whole reason why I write in 4 staves to begin with. If the solution is for me to copy/paste into different voices I’ll do that (since that’s what I was doing on Finale), but I would obviously love to have an easier method if it’s available on Dorico.
It’s pretty easy in Dorico with voices. You can put (or move) all the Lead and Bass notes in a down-stem voice, then select the whole Tenor part (filter for notes) and Alt-M to move the notes down a staff! (into the up-stem voice) Then you do the same with Bari down to Bass. Once the staves are empty, they can hide automatically – or you can delete the instruments, or just omit them from the layout.
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