Finally trying to make the switch from Sibelius (been using it since Sib 3 in 2003). Been following Dorico since the unceremonious “staffing change” at Avid. Thanks to the whole development team for amazing support material, special shout out to Daniel for keeping us all in the loop!!
I just upgraded to Dorico 5 for the Edit Instruments dialog, hoping that it would ring somewhat similar to the way Sibelius percussion works but no dice. What is the best practice for defining a new instrument that requires multiple mappings?
In my particular example, I’m trying to map a Middle Eastern frame drum called a Daf to a two-line staff. I’d like:
the bottom line to be the deeper bass tone
the top line to be the “hit” near the rim of the drum.
In addition, there are rattles attached all along the frame that serve as a third possible sound. I’d like that one to be another notehead on the top line.
You can create each technique as a separate new instrument, and hold them together in a kit. That way, you can use the new instrument editor to make the kit a 2-lines staff and you have total control over the placement and the voices (upstem and downstem voice 1).
You can use the kit label to put the real name of the instrument (as opposed to the two different techniques used).
Thanks Marc! How do I create an instrument that’s a Kit? The only way I’ve figured out how is to duplicate one of the already-available kits (like Toms). Seems strange to me that you can’t assign an instrument as a percussion kit.
First, add whatever Instruments you want to a Player. Second, right-click on the Player and select Combine Instruments Into Kit.
There are different ways to display a kit. The one you are after is a grid (I think). In the Layout that this Player is in: Layout Options>Players>Percussion. Your Player will be listed here and you can select Grid.
The basic thing to remember is that a percussion kit is a combination of Instruments. You can’t “convert” an Instrument into a kit because it is just one instrument.
Thanks for the quick reply Daniel! And the warm welcome. I guess my confusion stems from this instrument really being a single instrument. It should not be defined as multiple instruments. But the different strikes on the frame produce different sounds. I could certainly follow the advice you lay out and I think it would work from a practical sense. But I feel that it is the wrong philosophical way to treat the instrument.
Usually, such different techniques are best described using the Edit Percussion techniques (in the instrument’s sub-menu), there you can change the notehead accordingly to the playing technique used (and define a playback technique used for it, should you need some playback). But it’s all in the exact same place, same line or interval. You specifically described a situation where you would need two distinct places, that’s why I gave you the solution I gave
I think if you want playing techniques over two lines then you will need two separate instruments (as @MarcLarcher has explained). This shouldn’t be too hard if you’d like someone to explain it?
Have a read of this anyway (it’s about playing techniques for single unpitched percussion instruments:
Well after much consternation, I’ve managed to accomplish the seemingly impossible, combining these three sounds into a percussion kit. I had to go through a lot of workarounds. At first the instruments were not showing up when I wanted to add another instrument, so I duplicated a Snare Drum and created the different sounds from that. It did the trick (I suppose all the constituent instruments in the kit need to be 1-line staffs?)
I now have it on a 2 line staff with one of the notes including two Percussion Playing Techniques
Natural, with the default notehead and
Shake, with the X notehead
My final question is: in Write mode, I noticed that when I had the three sounds mapped as different instruments (on 3 lines), I was able to cycle through them quite easily by using Alt + Up Arrow (and the noteheads changed automatically to the ones I had defined). In the current configuration, where I’m doubling one of the lines as two different playing techniques, I am not able to do this. Is that by design or am I missing something?
Hi. I’m glad you kind of sorted this!
When you say “mapped on three lines”, you mean that the Layout options>Players>Percussion is set to show the kit as one-line staves? Alt-up/down arrow is indeed the way to cycle through the different techniques defined for the selected instrument.
Can you put the third instrument in a different voice than the one that shares the same line — maybe that would solve the issue? Can you post a trimmed version of the project (a dorico file with just that instrument you’ve created, no notes necessary), so that other fellow doricians can play with it and help you further?
Note that I’ve defined the Daf as a percussion kit composed of 3 techniques, each modeled from 1-line percussion staves. The 3 techniques/instruments are:
Daf (shake)
Daf (bak)
Daf (tohm)
Daf (bak) has two Percussion Playing Techniques defined:
Technique
Notehead
“Bak” (rim hit)
Natural
“Shake”
Cross (X)
Ideally, I’d like the Kit on a 2-line staff with me able to cycle through (while editing notes, not just note input with the caret active) by pressing Alt + Up/Down Arrow, including the second technique of the Daf (bak) line. So far, I’ve only been able to achieve this by defining the Kit as a 3-line staff with the Shake being a separate technique.
Rather than defining three separate instruments, one for each technique, why not define a single instrument that knows has all three techniques? You can use the Edit Percussion Playing Techniques dialog to do this. Then create a two-line grid kit that has two Daf instruments. This does mean that of course you can access all three techniques on both grid lines, but it will allow you to use Alt+up/down to change the playing technique.
Sorry for the lapse in time. Life sometimes gets in the way! Thanks for the advice @dspreadbury, @MarcLarcher, and @DanielMuzMurray! @dspreadbury, I wound up using your solution and it works brilliantly. For the record, to change between two playing techniques on one line of music, I use Shift+Alt+Up/Down Arrow and I’ve defined the Daf kit as the following:
