This seems like the wrong behavior to me. I select the final bar of notes and add the dynamics. You can see the final ff breaks the multi-bar rest that follows.
In order to not break the mult-bar rest, the final dynamic has to be shifted to the left.
Is this an intentional behavior I’m not understanding? Does Dorico interpret the final dynamic as belonging to the downbeat? It seems like it shouldn’t… at least, it’s not what I would want. Why would it be desirable to show a single empty bar before the multi-bar rest, if the dynamic applies only to actual notes?
Yes it does. This is how inputting gradual dynamics generally works… Also, dynamics are not necessarily anchored to notes, rather to rhythmic positions in a voice. Semantically it does make sense to shift the anchor of the ff to the left. Maybe some special code for the special case where the final dynamic ends up on a rest could be added in a future version.
I certainly hope this could be considered for the future. As it is now, I have to manually move the dynamic back, then visually adjust it in Engrave mode. Not ideal!
Sure, it’s not difficult to overcome (and you’re right, a small enough rhythmic grid doesn’t require an Engrave tweak). I’m just wondering why the default behavior would be desirable.
I should note that I tried this example moving it back a 16th or 32nd note, and it did not work. The multi-bar rest was still split in my case. Either way, this should not be the default behavior.