See, and this is why ambiguity needs to be avoided at all costs… But this “sus-vs-add-vs-2-vs-4” dead horse is already well-beaten around here… 
I’ve been using Finale since 1991 and since then, I’ve created more than 80 suffixes for the chord symbols I use. Dorico really disappointed me in terms of chord symbols. Not being able to create unusual chord symbols and use them on any chord root is very disappointing. For example, it is impossible to create a simple C7(9, #11, 13) and enter that chord by typing C7(9#1113). When will Steinberb adopt the same system as Finale to create any suffix, save it in a library and then be able to load it into a new project?
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Welcome to the forum, @LucScore !
I see you’ve started a new thread for this question, so it’s probably better to continue the discussion over there.
You’re right. Many thanks.
None of the folks posting here (except Daniel, possibly) know what the devs are up to with regard their chord symbol system development - but there’s something I’ve observed about the Dorico chord ecosystem that might be relevant to the discussion. Chords in Dorico are multi-functional… aside from pure notation, Dorico chords are also used for recognition and symbol generation as well as chord symbol playback, so the program also needs to be “aware” of it and “own” it for those purposes as well, for Dorico to be consistent in its offerings. Finale did allow user editing for recognition and playback purposes, but speaking for myself, I found chord playback and recognition (except for basic chords) opaque and ultimately useless.. So, asking Dorico for support of additional standard- or non-standard (as in the OP) chord symbols is a tall order, reaching deep into the guts of program development.
You can write anything you want and choose to call it a chord symbol if you like, but there are potentially as many ways to describe chords as there are musicians, as we can see from the discussion here. Again, speaking for myself, Dorico’s polychord support is fantastic, way better than Finale, and enables you to get any set of extensions you want superimposed on any basic chord type. My personal preference is a system where extensions are described as triad superimpositions, and Dorico makes that possible out of the box. I like the idea of saying F#|A7 instead of A7(b9, 13), for example - but that’s just me. As far as I’m concerned, “my” notation system makes it readily obvious to the player what the primary colors are in the sound.
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Problem solved with v6! Holy heck, everything you could ask for. Add your own symbols to the Dorico library! Set recognition and playback ! Edit a suffix and apply it to all roots… and make it a program default, not just a project default! Kudos to the devs! Upgrade to v6!
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I did !! Thanks Dorico !!
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Just a heads up that you’re using the “wrong” flat glyph there so it won’t match the rest of the project. The flat in your image is the flat from the Standard Accidentals SMuFL range, not the one from the Standard Accidentals for Chord Symbols range. If you add it through the Composite tab, it will automatically be the correct one.
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Man, you really know your stuff !
When I created the suffix in the editor, it came in as an un-editable text block with non-optimal fonts.
It took a bit of head-scratching and fooling around to find out I could delete the whole block and build a new one from the tools in the right panel.
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Yes, thank you. There are some tricky things about those options. You have to know what you’re doing, I guess. I guess I tried to do a C13 flat 9 chord and I wanted the flat 9 between brackets. And I can’t figure out what happened, but it says now on the list of chords I have all roots 13 flat 9. But if I click on it, I don’t see any preview and I can’t move from one root to the next as usually you can. And if I simply try to delete it, the program crashes every time.
If you attach the project in which you’re having that problem, we can take a look.
Immanuel Wilkins - Emanation Chords NEW TEST.dorico (3.4 MB)
Like this ?
I haven’t played around with this enough yet to know exactly what’s going on, but you have one setting for All roots 13 (+alterations) …
… and another for 13 (b9):
Maybe those are in conflict somehow? Dorico crashed for me too when I tried to delete it.
Ok. I’ll try to start with a new files. Since this was done first with Dorico 5.
Nope.. even with a new project, G13(b9) crashes the program.
Can I reset all the chords and start over again ?
Ok. I’ll try. Even then, i can never delete it ?
Thanks,