So I know this can be done in Play mode, but as Dorico is a notation program, and as a composer/performer/engraver I am way more comfortable working with notation than MIDI, it would be great if there was a way to hide any notational elements that affect playback on an individual basis. As I’ve been getting into more sophisticated mockups and VST libraries, I would much rather work with notation to accomplish these effects than with MIDI. Obviously anyone coming to Dorico after primarily using a DAW will probably disagree, but I would love the ability to hide any element that can affect playback in order to have a “correct” score, but still have the desired playback.
Of course dynamics are already easy to hide. Hairpins aren’t much harder (Alpha channel 0) but you lose a signpost so they might be hard to locate again. AFAIK there’s no way to hide an articulation, is there? Alpha 0 doesn’t work on them and there’s nothing in Properties. Again, I know these can be modified in Play, I’d just much rather use notation and hide them.
For example, I did a little string quartet mockup in this thread. The original music looks like this:
To get the playback I made it look like this:
If you look at sakasuri’s better example, it has even more notation elements than mine did. The only way to currently deal with this is to have one file for display/publishing and another for playback, unless you prefer working with MIDI. As a feature request, it would be great to be able to hide any element that can have an effect on playback to more easily accommodate those of us that prefer working with notation elements.
Thanks for the feedback. We anticipate that you would use dynamics entered in the dynamics lane in Play mode to achieve these kinds of changes in dynamic level for the purposes of playback. I realise that at the moment it can be difficult to associate a notated passage in Write mode with the piano roll in Play mode and we plan to address this in future versions (opening two windows and having one window in each mode is a good help in this direction for the time being), but this is nevertheless what we recommend.
Thanks Daniel! The dynamics and hairpins I’m ok with hiding in Write/Engrave but the note durations and playback definitions of staccato, tenuto, accents, other articulations, etc I’d really love to be able to simply hide in one way or another. I understand this playback ability is currently possible as more experienced MIDI users are fine with simply adjusting this in Play, but this capability would be really valuable for users like me (and apparently sakasuri too). I know more sophisticated mockups are more in the DAW realm, but for those of us that think in notational terms this ability would be really great.
I’ll be more explicit: we don’t plan to add options to hide dynamics in Write mode. The way in which we’ve decided to implement this functionality is to use the dynamics lane in Play mode.
I understand that a No is a No, but I continue to hope that sooner or later hiding all dynamics in Write mode (including hairpins) will be possible.
Dynamics attached to written notes are more precise than the ones written in the CC lane. They move with the note, and there is no risk of moving a note an forget the relate dynamic.
It’s also common practice in study scores. When looking at a score used for a concert, you see that the conductor and the players have written the implicit dynamics. They may be implicit, but there no other way to make them clear as writing a bit ‘ff’ and a big ‘<’ in the printed score.
You probably already know this, but reducing the Hairpin thickness to 0 then reducing the Hairpin open aperture to 0 effectively hides them. It works better than the Alpha 0 trick because that still has an effect on spacing. The downside is that it’s kinda tricky to find them again as there’s no signpost. I still think in terms of notation rather than MIDI so that’s how I’ve been doing it anyway.
I use a similar workaround, by coloring the hairpins of silver, or making them transparent. But it is not an ideal solution, since they are still in the score. But your solution has the advantage you say, of not influencing the spacing. It also has the disadvantage of being hard to find.
In some cases, it can be a matter of copying an original score, and wanting to have the hairpins just for playback.
If it is a personal composition, it might be a matter of implicit expression, like a long note slightly cresc./decr… Something that is not usually written in the score, because it is left to the performer.
I’ve been using the program for a few days, and this seems the best workaround. I’d like to still be able to find them, and I’d like to avoid midi tweaks. However, is there a way to set a shortcut for that? I.e. set the alpha of an object to 0.
You can do it with a little editing. Just add the following to the kGlobal context of your user keycommands file. Enter whatever shortcut you want between the quotes. Be sure to make a backup of the file first.
Most items in the Properties panel can have shortcuts made similarly. You can record a macro to find out what the command and syntax actually is, then graft it into your user keycommands file.
There’s also the issue of score clutter and making things easy to be sightread, or to be performed/recorded correctly on the first take. Here’s an example:
At quarter = 160, virtually every professional jazz musician would play these two examples identically, but the top example is much easier to sightread without all the unnecessary markings. It’s the top version that I would put on a stand for a performer to play. Those markings are necessary however if I need to send out a mockup as otherwise the audio is quite unrealistic.
Most dynamics are easy to hide, just click “Hide intensity marking.” I obviously have no idea if hairpins are harder for technical reasons, but Thickness/Aperture 0, or Alpha 0 are workarounds. It would be great to be able to hide all the other “stuff” that is often needed to be added for accurate playback, as that “stuff” may not be allowed to be notated for historical reasons, to honor a composer’s notation, it’s stylistically unnecessary, or simply because no one wants to read all that. I’m much more comfortable with notation than MIDI, so I often end up making a separate “score for playback” too if I need to send out a mockup.
