Dorico newbie (6 months) here. I just became aware of a dynamics quirk. Intuitively, it would make sense that a “cresc. poco a poco” marking affects the playback gradually until the following dynamic. It doesn’t. You have to manually drag the end hairpin to the next dynamic. Otherwise, the playback will sound weird and create abrupt dynamic shifts in places where gradual change is indicated in the score. It might be a good idea to program a default duration until the next dynamic, while retaining the option to manually drag the hairpin if needed for some reason.
This is just a small suggestion, not a criticism. I love the program!
The gradual dynamic will take effect for its defined duration.
If it is an hairpin, you need to draw the gradual dynamic for the whole desired duration, if it is a text (cresc.) you can also define its duration (that will be visible in the score if you choose to have the line following the text:
Here two examples: ones with the cresc. as hairpin and one as text. Both make Dorico draw a crescendo line in the dynamics lane, without jumps. You may need to deactivate and reactivate the poco a poco property, so that Dorico refreshes the line correctly:
I think @Zvonimir_Tot 's point is that if you select a single note and put cresc. or add a hairpin there, the crescendo by default only extends to the next note. A human playing the piece would know to keep crescendoing until the next event.
As @Christian_R notes, gradual dynamics in Dorico have a defined duration, which you can set either by selecting a range of notes before entering the dynamic, or by moving the endpoints of the dynamic after entering.
I think there are various reasons why having Dorico default to a “human” understanding of gradual dynamics might not be desirable, but I agree that Dorico’s behavior here can take some getting used to.
Thank you for your thoughtful and detailed response, Christian. I think we may be talking about the same thing: When poco a poco cresc. is assigned to a single note, it doesn’t automatically extend to the next dynamic marking. Now that I understand the issue, I don’t mind dragging the hairpin manually. It just didn’t occur to me initially, as it seems counterintuitive. Much appreciated.
Aaron, yes, that’s exactly what I meant! Now that I understand the issue (I think!), it’s not a big deal to drag the hairpins manually. I appreciate your comments.
FWIW, asherber’s post included a way to avoid having to drag anything manually: select the notes to be included in the crescendo then, using the popover, you can type the beginning dynamic, the alteration, and the end dynamic all in one go. Much quicker and easier.
Hello Zvonimir, I would also suggest you do it on the notation side, as suggested by Vaugham.
That is the best way to “communicate” with Dorico: selecting the area first, then applying the gradual dynamic.
