One (admittedly small) thing I just stumbled upon:
When I input notes using my computer keyboard and Dorico automatically determines the octave the next note shall be written to, it would be great if Dorico could take the range of the current instrument into consideration.
Example: I have a clarinet player and the last note was an E below the staff, which is the lowest note on a regular clarinet. Now I enter a “c” and Dorico, because it is closest, writes the c a third below this note, which is out of the range of a clarinet.
(Now that I think obout it, I don’t know how many instruments really have a well defined range. Talking about woodwinds, the lower end is well known, but other instruments’ range may be more open ended.)
I’d also like a “live” warning about instrument range. If I enter a note that’s too high or too low, Dorico could make it red (or another color) to let me know that it’s out of range. This is good for me (and others) when writing for new instruments.
I had an embarrassing experience a couple of weeks ago, when I was inputting a glockenspiel part and couldn’t hear any of the notes. I was sure there was a problem with the playback engine. Then I accidentally put a note down an octave, and I heard it!
So for dummies like me who can’t remember the range of the glockenspiel, it would be great if there were some kind of feedback to indicate out of range notes.
There is an issue with Glockenspiel. It should sound 2 octaves higher than written, but Dorico (in combination with HALion) tries to play it 3 octaves higher, thus pushing it out of the range than can be played back. If you transpose it down to achieve correct sound output, your human players will not be loving the printed result
I had the same problem with the Glockenspiel and Halion. I switched the sample library to GPO5 (Garritan). I played the piece and noticed I was getting double notes on the Glockenspiel. Why? Because Garritan was playing the notes at the correct octave and the lowest notes I had written were triggering a key switch. I raised the part an octave and all is well. I may have had a similar problem with Xylophone, as well.
Jonathan,
open your HALion player, find the Glockenspiel channel and turn the octave shift to -1. That way the written notes and the output will both be correct.
