If I want a dynamic in a specific rhythmic position under a sustained note Dorico doesn’t seem to let me move it around like it would if it were below constant 8th notes. It should snap to the grid as you drag them with your mouse or arrow keys even if the note above is at a larger subdivision than the grid. This shouldn’t be the case, it is very annoying to have to break up a note just to put in the dynamics just for me to turn it into a sustained note again at the end.
IIRC, you can move dynamics along the grid with the same keyboard shortcut as moving notes left/right on the grid. Can’t check now, so maybe remembering wrong. Better yet, use the caret to place dynamics wherever you want on the grid within a tie chain. No need to break the note.
I think it’s Alt-Shift-left or right arrow.
Just checked, it’s option/alt+command/ctrl+left/right arrow. Alt+shift changes note length
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Is there a way to do this that won’t move hairpins?
If the dynamics are grouped together, then moving an immediate dynamic will modify the whole group; you can ungroup the dynamics to move them independently.
Some way to move a dynamic inside a group would be great. Without ungrouping first. Had a piece where I spent a lot of time ungrouping, moving, regrouping. Maybe with an extra modifier key.
Jesper
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I think that this could have improvement. I much more often want to move dynamics without moving hairpins. It is quite slow and tedious to have to unlink theses to move them. I much preferred how in Sibelius I could freely move dynamics wherever I wanted and if I wanted to move them with the hairpins I would then select them together.
I deal with this all right by keeping in mind the way immediate and gradual dynamics that abut rhythmically get grouped by default. And it’s easy to see the grouping with the blue highlighting. If I want a forte a little separated from a hairpin, I would rather make a new dynamic and delete the grouped one, than ungroup them and possibly leave them that way.
I am not a big fan of Sibelius after 15 years of using it and 4 years with Dorico, but I agree with Boundarie. Some things in Sibelius are solved much better, like moving/placing expression, techniques and even notes. All this endless moving caret to do simple things, unliking notes to put expression in required place is tiring, unnerving and wasting my time. It is said that you can put expression in any place in tied note but first, you have to put caret in a required place (instead of just simply click the mouse there) and then open dynamics popover and write it. But even this does not work without hiccups. Try to put a crescendo this way and nothing will happen unless you add a static expression there like “>pp”. All this manipulation area based on caret movements, using keyboard instead of mouse to drag and drop may be good for the precision of Dorico’s functioning, but for user comfort definitely is not. If Sibelius only had all the goodies Dorico has (expression maps, midi editors, mixer and a ton of other stuff) I would consider returning to it. In my rough estimation this unfortunate solution costs me about 20% of time I spend to write a score. Not to mention moments when I loose my good upbringing…
Witold
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