Force duration not working across ties

Hi,

No matter what I do I can’t seem to get this notation:

Dorico always forces this:

Is it possible to notate this as written in the top example?

Dorico considers a chain of tied notes to be a single note. If you create a tie between two notes, the properties of the tied note (including forced duration) come from the first note, not the second one.

So, if you create some notes using forced duration to specify the lengths, and then tie them together, you need to set forced duration on the first note of the chain of ties, otherwise the forced durations will be lost when you create the ties.

A method which “always works” (but may be more work than is absolutely necessary) is to select all the notes and press O, then create the ties.

If you don’t need double dots, you could also tell Dorico not to allow them. This is done in Notation Options/Note Grouping/Rhythm Dots. There you can select the maximum number of rhythm dots allowed in simple and compound beats. If you set this to 1, the music will enter as in your example.

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Thanks, I used Rob’s suggestion and it worked perfectly.

I ran into trouble when the tie is of a chord (only two notes here). I can force the appearance in the second bar for both notes, untied, to a dotted crotchet and when I tie one of the two notes it stays as I wish but when I tie the second it reverts to this appearance, which is also the result if you enter a double-dotted minim. It does work if I force duration of the minim chord in the previous bar before I tie it, but this is terribly counter-intuitive!
Doubly tied note I cannot force to continue as a dotted crotchet

Yes, you do have to force the duration of the entire note, it’s true.

Hi all, sorry if this has been discussed before, but I cannot manage to achieve a very simple task…and I believe it is relevant to this topic.

I want this:
Screenshot 2022-10-22 at 00.39.32

and regardless of what I do, Dorico keeps giving me back this:

Can you help me out?

Thanks

Best
-m

Try this.
Cut the tie (U).
Select the first note, press O for Force Duration followed by the note’s value.
Do the other notes the same way.
When you have done each note individually, then tie them up again.

Thanks a lot; is there any other way of a achieving this? It seems very complicated and fiddly for such a simple task.

Maybe, but I always have to remind myself that if I want to tie notes in a grouping which overrides Dorico’s default for a particular time signature (or any options I have set up), then I have to turn on Force Duration before entering those notes.

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Thanks a lot for your help!
Could you remind me how to tweak the default subdivisions for specific signatures or specific bars?
Best
-m

Notation Options > Beam Grouping
and
Notation Options > Note Grouping.

For specific bars, I find it easier and quicker just to use Force Duration and/or Edit > Beaming and then choose one of the beaming options to beam together, split beams, reset beams, etc.

Thanks, so is there not a way to just “instruct” Dorico to subdivide my 6/4 bar into 4+2 automatically?

I’m not sure of the exact syntax, but I think it is something like [4+2]/4 (entered into the time signature popover).

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Take a moment to think about it… A 6/4 bar is by default a compound bar of 2 x 3 beats, unless you tell it that it is not. So you can either force durations to contradict the time signature, or you can force the time signature to behave differently. Doing either is really quite simple.

2 Likes

Brilliant, thanks!
This is probably what I had in mind. I tried it but without the brackets the 4+2 showed up instead of 6.

Many thanks for your time and support!

All the best
-m

You can change this after inputting time signatures too, for future reference:

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Thanks a lot @Lillie_Harris !
Best