Can I insert some bars of an other time signature without messing up everything that follows?
Here’s one approach. Let’s say you have music in 2/4, and between bars 10 and 11 you want to insert 4 bars of 3/4.
- Select the barline at the start of m.11 and insert a (redundant) 2/4 time signature
- With the new time sig still selected (or select again the barline), do Shift+B,
6, Enter to insert 6 bars of 2/4. - Select the barline at the start of the new m.11 and insert a 3/4 time signature
Note that 6 bars x 2/4 = 4 bars x 3/4. Dorico only rebars measures up to the next explicit time signature, so the 2/4 inserted in the first step will prevent later bars from being affected.
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This doesn’t work. Unfortunately Dorico makes the last bar before the old signature become a not empty shorter bar
Ok, I made it work, but only if the first bar of the old signature, so after the inserted bars, it totally empty. Why is this?
In your example this also happens: you make the calculations before: 6 bars 2/4 become 4 bars 3/4. I have an issue where I can’t do that calculations, because it will becaume numbers higher then 1000 I think. I want to insert 3 bars in 27/16-time into a 9/8-passage
That makes me have to do tremendous calculations, I can’t imagine there isn’t a way to avoid this.
This is what I mean by “having to do calculus instead of music” sometimes in Dorico. @Janus didn’t agree with me in the Alla Breve-topic. He may agree with me now.
You could insert 1 bar, set it to 27/16 with Insert Mode, and add 2 bars from this point.
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Waauw! Thanks! This is why we do need insert mode, though it’s extremely dangerous. Thanks Charles! And thanks Aaron too!
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True! Note that once the Time Signature is created, I switch it off.
Also: i’m using the Global submode in my demo, but it should work with any other mode for a Time Signature.
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I strongly disagree. It is no more dangerous than (say) driving a car.
If you experiment and practice using the different insert modes (including remembering to switch it off!), it will soon become easy.
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I could have imagined that, Janus. You don’t agree with Dorico asking me to calculate things, and your opinion about this insert-thingy is that I should pay better attention. I don’t agree with you. I’m a creative person and have extreme difficulties “just paying attantion”. I know you can’t imagine that. Be grateful, not everyone is as perfect as you. I’m glad some people here on this forum feel the way I do, so I don’t feel stupid.
We all feel stupid at times. I’m just suggesting that tools might require practice to become proficient. Just as musicians expect to practice their instruments. “Being creative” is no excuse.
Allright. I’m sorry for being too sensitive about this, maybe. I’ll just suggest that if a lot of users have the same experience over and over again regarding the insert mode, and see no other solution then to disable the I shortcut and learning not to use insert mode at all, the development team might want to consider that there’s something a little bit less optimal then they had in mind. And might change some things.
I’m not a mathematician so having to calculate how many bars I have to insert before changing the time signature is not what I have in mind when using a creative tool. True: one has to practice to play an instrument. But unlike the clarinet where it’s hard to perform some trills, or a trumpet where the high register is difficult to tame, Dorico is not an ancient unchangeable institute. We can ask the makers to make our lives easier. And they listen and sometimes make the changes we request. Advising to practice more is the only way to eventually make me a better trumpet player, because physically making the trumpet easier to play is not really possible (to a certain level). Dorico has some strange features that might work better when altered. Our suggestions can help.
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I was an engineer (so I too cannot count). I just guess how much space is needed. Insert (say) 30 bars, then delete the ones I don’t need. It’s two shift-B operations. Dorico keeps track of everything, so nothing is lost.
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