Drum voices

Dorico
1

Back to writing a drum line after a few months away from it. Questions -

1 - In a drum part the filter for down-stem-voices only selects the down stems RESTS and not the notes (kick drum usually.) Is this a bug? Is there some other filter I’m missing for percussion voices?

2 - Is there a reason users are not allowed to write a drum part using whatever voice they want as notes are entered? The assumption that snare and tom stems are always in one direction is just not the case. So in writing a readable drum part, I am constantly moving snare and tom from down to up. And if I changed their default direction I would be spending time moving them the other way.

I guess I could put 3 extra toms and a snare into my kit that had stems in the other direction - but that would create greater complexity for what is already a complex instrument for note entry.

I have to compliment Dorico on finding such an elegant solution to voices in regular instruments. It is so much easier to manage than either Sibelius or Finale - I only wish I could have that same ease of handling voices with drums.

Michael

2

Oh, but you can! Just fake your printing part in a renamed pitched instrument. It’s usually quicker, I do it all the time. Some pointers:

  • I usually appropriate the Timpani (no key) instrument for this as it a) gets rid of all key sigs and b) sounds quite funny in the treble register.
  • A manually-entered drum clef behaves like a treble clef behind the scenes, for ease of input.
  • Select the whole part, filter notes and chords, and set the Beam direction property to Flat.
  • You can filter a note selection by pitch to change all cymbals to x-noteheads at once.

Then of course you are free to have a non-printing ‘playback’ staff in which you can also write out any non-printing fills and accents.

3

Oh, but you can! Just fake your printing part in a renamed pitched instrument. It’s usually quicker, I do it all the time. Some pointers:

Ah - I should have been clearer - I’m looking for the drum line to actually playback properly as well. What you’re suggesting would work to simply make notation without playback.

4

Yes, of course. The point is that I share your frustration at the over-engineered nature of Dorico’s drum notation. You can definitely make your drum parts in the ‘legitimate’ way but it appears like you already know how to do that, as well as why that process can be frustrating. While my tone is admittedly snarky, I meant every word—in many cases this is legitimately quicker.

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