hi folks,
I just copied out a 900+ bar piece of chamber music from manuscript of a composer, and here are a few gripes I’d like to share:
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Leaving “Force Duration” toggled on would save me lots of time. This composer liked to beam things in their own way and it took a lot of time to even approach their beaming style, having to remember to press “O” each with almost every note. I realise an old discussion thread about this here, and why this feature isn’t yet implemented is beyond me. If we already have the Finale-friendly mode of “Pitch before duration” and we have “Chord” mode, and “Insert” mode, why can’t “Force Duration” be a mode just like the others?
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Repeat bars – it’s great that we can highlight a region of bars and type in |: in the popover to get those bars to repeat – but if I have consecutive repeat bar regions, I have to remember to select the first region first, and then the second. If I do it backwards by selecting the second region first, (or if I change my mind), that breaks the repeats, as you’ll see in the graphic below:
(see the second repeat from bars 3-4 is broken) -
This piece had a lot of harmonics, and it was frustrating to have to toggle the radio button for “type” before clicking “Artificial” or “Natural”. Why does one have to do this? Just click “Artificial” or “Natural” and move on.
It seemed arbitrary that, once “Artificial” harmonics were selected, one could simply point the mouse into the “Partial” text area and type in 4, without having to select the radio button for “Partial”. If you can type the partial number directly, why do you need to have a three step process? I’m sure someone will find a reason…
Also, it would be helpful to have the words “G.P.” centered in the middle of the bar. I understand there’s a workaround for it here… but it’s a common enough feature of notation that there should be a proper way to do it.
Aside from that, Dorico performed like the champ it is…
Thank you for reading.
