I could just be missing something but am having an issue with the explode function.
I imported a MusicXML created in Finale of an orchestral score I was working on.
I needed to go through and explode parts on to the right staves. i.e. Flutes were voiced in three on one stave and I need them on three separate flute staves
It works fine until I explode measures containing different voices. What happens is the voices do go to the right staves but all rests disappear after the second voice’s stave for the rest of the piece and I cant’ even click in that bar anymore rendering that stave useless.
The only workaround I’ve found is to just re-enter the notes manually or copy just the first voice and change the notes for the second voice.
Recent Finale guy using Dorico Pro 5 now. I am loving Dorico, by the way. Long time Cubase user and have always been curious about switching but finally got the needed push. I’m still learning and the curve is steep but I already never want to go back to Finale.
Hello Tony, you can try this:
Select All in that specific stave.
Filter (select) by Notes and Chords.
Filter (deselect) Grace Notes.
Filter (deselect) Tuplets.
Now you can go to the Property panel and deselect the Start Voice and End Voice Properties.
This will reinstate the rests.
→ Still there is a better way than using the exploding feature in your case.
Select the Staff with the three flutes. (You may make voices visible before this process).
Filter by Voices, copy (or cut) one voice and Paste Special (to Upstem Voice 1) into the new stave.
Repeat with the two other flute parts.
If you’re exploding onto single-voice staves like flutes, there’s no need for a second voice. After you paste, filter to select all the secondary voice notes and move them to the primary, and you should get normal rests back.
Thank you all so much for the detailed answers. I got it and will do from now on, or at least until they find a way to explode voices. It certainly would be helpful when importing the MusicXML’s from Finale.
Another approach is to explode the staves in Finale with JW Staff Polyphony (included in Finale 27.3+ or as free download). This plugin provides many custom settings.
Voice separation can be challenging, especially with voices and chords. Here’s another example with a mix of chords and voices. This long-standing issue in Dorico has been discussed many times.
Personally, I still need to use Sibelius for this task. It seems that it’s not an easy fix for the development team, but it would be a significant improvement if Steinberg could enhance the explode function to better handle multiple voice separations.
It may be irritating but it’s easy to fix once you understand the Dorico limitation.
(In this case probably quickest do the explode separately for each bar)
Not really. I exploded a 120 bar piano piece this afternoon onto string quartet. There was a fair mix of chords and voices to consider and it took a couple of hours. But rather than it being a mechanical process, I was also working out voicing choices. Many of the Dorico tools were used: explode, filtering note in chords and voices, voice swapping, moving and swapping notes between staves…
Back in the day this would’ve taken me much longer to do in Sibelius.
In the case you illustrated, just select the top staff, filter to deselect the top notes, and move the remaining notes down with Alt+M. Nothing will be overwritten, and all the notes end up in the primary voice.
