Been a user for 2 days. Just had a lesson. It will take me time, I believe that I will enjoy the increased power of this amazing program
Apologies about repeating this question, but since I now had a lesson, I have more clarity and I’m told this is not possible, so I’m mentioning again
Question about meter.
If I want to change one bar to a different meter, it changes all future bars. I’d then have to (additionally) restate a new meter in the following bar. This is cumbersome. And would seem basic that a new meter would be automatically be restated
Similarly about key sig.
Lets say I have a 2 bar phrase that I repeat for another 2 bars. Its in Bb. So 4 bars of music. I then want to change only the first 2 bars to G. One would think that Bb would automatically be re-stated. Does not not happen. Bars 3 and 4 remain In Bb with added accidentals. I would thing that by only changing signature for the first 2 bars, the original one (Bb) would automatically be restated on bar 3
I get the workaround, First restate key and meter in the next bar, but still…
One great thing in Dorico is that changing meters is completely non-destructive of the notation. Just add the desired meter in the following bar and all will be back as it was.
Another approach: Turn on insert mode – the 4th icon, “global adjustment of current bar”. Then when you add or delete notes or rests in a bar, Dorico changes its meter and restores the prevailing meter in the following bar, all at once.
I usually restate the meter or signature I want to maintain in the following bar(s) first, and then add the new meter or key signature in between. All using the popovers. It takes seconds… I am not familiar with how Finale handles this but I assume you would need to tell the software either way where you want something to begin and end, so setting your boundary first via popovers might be helpful.
Ty. That’s what I figured. I’ll just have to get used to it. An additional issue is that if I change a 4/4 bar to 2/4 it will give me 2 bars of 2/4 and then I have to delete extra bar.
Ah ok – but you would still need to tell the software how many bars you want the change for no? It obviously can’t just guess for you. Perhaps if that is the case, maybe the Dorico devs could add syntax to the time signature popover, something like entering “3/4,1m” as in 1 measure. Could be a fast and handy way to change a single measure (or however many you enter) while leaving the others as the surrounding or initial time signature? Curious if that is similar to the expected behavior.
Right, in Sibelius you click the bar and hold shift + click another bar so that it affects bars in that range, and then change the time signature. I’m not going to say it’s easy to implement, but seems fairly reasonable to assume it isn’t difficult. “3/4,1m” looks fine too
No worries – The popovers (available via logical keyboard shortcuts) are pretty handy and some of them allow for additional syntax. The popover for time signatures is shift+M, where at its basic level you can type in your new time signature (and yes, it will affect the selected bar and all forward). You can also type in two signatures with a + for alternating sigs. For pickup bars, you can type stuff like “4/4,1” which would give you a measure in 4/4 with just 1 quarter note etc).
So by that logical extension, what I meant above is that perhaps one could type in “5/4,2m” (or some similar method) to mean: create a new time signature of 5/4, for two measures (and thus after two measures it would rebar with the signature that you had before). Or in your example, “2/4,1m” would give you one bar at 2/4. I think something in this wheelhouse could scratch that itch perhaps. Of course I’m just spitballing here, the Dorico team will likely find a better way to implement this.
But for now re-barring your boundary using the popover does only take a few seconds. Hope that helps.
(EDIT: corrected above from “shift+T” which is for tempo popover!)
Worth noting, when discussing process of meter changes, that you can also add/delete partial measures with Shift+B (insert mode can get messy with multiple staves). Type in “1/2” or “1/4” to add half or quarter note worth of space, “-1/2” or “-1/4” to delete.
Yikes, right you are – I have mild dyslexia and in spite of years in Dorico I make this mistake frequently. My only complaint about the popovers is while they do make perfect logical sense they can also confuse my brain, because I will think “time” and go with T. And then other times I’ve thought “I want a trill” or “tremolo” and literally do the same thing lol. “No not that T, that T!” Crossing wires over here
But don’t want to scare OP on that haha. They’re awesome when unlike me you actually pay attention!
Just this evening I was working on a little piece and needed to add a time signature of 5/4 for one measure in a piece which is otherwise in 4/4. I figured I might as well screen record my typical process in case that is helpful not only for OP but anyone else who finds this thread with a similar question. You’ll see that yes it takes perhaps a couple clicks beyond what you are used to but all in all I completed the task a few seconds.
(FYI this is using the shift+M popover as described above, and notice that I turn on insert mode before adding 5/4)
“T for three