To anyone here who uses Dorico to create full musical theatre P-V scores, what have you found are the pros and cons of using a single, multi-flow document?
I had a colleague suggest that having a new flow for each musical number can complicate the formatting/engraving process, but I don’t understand why or how their experience compares with that of folks who do use flows exclusively.
Also, does anyone have an all-time favorite template (scoring express or otherwise) that they could recommend for musical theatre P-V scores? I prefer a more neutral look, ie. nothing that screams “Broadway.”
A lot depends on what stage your musical is in development. While songs are being added or dropped, one may want individual files; but you may want to create them by using a master file or template and splitting the individual files off from that to make sure Dorico sees exactly the same instrumentation throughout. That can help immeasurably when one tries to combine the finished project later.
Ultimately, I want to have a single file with the different numbers appear as flows. Practicality will dictate when to pull everything together into one document.
I am in the process of importing (lots of edits) files from a musical in Dorico. There are 28 numbers and an intermission. Several players are multi instrumentalists but the total number of players doesn’t change. Big cast changes. So far it is working well. My goal is to have the entire musical as one Dorico file. I’m especially curious to see if changing the sequence of the numbers would adjust the paginations accordingly, but I haven’t tried that yet. Cheers.
Yes, this is the magic of using flows. Just decide in Layout Options if you want to allow new flows to appear on existing pages or if each subsequent flow should start at the top of the page (you can set/change this option any time):
And when importing a flow, choose to merge the Players: if all your flows use exactly the same setup it should be no problem, otherwise some extra work is needed… (ask if you have issues). And check, after each import, in Setup mode if the Players remains the same amount/kind (if not Dorico couldn’t merge the players, due to differences between source and destination).
And generally, to let Dorico do its work at best, avoid Page Overrides at all cost (at least until your understanding about Dorico layout system is well developed).
As a veteran Broadway copyist from the pen and ink era (later to Finale) I am grateful to have lived to see this technological advancement. I can recall when even having a Xerox machine was a luxury. A dozen pen and ink copyists would pass along the individual score pages from the orchestrator as he would complete them.
(at least until your understanding about Dorico layout system is well developed).