Hello! We are interested in whether Dorico can set a fixed (not a minimum) size for gaps before the barline. We are working in free meter and have tried two methods in Dorico to address this problem: Note Spacing and Spacing Gaps (Gaps before barline), neither of which were effective. In both cases, the gap before the barline is influenced by the percentage of horizontal space. Moreover, “Gaps before barline” in “Spacing Gaps” doesn’t affect when we change the sizes. Of course, we know about manual note spacing, but when we are working on a 700-page book of Georgian chant, it is a very difficult process to adjust so many notes manually. We include a JPEG file to illustrate our issue.
As you can see in the % fullness indicators, the first system is at 101.7%, the second at 79.4%, the third at 55.2%.
So, two of those systems are being stretched to fill the page width, and one is being compressed. Normally, the distance after a note is a proportional distance to its duration, relative to the spacing of the system.
I do have a book of Georgian Chant (which is beautiful), and I can see that the final note does have much less space than standard Western spacing (though not identical every time).
I would suggest using a Note Spacing Change on the final note. You’ll need to Reset the Change for the start of the next system.
I’ve had to use slightly different values, because the systems have different fullness. The first system uses 1.75 spaces, the second uses 1 space.
Note Spacing Changes are in the Engrave menu; and the signposts can be copied by selecting them and Alt-clicking to a new location in Write mode.
Press Enter on a selected Signpost to return to the dialog, where you can change the values.
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We appreciate you answering our query, Benwiggy. We tried the approach you suggested, and it functions as intended. However, since we have to follow separate steps for every system, this strategy will be problematic when laying out large files. Furthermore, the percentages of systems displayed in Engrave mode continue to have an impact on this method. Because we are working in an open meter, the percentage of our systems is different in most cases, which influences the size of the gaps before the barlines. We will employ the method you suggested for the time being. For the sake of time efficiency, we should find a method by which the ending of each system will be perfectly exact and made by one command.
In our opinion, one of the ways of solving this issue is the following: note spacing, spacing gaps, and note spacing changes in open meter have to be freed of the influence of percentage.
It’s possible that someone else will come up with an alternative method.
Any method will require some manual work on every system, because this spacing is unique to Georgian chant.
You could use a quarter note (crotchet) for the final note, and change the notehead to a white note, which might reduce the effect of the natural spacing; but this would again require manual work.
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I don’t understand… why not just switch to the Note Spacing tool and make the manual adjustments? It takes seconds, and you can set it however you want.
Thank you for your answers, Benwiggy and Dan. We will use these methods. However, we think that this feature can be improved.