How can I globally change format for instrument names in the score/Layout names and make them "stick"?

I’ve been importing a bunch of big band charts into Dorico via MusicXML. Whenever I do, I find myself each and every time needing to manually (in setup) change every single instrument’s default display of the instrument’s transposition (as in the attached image):


by clicking on the individual instruments on the left in Setup (Players), choosing “Edit Names”, changing “Show transposition” (at bottom) to “Never”, and then choosing “Save as default for instrument” (since I don’t wish the instrument’s transposition to be visible in the instrument names in the score).

Similarly, I would prefer that the actual Layout names (down the right in Setup Mode) be displaying in all caps, with the transposition as part of the name (such as “Eb ALTO SAX 1”). So I again find myself having to then manually change that info each time I import a new score as well.

Is there any way to automate this process? I would have thought that for the first problem, choosing “Save as default for that instrument” (as I’ve been doing when I go through each instrument individually) would mean that the next time I opened another chart in another session that ALSO used “Alto Sax 1”, it would default to spelling it without the transposition as part of the name (as I’d already specified and saved as default), but this hasn’t been the case - I’ve had to change every instrument manually every time regardless, all over again.

And as far as the Layout names, I have read that the workaround is to open an existing project for big band that has things set up the way I like, and then import the new Dorico flow in question INTO the existing project as another Flow, and then choose “Merge instrument names”, etc. However, when I do this, the program fails to identify and use the existing instruments I’ve already set up, which makes that approach essentially not useful.

Thanks for any suggestions as far as how to open a NEW big band chart and as easily as possible retain the naming conventions and Layout names from previous charts!

Thanks -

This is off the cuff - I don’t do this sort of thing much - but I wonder if this might work.

  1. Set Layout Options > Staves and Systems > Staff Labels in such a way that the transposition is never shown. Save as Default.
  2. Set up your default instrument names in such a way that they manually include the transpositions (and note that as of Dorico 3 you can use {@flat@}, for instance).
  3. Delete any existing flow and save as a template for future use.
  4. When you import your MusicXML in, go through each instrument in the left panel, and Change Instrument. Replace whatever’s imported in with your default definitions.

I don’t think you can do anything about the Layout names as shown in the right panel of Setup mode, but if you were prepared to put up with the names not being capitalised, you could replace {@LayoutName@} on the part master pages with {@staffLabelsFull@} - that way the layout name on the page will match the staff labels. (This is new in Dorico 3).

Thanks, Leo - I’ll try what you suggest. Needless to say, I’m hopeful that something like the above will also become generally easier in a future update (I know they’ve been talking about the equivalent of being able to import a Sibelius like “House Style”, for example, which would probably be the ticket for a situation like mine)…

  • D.D.

Another thing you could try is setup your template just the way you want, then import (File>Import>MusicXML) the XML and select Merge with existing players when possible. I haven’t tested this but hopefully it will keep your template settings.

Craig, if you read to the end of the OP, you’ll see that he’s already tried that.