I having trouble getting the crescendo dashed line to be lower. It looks okay in the first system but in the second system I’d like the line, along with the forte marking, to be lower. Currently the crescendo and the forte marking are grouped. If I ungroup them the forte moves to where it’s supposed to be but the line stays where it is. I can fix this by going into engrave mode and moving things around but shouldn’t the dynamics automatically adjust? Interestingly, in engrave mode, when I adjusted the vertical positioning of the crescendo in the first system the staves automatically widened to allow for more space. When I tried the same thing in the second system it just moved the line. I’ve tried every setting that I could find but no luck. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
The problem is that your second system has no space available. The LH notes rise above the bass staff and push the cresc. upwards.
Try increasing the vertical staff-to-staff space in Layout Options. You could also decrease your minimum gaps for collision avoidance between staff elements.
Have you changed the vertical spacing on the page by dragging staves and systems up and down? If so, you may have “locked” the vertical space between the staves in the second system so Dorico can’t change it. Look at the vertical spacing handles in Engrave mode and see which ones are “fixed”.
The best way to space the systems on the page is to set the “ideal gaps” in the layout options big enough, and then let page justification fill up the rest of the space.
Trying to force more systems onto a page usually isn’t a good idea. If you want to avoid the final page having only one system, try putting a Note Spacing Change (in the Engrave menu) at the start of the flow and reduce the spacing from 4. If you don’t have many 16th and 32nd notes, the spacing is quite wide with the default 4. Try 3 1/2 or even 3.
Thanks Rob for replying. I haven’t changed the vertical spacing options. As per your suggestion, I’ve tried changing the “ideal gaps” setting. When I increase the setting, the staves appear wider apart but the crescendo line still appears as it did without adjustments.
Thanks Dan, but there are only 4 systems on the page (piano), so there should be lots of room for the staves to automatically readjust.
What I mean is that the default value for bracket staves is 6, I think, and it’s too small for what you’re doing here, since the LH notes come up above the staff. Try setting a higher value, like 8 or 9, if you want the dynamic to automatically center between the staves.
Dorico won’t automatically increase bracketed staff spacing to center dynamics.
And have you checked the difference between justification of systems and justification of staves? It may be that your layout is justifying systems, but not staves. (I don’t care for this setting, personally - it results in too-large gaps between staves, IMO).
Post a screenshot of the whole page, and I’m pretty sure we can diagnose it.
Thanks Dan and Rob, that worked. I think I adjusted the wrong setting in “vertical spacing” options. I’m good to go.