I know I’m harping on here about the user interface, but I’ve never seen anything like this in 45 years of using everything from a Sinclair ZX80 through to a Mac M4!
We’re all banging our heads against a brick wall just trying to do something as simple as changing the tempo, and have to search the forums for help.
You have to click the blue (selected) note that has up and down arrows, to de-select it (no right-click context menu or double-click, or ability to type in the number you want), then click on the number (not the equals sign, mind) and then a surprise slider appears that you have to wiggle back and forward numerous times until you get the exact value you’re after.
It’s like something from the Crystal Maze or some kind of escape room!
Even when I’d read how to do it, I had to come back and check again cos I couldn’t remember.
Please, please, please, get a GUI designer on-board.
The method you’ve found is for enabling a fixed tempo for playback, e.g. for recording or playing back the music at a different speed than the normal playback speed (because you find it easier to record the music at a slower tempo, or you want to whizz through the piece at a faster tempo to check the harmonies, or whatever).
The standard way to change the tempo is to add a tempo to the music itself. On the right-hand side in Write mode you will see an icon for tempo, circled in this picture:
Not to discount that you have encountered a frustrating difficulty, but you surely realize that “all” are not having this same trouble. And there is no shame in consulting the program’s documentation; that is a smart thing to do (as is posting here on the forum) when difficulties arise. It is what most very experienced Dorico users do when they need clarification.
I’m working my way through the 2041 pages of user manuals as we speak. I’m a musician with many years of experience writing music, 26 years using Sibelius, with 45 years using computers in general (including, quite literally, rocket science!); I’ve even been using Dorico on and off for four years - what chance do complete newbies have?
If I want to slow down the track, and see a very obvious box, front and centre that says “d=120” then surely it’s not completely nuts to assume that just might change the tempo… click to deselect, click on the number and a magic slider appears!?!
I think that’s my main problem - with Dorico you just can’t assume anything. And the manual and UI don’t discriminate between common workflows and more obscure edge-cases - it’s just like a huge tsunami of information with no prioritisation.
All I wanted to do was reduce the volume of the plug-in instruments, and slow down the tempo of the track. It’s taken me three days to figure out, and even then I’ve got it wrong.
I don’t want to be a know-all, or just some whinging git, but I also can’t just sit quiet when something that could be so great teeters on the knife-edge of being utterly impossible to fathom out. The thought of people teaching 12/13-year olds to use this software makes me wail and gnash my teeth.
Changing the tempo as part of a composition’s structure, has nothing to do with changing the tempo for playback purposes. The latter use is meant to assist detailed audition and experimentation. The two should not be confused.
