How to playback fermata and caesura properly?

Dorico
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1

Hello,
Well, my question is precisely this: How can you achieve a proper playback of both fermatas and caesuras?

Is there any “hidden” menu? Has it to be implemented yet?

Also, can you add a fermata in the barline? (which should work like a caesura)

This is how I would like to play them in my score:
Fermatas: double the value of the note (more or less, the best solution would be to be able to modify the duration)
Caesuras: a pause, like 1 second or so (again, the best solution would be to be able to set the duration myself).

I come from Sibelius which does play this kind of things, but I don’t know how to make them work in Dorico.

Thanks in advance.

2

There is no implementation of playback for Holds and Pauses yet.

You can lengthen a fermata by creating a tempo change in the Play mode Tempo lane.

You can also reduce the Playback length of a note in the Properties panel: “Playback end offset”. Try values of hundreds.

The Properties panel for Fermatas has an “Assign to barline” switch.

2 Likes
3

Thanks for this very helpful advice, benwiggy! Doubt I would have found it on my own.

4

hidden tempo changes are also an essential if you want to vary the pauses between flows as Dorico hasn’t implemented this yet. As long as you have even a crochet or so at the end of the flow, you can set something like q =10 to 20 to make a nice break between flows when the default is set to 0.

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A crochet? Or a crochet rest to extend the between-flow gap?

6

a crochet rest will normally be the easiest but I guess you need to be creative sometimes to keep a nice score layout

7

You can simply draw in the tempo change at the end of the flow and control the played durations of any notes that last until the end of the flow in Play mode, surely.

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8

yes, if there’s no space at all, I’ll usually finish up with something like that. Of course if the music in the next flow doesn’t begin on the first beat, that provides another option – the tempo marking can be put in there.

9

That works for extending the final note (a la fermata) but not if one wants to extend the silence between flows. Take for example a Broadway musical where some flows need to segue immediately into the next flow (song to song or song to scene change) while others need a longer pause. Eventually, no doubt, the development team will enable this, but until then we were discussing work-arounds. For fermatas one can slow the tempo; for caesura or a longer gap between flows, one needs a rest before one can extend the silence. Adding a hidden rest to extend seems the best option so far.

1 Like
10

Yes, that’s why I included mention of shortening the played duration of the last note in a flow if it extends to the very end, such that the note can stop sounding but the flow isn’t yet finished. Probably you would want to reduce the tempo prior to the note’s played duration ending so it still sounds for long enough but with a gap afterwards. This is of course still a manual method.

11

Good idea. Thank you.

12

I was hoping for some advanced options here as well (Dorico 4)
I’m a little reluctant to add hacks like tempo-changes when composing.

13

Add only the symbol(s) while you are composing; then go back later to make adjustments in the tempo as you proof and polish.