Hi everyone,
I’m trying to use condensing in a vocal score on Dorico 6 Pro, and despite enabling every condensing setting I can find, the score will not condense. I want the two Soprano parts and two Alto parts to condense into one Sop and one Alto stave, I’ve grouped the instruments together, nothing changes. When I open the settings for manual condensing, there are no instruments for me to select.
Has anyone had this problem before / knows what to do please?
Thank you.
Welcome to the forum @allhaledorico !
When it comes to condensing, the best thing is if you’re able to share the project file itself – there’s often a lot of variables involved that are hard to diagnose from pictures alone. As you’re a new forum member, you may need to spend a few minutes reading other forum threads to increase your trust level, before you’re able to attach files to your posts.
However, I wonder whether condensing is really the best approach for your needs here – is this a piece for choir? And the Sopranos and Altos sometimes sing in unison within their parts, and other times are divided into Sop 1/2?
If so, you might find that the Divisi feature is better: you start from one section player per voice type (S/A/T/B), then divide them just for the passages that need 2+ staves. Dorico will even show choral divide arrows automatically for you!
Welcome to the forum!
To add to Lillie’s advice, it also appears from your screenshot that you actually added one Soprano (and Alto) player, holding 2 Soprano (and Alto) instruments (resisting the urge to visualise how that would look in real life). When a player in Dorico holds multiple instruments that have music at the same time, those staves will not condense.
Some other resources that will probably help you are the First steps guide and this tutorial on condensing:
There are also some peculiarities when it comes to condensing vocal staves. There are a lot of forum posts about that that are worth looking into.
It is Players that condense, not instruments. Your image shows that you have a single Soprano Player holding two soprano instruments (an interesting physical challenge!) - similarly for Alto.
Create an Empty Player and drag the Soprano 2 instrument onto it. That will create a Soprano 1 Player and a Soprano 2 player. Repeat for the Alto.
Now Condensing should work for you.
Thank you all for your help! I appreciate it hugely.
