Attached below is a screenshot of a bar resulting from a MusicXML import from a client’s MuseScore file. As per subject, I want all the highlighted notes to go into the same voice, but the only Voice options I can find are ‘Stem up’ or ‘Stem down’ - nothing I can see that allows the notes to share the same voice, and have the default stem direction be chosen by Dorico.
I was also not able to fix this for the first three quaver pulses by ‘Swap Voice Order’ to swap concomitant stem directions. Of course, I could just reinput everything, or by move notes up and down voices until it looks right, but I’d prefer a method approach.
Is there an equivalent option to Sibelius, where you select notes and then press Opt 1, 2, 3 or 4, to force the selection into that voice?
Select the notes > right-click > Voices (I think?) > Change Voice.
Pressing V will alternate the notes between the existing voices.
You can also set a custom key command to change notes to a particular voice. Mine is Alt+1 for Up-stem Voice 1 and Alt+2 for Down-stem Voice 1.
The voices need to already exist in the flow to be able to do this. If they don’t, pressing Shift+V will move the notes to the “next” voice, alternating between creating new up and down-stem voices.
That’s the problem - in Sibelius, the stem direction is mandated by whether the notes in the beamed group are summatively above or below the middle line. In my OP, in Sibelius, if I pressed Opt 1, they would all go to Voice 1, and beam in a group of three, with the stem direction governed by the rule, that in this instance would result in stems down.
I just want all the notes in pulse 4,5,6 to be the same voice, and for Dorico to sort out the summative stem direction, be that up or down. Of course I can do this myself, but I was hoping for an equivalent to the Sibelius behaviour as described.
Thanks, that behaved as you suggested, however I am not sure what Voices > Swap Voice Order is supposed to do, as nothing happened when I selected it.
I already had keybinding set for Remove Rests - most useful command. I have the bar sorted now, as per sequence in screenshots below.
Thanks, and yes, ‘upstem Voice 1’ seems a misnomer if normal flipping applies when it’s the only voice, although I can see the difficulty in adding verbose ‘unless only voice’ to that menu option.
This is to do with how Dorico places interlocking notes in voices horizontally e.g. If you want Up-stem Voice 1 to be on the inside or outside of the Down-stem Voice 1 etc… This function is only usable in Engrave mode (according to the manual).
From the manual: Dorico Pro automatically positions notes with the noteheads partially overlapping, in order to minimize the horizontal space they occupy and maintain the clarity of the rhythm. You can manually swap the order in which opposing voices are positioned horizontally. You can do this for the current layout and frame chain only, or for all layouts and frame chains.
Does this make sense?
I think what you’re looking for is Swap Voice Contents?
So many words and pictures for such a simple situation. All Derek needed to do was:
Select the whole bar, ⌘-click to deselect the lone eighth note
Hit V
Select and remove the dotted quarter rest
In both Sibelius and Dorico, stem directions apply only in the presence of another voice. In Sib you hide the rest; in Dorico you remove it. That’s all.
In my experience some of this kind of exhaustive back & forth can be avoided by reading the OP’s question carefully. (Admittedly, in this case it also helps to know Sibelius well.)
