Welcome to the forum, Stefano. Are you maybe pressing the dot before each note? Note values are ‘sticky’, so if you press the dot a second time it turns off again. Assuming you want this:
I still think that Dorico works best using pitch AFTER duration. Unless you need to play the piano between notes to ‘compose on the go’, then I’d recommend doing that, even if you used to use Speedy Entry in Finale.
Dorico is a software that I like a lot, I come from decades of using Finale and I am also a Sibelius user, I bought Dorico out of curiosity and now it has become my software of reference with which I have written many scores for orchestra and beyond.
It’s hard for me to understand its philosophy in such simple things as the question of dotted notes and slurs, I just don’t understand why such a basic operation should be so complicated or at least so difficult to understand.
The problem seems to be solved if in the preferences I set the dot before the note, in this way I obtain the simple result required.
Who can explain this convoluted philosophy to me?
I would like to write quickly as in Finale and in Sibelius with the midi keyboard by choosing pitch before duration and dot after the note entry
Is this so difficult?
Thank you all
Happy holidays
Greetings
stefano
Coming also from Finale I switched to native pitch after duration and meanwhile (after 2 1/2 months practicing) I’m faster than in Finale. As Ben said Dorico works best using pitch AFTER duration, specifically with a MIDI keyboard. Consider to reprogram your brain, it’s worth it.
Dorico’s approach to dotted notes is more akin to a piano roll in a DAW - or, for a perhaps more familiar comparison - the way players blow, bow or press a note: a note has a start position and a duration . The details regarding its graphical representation on the staff are dependent on the meter, the position of the start of the note within a bar, the Note Grouping options under the hood.
This makes it possible to:
lengthen and shorten notes, and for their extended/contracted duration to automatically correct dependent on context (meter and position in the bar; presence of barlines and beat boundaries)
input long notes that span multiple bars as single long values, rather than short note tie short note tie short note tie (think notes that span four bars of 6/8, for instance.)
apply an articulation to a sequence that includes tied notes, and for the articulation to automatically appear at only the correct end of the tie chain
copy and paste or move material from anywhere in a bar to anywhere else in any other bar, and for note values to remain correct for the new context
add/remove barlines and/or time signatures, and for note values to remain correct.
The one downside, basically, is that if all of your previous experience is with Sibelius, Finale or MuseScore, you need to adjust the way you think about note values.
Thank you all for your replies, I think Dorico is a great software, I am spending a lot of time with manual and tutorials to finally migrate to this platform.
I will have to change my thinking after decades of using finale and Sibelius
Thanks again
Regards
Stefano
Long-time Finale defector here. I have pitch before duration set by default, mainly to make sure I don’t accidentally input notes when I am using my trackpad, or when I try out some ideas. But I do agree that many of the input functions (esp. chords, lock measures, tuplets, etc) work best the way Dorico was originally built, with duration and then pitch. As mentioned elsewhere, duration before pitch is nothing different from Finale’s Speedy Entry with Caps Lock engaged, so as to enter a bunch of notes with the same duration. But I think having the option of both is useful. It does require some changes in muscle memory and approach, but duration before pitch works well in several common use cases, whereas for me, pitch before duration is also useful as a default I can easily override.
It’s incredible how habit can make things simple! My most complicated music program is undoubtedly MusiXTeX, which probably has no more than a couple of users in the world; the input is mainly a script; and I’m a daily user of LateX and TeX. The second one was Finale, which I abandoned after some months of use, but which I appreciated for its completeness and precision, but certainly not for its simplicity. I never used Sibelius or MuseScore. The simplest for me was the old Cubase Score (not very popular among Cubase users), promptly replaced by Dorico as soon as it appeared.
This to report that Dorico may appear undoubtedly complicated but it becomes very simple once you understand its philosophy. You cannot do whatever you want as in the old Cubase Score, because you have to respect its structure. I normally read with attention the user manuals of a new product, but with Dorico this has not been so compulsory, because the solution often is very evident in front of you. And that’s why I’m still quite ignorant about many aspects of Dorico! So please don’t follow my behaviour and take your time to read the manuals, wonderfully written by Lillie.
Dotted values like this are the one place where pitch first entry isn’t as elegant, but it’s easy to just extend the value. For that example, I wouldn’t enter any dots at all! If I’m working with my grid set to 8ths, I would enter: pitch, 8, opt-shift-arrow, opt-shift-arrow and I’m done.
Thank you very much,
yes yes, I would say that I use Dorico satisfactorily, but every now and then I wonder why I am forced to find alternative solutions to make such basic things.
Dorico is now my main software after decades of using Finale and Sibelius, and this time I wanted to compare myself with users who have been using it for years to better understand the philosophy of the software
While that particular example is a little clunky, once you learn how Dorico will interpret your input, it’s much, much faster. Take this example:
I input with my MIDI keyboard and numpad: C, 6, dot, D, 7, E, 7, F, 7, G, 5. I entered no dotted rhythms other than the first, and entered no ties at all. How many keystrokes would that take in Finale?
Yeah, but with pitch after duration, I need to factor in hitting ESC and then restarting the caret approx 2,000 times in the course of writing an arrangement, not to mention all the times I test a voicing on my keyboard and accidentally input 8 bars of nonsense. I would only ever use pitch after duration on a copying job as I find it terrible for composition.
