How to apply slurs to similar phrases

Hi there,

Old Sibelius user here contemplating jumping to Dorico. One thing I do is import MIDI from my projects and then add articulation markings later. In Sebelius, I would use the scripts to help with applying (say) slurs to all similar phrases.

For example, how would I make all the measures after the first have the same slur markings as this first measure without tedious mousing?

Thanks for any help.

Cheers,

Andrew K

Andrew, you could select both slurs, then copy.
Then jump to the first note of each bar and paste.

Thanks k_b!!

Yeah… that’s what I consider “mousy”. Is there a more automated (lazy) way that analyzes the note patterns and applies the slur to “Similar”?

Thanks.

Cheers,

Andrew K

Maybe a better example would be this one… this would be tedious:

Any easy way to do this?

Thanks.

Cheers,

Andrew K

The short answer is “no”: there’s no way of doing what you want to do in one fell swoop.

You could very easily get one bar right, then repeat it and repitch the notes, then copy down.

You could temporarily put the passage in 2/4 then select a bar at a time then slur then copy down.

Whichever way you approach it, some element of it is going to be tedious.

Thanks pianoleo!

Darn… I was hoping for something more automated and less prone to human error.

What do Doirico users run the “Scripts” menu for?

Cheers,

Andrew K

As yet the script menu is basically undocumented, because the functionality is incomplete.

Dorico’s navigation by keyboard is fairly reliable though, so in a situation like this you could select the first note, click the record script button, then (I think) type Shift-Right x 3 S Right Shift/Right x2 S Right Right, End Recording Script, then hit whatever key you’ve assigned to Run Last Script, a few times.

But obviously, once you get to a bar that isn’t a four then a three, you’re going to end up slurring the wrong notes.

Thanks again pianoleo!!

Also, I have to admit (perhaps shamefully) that I depend on quite a few Sibelius scripts: Respell accidentals flats to sharps (and vice versa), Slurs (similar), etc. Do former Sibelius users miss these that much? Or does Dorico have alternate solutions or workflows that ultimately negate the use of these scripts. As someone who only uses notation software as the last step (everything else is done on a sequencer) and imports MIDI, I’m wondering how other former Sibelius users are feeling.

I may start another thread about this… but will search the archives first.

P.S. I hate subscription models… that’s another reason I’m looking at Dorico.

Cheers,

Andrew K

I’m mostly responsible for the Dorico Notation Express Stream Deck profile: the only reason I mention that is that one of the things I implemented in that was Respell Flats as Sharps and Respell Sharps as Flats. Dorico has factory filters for filtering sharp notes or flat notes, and explicit shortcuts for respelling upwards or downwards. It was a matter of a few seconds’ work to string a filter command and a respell command together.

You could easily achieve the same thing with Dorico’s own scripting (and note that you can save scripts with unique names so they show up in the Scripts menu, and assign shortcuts to them directly) or via Keyboard Maestro, Auto Hotkey or similar.

I don’t often tidy up MIDI in Dorico, but generally speaking my arranging and engraving workflow is substantially quicker in Dorico than in 16 years of Sibelius use (starting in the Acorn days), even without plugins.

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Brilliant!! I have a Stream Deck XL!!

Also thanks for your thoughtful answer!

I found a solution. Not horrible. I hope this forum accepts GIFs. The trick is to select the rest too when selecting the slurs:

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Oh that’s a good shout - well done!

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Fixed my crap gif

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This is great news. Sort of like Nuendo’s/Cubase’s Macros?

I guess (having just looked at the Cubase documentation). At the moment the UI doesn’t exist for it, though, so it’s a case of recording the steps, then going into the user data folder (~/Library/Application Support/Steinberg/Dorico 3.5 on Mac and %appdata%\Steinberg\Dorico 3.5 on Windows), finding the usermacro you just recorded, and saving as something useful.

Ahaa…

So it’s NOT like Cubendo. :slight_smile:

No worries. If running Dorico Macros is smart enough to wait for the system/software to complete tasks… that’s most important for me. Of course… Dorico devs, please give use a graceful way to save Macros :wink:

Thanks for all your help. Back to testing!

Cheers,

Andrew K

But if you want to do things like filtering followed by respelling on your Stream Deck, that’s just a case of assigning key commands for each of those things (from Preferences > Key Commands), then setting up a multi in Stream Deck that fires those two keyboard shortcuts in quick succession.

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Gotcha. Also I use Keyboard Maestro a lot… so I have options. But of course native solutions are the best. That said… I like what I’m seeing so far. Just got to get used to things. :grinning:

@Thonex, you could save yourself even a couple more mouse clicks, by clicking on the beam instead of shift-click the last note in the beamed group.

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Brilliant!! That’s a nice touch!

Is there a mouse-modifier key to double-click and select an entire stave? Or from selected note or bar to end of score?
Cheers,

Andrew K

No. Edit > Select to End of Flow is a thing, though, and you could assign a shortcut to it.
Select More (Cmd-Shift-A) is also extremely useful, though probably not in this situation. It selects more of whatever type of object is selected, initially within the same bar, then if you type it again the same system, then across the whole flow.

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