How to edit choral template: problem default outputs Alto Tenor1 Tenor2 Baritone

Hi.
If you don’t mind, could you explain what your problem is? I know a picture is worth 1000 words, but here, we might need a sentence or two…
Don’t you have the Choral templates (SATB+piano)? Building another template from there would be as easy as changing instruments in Setup mode and saving as a new template, but I’m not sure that’s what you’re after.

Oh Marc: so appreciative of your quick response.
So, these are the steps I carry out:
From the Hub screen, I select Create New
From “Choose a Template” I select Choral
Subsequent to selecting ‘Choral Template’, I select
Choir SATB with piano
I then Click

What displays is :

“Untitled Project”
Stave 1 : Alto
Stave 2: Tenor1
Stave 3: TenorII
Stave 4 Baritone
Grouped Stave Piano
I have been trying so many different ways to edit this default template but the above-listed continually remains the default. How may I fix this, so that I get what I requested, i.e. ‘Choral Template’ :
Choir SATB with piano
Michael
p.s .I am new at this amazing software, and perhaps I unknowingly modified Dorico’s Choral Template. Even so, it would sure be appreciated if it could be set to SATB.

Not sure why you get something different.

If I look at your screenshot, I notice that you probably changed/edited the instrument names only.
For a new start:
What happens, if you from the Hub screen choose the Choir SATB with Organ template? I’ll ask, because you have not edited that one yet.

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Hi Marc:
Choral / SATB Organ output:
Alto Tenor I Tenor II Baritone Organ

Choral / SATB unaccompanied output:
Alto Tenor I Tenor II Baritone

Choral / SATB piano output :
Alto Tenor I Tenor II Baritone

I also tried Choral Choir SAB with Piano, to see what occurs:
Alto Tenor Baritone
It seems to me that somewhere Soprano has been mapped to but where?
My investigations travelled as outlined below:

I could not find a configuration in Dorico Preferences for this mapping of choral singers.
The only other place I had thought might be affecting this is under Library: Instruments (by families) i.e, Singers
There were some anomalies there, which I edited.
Now Choral SATB Templates output the following:
Choral SATB with Organ:
Alto Tenor I Tenor II Baritone Organ
Choral SATB with Piano
Alto Tenor I Tenor II Baritone Piano
Choral SAB with Piano
Alto Tenor Baritone

So this suggests at least that there is a mapping problem with Soprano.
However, when I went back to the Library to look at some of the anomalies I changed, I found that they were back to what was there, even though I had edited a change and click OK . For example, Alto (in score) continually changes the “singular full name” back to Tenor, even though I edited the
“Singular Full Name” to Alto and click OK. The same problem is occurring with Soprano (in score). The edit of the Full Name in Soprano goes back to ALTO.

I forgot to state my Dorico Pro 5 details:
Version 5.1.81.2225 (Jan 16 2025)
iMac Montery 12.7.6
So appreciative of your assist Marc.
Michael Abrams

With this sort of strange mistakes I would also check your HD for possible failure. If you could run First Aid in Disc Utility and see, if you get a result…

Michael, try quitting Dorico, then in the Finder, choose Go > Go To Folder from the menu bar, and paste in the following path, being sure to include the tilde (~) at the beginning:

~/Library/Application Support/Steinberg/Dorico 5

Now you should see a file called userlibrary.xml. Temporarily drag this out of that location, e.g. to your desktop.

Restart Dorico and create a new project based on the choir template: are all the instrument names now correct?

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Brilliant solution, and with such clear navigation.

Thank you Daniel.
I am so happy to have this problem resolved. I have tested all Choral Templates and they by default now display as one would expect.

The solution also includes the mapping of ‘instrument names’ for singers, under “Filter by Family”, as they now display correctly under Library/Instruments/Filter by Family/Singers.

A shout out to Marc Larcher, for his balanced approach to support.

My issue was difficult to explain, for me, since I have only been using this application for a few months.
Now I can start from a Template that makes clear sense, for which I am grateful.

May I ask you, as a digression to this ticket, what exactly is
‘Voice’, as opposed to ‘Singer’, in the Application?
Thanks again y’all.
Michael

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If you’re talking about in the instrument picker, “singers” is the name we’ve given to the family of voice instruments (though perhaps we should have used “voices”!), while “voice” is the name of one of the voice instruments, a generic one that doesn’t imply a particular range.

“Voice” is a tricky word, since it is an overloaded term. It is commonly used to mean both the human voice, and also an individual stream of notes or chords in a polyphonic texture. Dorico itself uses the word “voice” in both contexts.

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Hi Michael. I’m glad it’s sorted out. Daniel Spreadbury is clearly the best source for advice you could get here, no wonder he found out what the issue was ^^
Another tip: the fact that userlibrary was the culprit shows that you probably have been experiencing with changing instruments’ names (singers’ names here) and the Save as Default button. No problem, making mistakes is part of the natural process of learning! But I am pointing this out, to make sure you are aware this Save as default can create unwanted behavior :wink:

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