Custom chords alterations

Hi all,
i’m demoing Dorico (coming from Sibelius and before FInale).
Really great stuff.
For my musical language i need quite “not standard” chords altarations notation.
i.e.

Cmaj7 (#13) ( for a C major chord with major 7th and minor 7th)
Dm7 (b11) (for a D minor chord with a major 3rd)

For several reasons i don’t use poly chords notation for those kind of chords like C7/Cmaj7

Is there any way to do it?
Is it possible to change maj7 notation with delta/triangle notation on a per chord basis (not a global one)?

thanks and all the best

Welcome to the forum, alfonsoantimone. I’m glad you’re enjoying your evaluation of Dorico so far. If you don’t find the specific combination of options you’re looking for on the Chord Symbols page of Engraving Options, then you can produce your own appearances either by editing individual chord symbols in Engrave mode, or by defining new defaults using the Project Default Chord Symbol Appearance dialog (accessed from the very bottom of the Chord Symbols page of Engraving Options).

The two specific examples you’re after are a bit idiosyncratic and are not accommodated by Dorico’s defaults, but hopefully you can produce chord symbols that look the way you want relatively easily using the tools provided.

Just curious as to why the second chord isn’t being notated as D7(#9)?

Because is voiced bottom to top as
D F A C (E) Gb

Thanks Daniel!
I’ll do some experiments.

So the minor 9th interval between F and Gb give to the chord a totally different sound. The major 7th between F# and E# gives to the D7(#9) a totally different sound.

Perhaps you can help me do something similar… I want to do custom chord types (actually scale types), for display purposes only. I don’t need Dorico to interpret them on a chord track.

I’d like to be able to type in an arbitrary suffix for the chord. So something like “C(#1)” or “C(hira)”.

The main reason I’d like to use the chord symbols is for transposition, so I can select a range of notes and their chords and transpose them, and have the chord symbols change notes as well.

I’ve tried using a chord symbol for the root, and system text for the scale descriptor, but Dorico always places the system text above the chord symbol. I would like them side by side, so either by typing a full custom scale descriptor into the chord symbol, or having the system text line up next to the chord symbol (which would just be the root).

For now, I just use system text for everything, and when I need to transpose, I edit the system text manually. But, I’d like to be able to take advantage of the chord track and its ability to transpose if possible.

Off the top of my head I can’t think of a good approach to this, unfortunately. The only possible approach I can come up with would be to find a particular combination of quality and interval that you’re not going to use, and then edit the component that appears for that chord symbol in the Project Default Chord Symbol Appearance dialog, so you would type e.g. Cdim. and then see C(#1) in the score.

I honestly think that a little flexibility is needed in this area for Dorico.
Perhaps a “text” based chord symbol that follows chord format and transposition feature for roots/bass notes but is not linked to “rules”.

We have worked extremely hard to provide flexibility in this area! I don’t think you can look at the Chord Symbols page of Engraving Options, the Project Default Chord Symbol Appearance dialog, and the ability to graphically edit every single chord symbol and make the argument that Dorico lacks flexibility when it comes to chord symbols…

If you need more flexibility than what is available, use the text popover. You can assign the sharp and flat glyphs to a shortcut using a macro.

I’ll explore more!
An example file / video tutorial would really help.
thanks

Not to be rude, but they are easily found. Google “Dorico chord symbols”…

Video tutorials, absolutely: here are a couple, one about more default options (using the Engraving Options and changing the font) and another about the more in-depth and precise editing you can do.

Hi all,
this is my attempt.
But i’m facing several problems.

  1. As you can see the b13 is treated as a whole symbol and i can’t figure out the fonts used for “b” and for “13”.
  2. So i edited the “b13” and add 2 Glyphs (“#” and “13”) to get #13.
  3. But as you can see the # font isn’t the same as a “normal” #9 and even the 13 is a little different
  4. And if use a “(” Glyph i can’t get the same shape as the normal chords symbol alterations.

Is there any documentation that explain what kind of fonts are used for Dorico chords symbols.
I guess is the only way i can build “consistent” chords symble containing all my “special stuff” as #13, b11, b8, etc. etc.

Any other suggestions or ideas?

thanks a lot in advance!


Edit.png

Sorry, I’m not seeing the problem with the examples you posted. They look pretty good to me! What am I missing?

For the font, check Engrave Mode—Engrave Menu—Font Styles—Chord Suffix Fonts. If you’re customizing glyphs using text, it’s Bravura Text.

If you want to customise individual sections of chord symbols to match the existing ones, there are specific Composites available to you.
comp.csac.alteration.13 (or possibly comp.csac.interval.k13) is probably the correct one to use for the 13.
comp.csymAccidentalSharpSmall should match the existing small sharps.