Enharmonic spelling again

Dorico
1

Hi all,

I think there must be something with my settings that is wrong. Have a look at this, G-clef, one sharp:

image

I cannot find any reason to why the Algorithm would choose to use d flat and a flat in this phrase. When I run the “Respell Notes Automatically”, they change into c# and g#, but this routine is not foolproof either…
My setting in Input Options is to allow retroactive adjustment.

Any ideas? I run into this all the time, and as I keep my eyes on the source rather than the screen I do not want to adjust manually as I go along – and the behaviour is very unpredictable, sometimes Dorico gets it right, sometimes not, and I can never be sure whether it will choose a certain spelling or not. If the spelling was set to always produce # for instance, I would know that each flat would need an extra keypress when entering the notes.

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2

It’s been reported in the past that Dorico seems to make enharmonic spelling decisions based on the concert pitch version of the music even if you’re inputting to a transposed layout. Could that be what’s going on here?

3

No, the screenshot is from a flute part. It just seems as if the key of the piece is not taken into consideration.

4

What is the key of that staff at that location?

5

He said 1♯, so looks like a passage in the dominant of G major. I tried entering these notes and I did get A♭ until I played the A♮, and then it changed to G♯. But D♭? I can’t imagine why.

6

Don’t have Dorico, but this is an interesting case nonetheless.

Maybe the algorithm prefers to rigidly remain within key and spell the seventh of the dominant as a diminished fifth of the key currently assigned to the signature? I can see how a descending chromatic step would fool it so.

I wonder what happens then if one tries to write a fugue with a real answer.

7

We need to see what’s in the other parts.

8

I gave it a try and got C# and Ab.

Ab
Ab848×175 9.77 KB

I believe Dorico uses their own implementation of David Meredith’s PS13 for accidental spelling. I don’t have time to look this weekend, but perhaps there are some clues there.

9

One thing to bear in mind is that Dorico’s approach to spelling during note input is different for MIDI step-time input than it is for real-time MIDI input (or MIDI import). The latter does use something a bit like PS13, though it isn’t actually the same algorithm. I’m not sure which is being discussed in this thread, and possibly different posters are discussing different things.

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