Longtime Finale user looking for the Dorico equivalent of a delete function:
In Finale, there was a function {SHIFT + i} that when pressed while in simple or speedy entry, you could insert notes and it would shift notes already entered notes to the right.
I’m aware that Dorico has an insert mode that you are able to toggle on and off for this same function of “inserting” notes. Importantly, Finale also allowed for when you would hit backspace repeatedly, it would delete notes to the RIGHT of the cursor. But when using insert mode in Dorico, hitting ‘delete’ only removes the notes on the LEFT, shifting all existing notes to the left. Does anyone know how to achieve this same effect in Dorico of deleting the notes to the RIGHT of your cursor?
(Example: if your cursor is on beat 3 in a 4/4 measure of 8th notes, you hit backspace 4 times, giving you a half rest on beats 3 & 4 while still having 8th notes on beats 1 & 2.)
Welcome to the forum. Unfortunately I can’t think of an equivalent to what you’re describing. This is likely one of those “acclimate to a new way of working” cases, sorry!
Is this what you’re looking to do? I deleted all notes to the right in both normal and insert mode…
Dorico’s Caret works very much like a traditional word processor cursor which I think is great. However, on many modern keyboards (I blame Apple) there has been a conflation about backspace and delete.
On my keyboard (mac), if I tap what is traditionally the backspace key (which Apple has decided to rename ‘delete’), the caret tool will delete notes to the left; whereas if I hit the actual ‘delete’ key, indeed you can delete notes to the right too.
Wing that is super helpful, and exactly what I was wondering about, thank you! My MacBook Pro doesn’t have this additional ‘Delete’ that is circled in blue. But at least now I know that it’s possible, perhaps with a different keyboard. Much appreciated!
Oh yeah, I don’t own a laptop but it does not surprise me! Does your laptop have the ‘Fn’ key or did Apple get rid of that one too (lol)? Because as far as I remember Fn+‘backspace’ should act like the forward delete.
It does! I just tried “Fn + backspace” and it deleted the notes in front of the cursor. Perfect, this is a life-saver. I use notation software for creating drum transcriptions for a company, so I constantly need to swap individual notes or groups of notes quickly and insert new ones in their place.
Off-topic and you may have already discovered this but another massive time-saver when it comes to percussion is to enable “single staff instruments” under Layout Options > Players > Percussion. I couldn’t imagine doing complex syncopated work without the ability for granular control; and then I turn it back to grid or 5-line as needed for publishing.
Oh yes I discovered that as well and should’ve mentioned it - in order for this to be effective as deleting from the Caret’s position, no notes must be selected, otherwise Dorico will delete selected notes which could be anywhere!
I appreciate the tip! I deal primarily with drum set, so everything is already on a single staff, if that’s what you’re meaning. I use an Ableton Push to input notes into Finale/Dorico. The syncopation isn’t a problem when all voices are set to go upwards and are unified. There are only at maximum 4 limbs at the same time and I have 5 fingers
(edit: I wonder if maybe I originally had intended my first comment for another thread, but since you asked…)
What I was referring to is that you can change the view settings of your kit for different use cases, from everything “condensed” if you will onto a single staff:
That’s all the same exact kit, just basically increasing expansion of view if you will, like “zooming” into the kit. I prefer to write with the last option because you have a lot more flexibility to do complex and nuanced syncopation, as well as individual dynamics. For example on a 5-line staff it can be really difficult and confusing to separate your kick from your snare, tom rolls, and hat, without accidentally selecting the wrong part or having to constantly switch to new voices (which also makes it easy to forget which voice is which). And also with a 5-line staff, you cannot have unique dynamics. As a drummer myself I like my cymbals to be a little quieter than the drums personally, so let’s say I have my kick and snare set to mf, I could set my hi-hat and crash to p, or whatever. This is actually not possible to do on the 5-line single staff.
However, the single-line instrument view would be annoying to print or prepare parts, so when I’m ready for final presentation I will change the view setting back to a normal 5-line staff to re-consolidate everything back to take up less space.
If you’d like to play around with this for yourself, see Layout Options > Players > Percussion (available only when you have an active kit in the project).
Interesting, thanks for this information! I wasn’t aware that you can switch each individual part of the drum set onto individual lines. It would be useful for assigning individual dynamic markings for different elements of the kit for midi mockups of music.
I primarily use notation for drum transcription work for a company and use an Ableton Push to assign notes onto the drum staff. It works well because on occasion I need to notate a LF bass drum, cowbell, splash cymbal or multiple extra toms. It gets to be like second nature with finding the correct notes quickly when your fingers can landmark using a midi device, so there’s really no fishing around or nudging notes up or down
