I purchased Dorico today and have been messing around with it, but to my disappointment Dorico does not seem, based on my brief experience, to have any way to hide noteheads, stems, or beams, modify note spacing. I realize there is a graphics engine in the works, but not being able to hide and move elements in the music really makes this software useless to me (It would take forever to do this in illustrator). Also, I do not mind taking my scores into illistrator to create graphics, I just do not want to have to remove stems, note-heads, beams, and re-space notes every time I make a major revision to a score. If I am wrong about these things please let me know!
So I guess I would like to know how soon some of there changes will be implemented and if they will not be implemented soon is there any way I could return the product because without any way to create custom notation I am unable to notate my music in a way I feel is meaningful for performance.
That said, I think the work you guys have done is quite beautiful and I think it will truly change how devs think about music notation software. I really do enjoy the program, I just cannot work in an environment that so geared towards common practice notation.
I have also attached an example of some not so complex notation that I unable to achieve in Dorico.
I’m sure this is a huge disappointment for you. I don’t know the answer to your question directly, whether this can or cannot be done. But I can tell you these guys spent 4 YEARS developing this software to handle just this sort of oddball thing with elegance and grace. I’ve never heard of software being in development for this long. The planning phase alone took months, before they wrote any code. They have developed an incredible foundation here to handle all sorts of amazing and esoteric things as time goes on.
As Daniel himself has pointed out, this initial release is kind of a stripped-down “bare bones” version that includes only the most important basic functionality (“important” as defined for the common musician). However this team I am certain is absolutely dedicated to fleshing this thing out. I don’t fault you for not being happy, but if at all possible I would urge you to consider hanging in there for awhile whilst they patch initial bugs and then get down to the business of really adding deeper and more complete functionality to the program. I wouldn’t count on it fully replacing your existing workflow just yet, but give it time.
i agree whith that, i am just a littlle bit disappointed, by this soft which i a good demo , but not at all efficient for a good work at this time
279 euros ??, it is not very serious!
jean louis chastaing
Not sure why someone would add notes and then want to hide them. It sounds as if someone is trying to use Dorico as if it were an older program.
Daniel has mention regarding unwanted rests that appear with cross-staff notes that the goal is not to have users hide the rest but to refine the paradigm so the program recognizes the cross-staff situation and hides the rest automatically.
So it is possible that a note needs to be written and then hidden, or it could be that one is trying to superimpose old habits in a way that is fighting rather than using the program–either as it is or as it will (or needs to) be.
Wanting to hide particular note heads is a pretty standard notational practice across contemporary scores, regardless of the engraving software being used. It functions in a few ways - for example by creating a cleaner layout for a densely repeated gesture which does not require the repetition of the specific pitches so much as the rhythm, or for creating a clean line through a rhythmically notated glissando between a starting and ending pitch.
It would be a huge waste of money for folks who rely on these notational devices (which can currently be achieved in both Sibelius and Finale with little issue) if there were no plans to incorporate them into Dorico in a future (and free) update.
Really hoping to hear from the Development Team on this one!
Dorico doesn’t yet have proper support for stemless notes, I’m afraid, though it’s coming soon. You can achieve the appropriate graphical result by selecting the notes whose stems you want to hide and then reducing their length in Engrave mode via the Properties panel.
Thanks Daniel. Cool. Of course you guys are on it, glad to hear that you’re still attending to lots of matters and aiming to make the program fantastic. It already is, but I can see it getting even bettter. I’m getting more comfortable and quicker with the software. Learning curve is friendlier than expected.
Cheers to you and your team.
Very satisfied customer, and happy that I made the switch.
