I recently started using Dorico 6 Pro to support our SATB choir. So far I really like it, but I’m missing two very valueable features. Hiding selected Lyrics in condensed view and the possibility of creating export-templates for audio exports.
I have noticed a solution for displaying less Lyrics in choral arrangements was already requested in 2018 and 2019. Anyway until now there doesn’t seem to be a good solution. From my perspective as a software engineer I want to suggest an additional lyrics property “hide in condensed view” or something similar. This way we could selected the lyrics of an instrument/singer and manually hide it.
Another nice feature would be the possibility to create some kind of automation for exporting multiple audio versions. For our choir I’m always exporting audio files for each voice - with higher volume for the selected voice and lower volume (not muted) for accompaniment and the other voices. It would help alot if I could do these exports with one click. Possibly it would suffice, if “low volume other voices” would be an option for single instrument exports.
If one knows one will condense (say) Soprano and Alto lines, I have found it just as easy only to add lyrics to the Alto part unless the Soprano lyrics differ in some phrases (where I would mark just those phrases and see those lyrics added above the combined part). That leads to a combined SA part with appropriate lyrics. Since I have long been accustomed to reading sketch scores (and some older manuscript scores) with this configuration, it certainly doesn’t bother me to see it in my (never published) Working Score layout. Unlike instrumental parts, choral parts are issued as a combined score rather than as separate S, A, T, B parts for individual singers.
I can see how an automated way to export audio scores with successive parts boosted would be convenient. Not sure how soon that would arrive.
Thats my workaround aswell for now. Anyway I still like to print - for example - Soprano only and Alto only. If only Alto has the lyrics written, “Soprano only” has no lyrics at all. Then I have to temporary copy Alto Lyrics to Soprano and remove it afterwards, which is kinda annoying. I mean I don’t have to do it on a daily basis, but it it feels unnecessarily annoying to do.
As a former singer and chorus member, I would never consider singing choral music from (say) an Alto “lead sheet.” Needless to say, one can do whatever one wants with one’s music and it will be nice when Dorico can accommodate that.
It serves more as a compact “cheat sheet” and does not work for all pieces. Recently we had one with almost zero rests and quite alot of text. In this case such a sheet was preferred by many of us. At the end it comes down to indivudual preference and I always provide the condensed SA/TB versions anyway. The lead sheets are not mandatory, but nice to have.