Large Time Signatures between Brass and Strings

Dorico
1

I’m doing up a template and have run into trouble with large time signatures:

“Instruments between brass and strings: Treat as single bracket” doesn’t seem to be working for me. I’ve also tried putting all the players into one group and deselecting this option to no avail.

I did a search on here for similar topics but, unless I’ve missed something, all the previous advice doesn’t seem to be working for me.

Project is attached. Layout is FULL SCORE
Template.dorico (877.9 KB)

2

Not a solution, but an observation…
Certain instruments are obviously considered invalid for this “between brass and strings” group … I tried to build a score manually, one instrument at a time, and as soon as I added an electric organ it was placed above the harp (when auto sorting set to orchestral), and both the el organ and the harp were given individual time signatures… If I dragged the organ below the harp, the harp was given back to the “between” group…

I would assume there are xml files that can be edited to change this behavior, but the easiest is probably to add “legitimate” instruments and rename them…

3

How weird!

I’ve just been fooling around with that file.

I’ve found that if I delete BOTH Keyboard II and III (and only that combination)
OR
if I drag BOTH of those players anywhere between Percussion I and Timpani…

…the time signatures go back to as that should be.

It does seem to be something to do with the order of players.

EDIT:
I’ve delete those two players and replaced with two Piano players (renamed to Keyboard II and III), dragged them below Keys I, and all is good.

4

The reason this is behaving oddly is because the Synthesizer and Electric Piano instruments are both in the Electronics family as well as the Keyboards family, and Dorico is (for better or worse) imagining that Electronics go below Strings. We should change this, since in fact in the new default instrument score order in Dorico 4, Electronics goes above Strings.

For the time being, as you’ve found, using piano instead of synth or electric piano will work.

2 Likes
5

Thanks Daniel…

While on this topic, what do you (or anyone else reading this) think of being able to choose the quantity of time signatures in a system of a score - rather than just once per bracket?.

eg for my full score, entering a number and then this number of signatures would be spread evenly from top to bottom.

The reason I’d like this is because I’d love to have a signature at the top as well as spread evenly down the score. Currently, if I select “position at top of brackets” in engrave mode, there ends up with a big gap between brass and the strings (unless there’s is a small to medium number of staves between them).

6

I would love the option to “anchor” the top of the large time signature to specific staves, knowing it would hang over several staves below the anchored one.

7

I know that there are certainly some other options for large time signatures that might be desirable in future. We don’t have any immediate plans in this area, but I can certainly imagine us adding further options in due course.

2 Likes