Creating a custom player and partial custom stuff

Dorico
1

Hi,
Ex-Finale (last 37 years) user here. Things have been difficult when I don’t know what search words I need for a specific function I am looking for.

I need to create a custom Player for daily workflow, but so far, no luck.

  • A single staff player with piano sound for playback (I do not wish to delete the 2nd staff every time)
  • I’d like this custom player available to all the past/future Dorico projects

And another one I can’t figure out: How do I make a portion of staff a single-line/short barline, say, only two bars? In Finale, it was as easy as selecting and applying the style. This one also doesn’t return any search results.

While I am talking about single-line stuff, I am currently using the bass drum player, but I actually need it to playback with the piano sound. Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

2
  1. The Sketch category in the instrument picker has single staves that play a piano sound.
  2. To get the effect of switching what Finale calls “staff styles” in Dorico you have to use instrument switching. You can add a 1-staff instrument to the same player by clicking the little + button on the player’s card in Setup. Write the music on the separate staves in galley view. Then in page view Dorico automatically switches between the two staves to show the music. Let us know if you want to hide the resulting instrument change labels.
  3. To make a bass drum instrument play a piano sound … well, what note is it supposed to play?

More discussion needed.

4

Hi @Mark_Johnson
Thank you for your response.

Re #3: What I need is the note(s) layer that plays back with pitch by piano sound, but the display needs to be the stemmed rhythmic notation on a single line/short bar line staff.

P.S. My use of playback is to proofread only. This rhythmic notation staff playback is to proofread other stuff with notes.

5

In Library > Instruments … You can create a new instrument based on Piano. Change its names and family appropriately, change the number of staves to 1 and staff lines to 1. Add this instrument to the same player as the Piano.

6

Qapla’!

Very nice. Now, how can I make this global so this custom instrument will show up in all the past/future projects? Thank you for your help!

7

As in other dialogs, click the star button for Save as Default (next to the Reset and Delete buttons). This will make it always available in the instrument picker.

8

Ahhh, yes, I forgot about that option. So many things to memorize in Dorico :sweat_smile:

Thank you so much :pray: