Very new to Dorico, (version 5.1.10.2081) and have not yet committed to purchase. I’ve transcribed about four lead sheet songs. On file attached, rhythm and meter vary, can’t figure out what I did to have this garbled like this. If you do playback you’ll note some of the eighth notes are irregular, then a set of lines appear to be in double time. Help!
How was this entered into Dorico? Did you load in a MIDI file? Play it in yourself?
This plays back exactly as it exists in the key editor rather than as notated and seems impervious to Reset Playback Overrides. When changed from unmeasured barring, the music does not fall into 4/4 but rather 2/4 or 3/4 measures.
Welcome to the forum, @overland.casey. The problem here is that you’ve removed a lot of the rests between the notes using Edit > Remove Rest. I can imagine why you did it this way, but what that does is remove the rest graphically while keeping the musical time that the rest occupied. What I think you really want to do is close up the gaps between the notes, which you can do using Insert mode.
Check out the documentation on Insert mode:
This misunderstanding has led you down a bit of an unfortunate rabbit hole, as it’s forced you to add barlines manually, instead of the music flowing nicely in 4/4 as it’s meant to. I’ve deleted all the manual barlines and recreated a 4/4 time signature with a quaver (eighth) pick-up, and here’s the revised project.
Well kudos to you and thank you for the quick response and the file correction!
Much to learn, the 900+ pages of the pdf manual a bit daunting indeed. Of the dozens of music software on the market, difficult to know which direction to take. I only know I have not tolerated MuseScore interface well and knew I had to move on.
Straight up question, looking for honest answer: I am no where near transcribing complicated music, or multi-instrument, orchestral scoring. At best, SATB, and maybe a piano accompaniment. Of all the myriad of music writing offerings out there in web-land, in your opinion is Dorico the best fit for my needs?
Regards, Casey Overland
Although I am partial to Dorico, I used Finale for decades. The truth is that any of the Big 3 notation programs will allow you to notate well, but all will also require you to learn the in’s and out’s of the program and to develop your own workflow.
I strongly recommend you take the time to work through the First Steps Project.