D4.0.30 Tempo editor

Really happy to see the Key editor changes coming out - this is critical to my workflow and really the last thing I need from Dorico. It’s a game changer allowing us to break from DAW composing to notation composing, while still getting humanized audio for production.

Anyhow really great design on using the limited key editor screen space, by only having the tempo editor show when you select a tempo. However is there a way to bring it up when you’re out in the middle of a long score with no tempo markings in sight?

Secondly there’s no linked score option. So if I need to start humanizing long away from a tempo, I have to go back to the nearest available, select a tempo, then scroll the tempo editor back to where I was, except - hang on - how do you scroll the tempo editor? OK, what if I insert a gradual tempo change the the bar I want to work, but, there is no arbitrary one like this, which 99% of my tempo humanization?

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So I think the design is a great idea, but at the moment unless I’m missing something it’s not really usable, the problem being scrolling the editor, and starting a new edit at an arbitrary point. I can’t figure out how to scroll the tempo from it’s default position. Except by creating an edit in the last tempo location, then dragging the flag over to where you want it. Yeah this doesn’t really work, but maybe there’s a better way I’m missing.

Note I checked the forum and the Changelog PDF but aren’t seeing details on this.

You should be able to scroll through the tempo editor using Shift+mouse wheel, or using a two-finger swipe gesture on a multi-touch trackpad.

It is indeed less easy to start editing at an arbitrary point in Write mode – for that you will need to switch to Play mode and select the tempo track.

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OK that works well enough - though a flea in your ear that linked score would be consistent and a great addition.

One issue though, now it’s locked in tempo mode. You can see here I have a note selected but the tempo mode is stuck. I’ve been clicking around but it stays there. All that happened was that I put the computer to sleep later after making the post, then this morning came in to try again and now it’s stuck.

Ha! Just spotted it myself, now stuck! Only workaround is to close and reopen Dorico… :frowning_face:

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Ah no, ignore that! Another workaround is to go into play mode, select a different voice/instrument and go back to Write mode. It should now be on the new voice, but you’ll need to click on the “Link” button again.

I notice that the selection tool, rather than the pencil tool, is selected. Would that make a difference?

Doesn’t seem to



image

Yeah that worked to get it back to normal

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Well, now it won’t go back to the tempo editor :grin: Restarting the application would be the workaround then.

Hey @dspreadbury so I’ve been using the tempo editor, here’s some feedback of my experience. I’ve mentioned how important humanizing is to my workflow and the brilliance that Dorico ‘roughs it in for me’ to refine. So I’m particularly keen on this workflow.

For reference my workflow is to write the ideas out in sketch, transfer to large score and compose out, then fully orchestrate. After that it’s CC1/CC11 humanizing, mainly shaping important lines, or fixing ‘blats’ - instruments that stick out because of the library and autohumanizing. Then I shorten/lengthen played duration, typically between important phrases to give space and for player breaths. Finally I add subtle rubato as appropriate, then send the MIDI off to my engineer for mixing.

Also note that editing in the key editor is critical - I don’t read MIDI! My brain is formed around notes, so using the Play mode doesn’t work for me - I need to see notes while I humanize.

OK, I like the idea of the click on tempo to get editor, but in practice it’s difficult to work with. Here’s a list of difficulties I found

  • Transport control. In media composing it’s all about time, so to sample a humanizing effort I need to click a note to play from, but this falls apart because I lose the tempo track. I’ll usually jump around the section I’m working on to see how it sounds going into, on, and out of the tempo, and then further to see how it ties to the surrounding parts.
  • Score link. Lot of times there will be long sections without tempo edits, but I have to backtrack to get to the last one, then forward track to get to where I am, and then peer at bar numbers to try and line it up. It’s really unintuitive and puts too much of a brain burden on me while juggling all else.
  • Scrolling OK scrolling works as elsewhere, I should have known that, but it requires too much of it.

Summarizing the notes are the focus here, the tempo markings just inform the notes, and while this approach looks very sensible, in practice it doesn’t work, it needs to be tied to the rest of the editor in note mode.

For example

Simply add a button or way to show tempo. Or a dropdown that allows me to pick which tracks to show. For example MIDI is always shown, but I don’t need that all the time. From my workflow above it’s one after the other, a good solution would be to have a ‘filter’ dropdown where I can select the lanes I want, such as

  • MIDI
  • Tempo
  • Playing technique
  • CCX (select the CC you want shown)

This would be perfect - just let me filter the workspace myself. Here’s an example from Unreal

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Also don’t assume everybody is on a landscape monitor. Many doing document work like this have more vertical orientations, here’s mine

The point being that I think how the lower zone needs to be utilized should be in the users control.

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