Hi, brand new here to Dorico and the forum. When adding a tab staff to the treble staff using the mandolin instrument, it uses a 6 string sized clef. The tab staff clef seems to be unchangeable. Every time I select 4 string tab clef, it changes the treble staff clef and leaves a 6 string sized clef on the tab staff. I would like a standard notation treble clef and a 4 string tab clef. Is this possible?
Welcome to the forum, @KTat. You can change the default clef used for an instrument in Library > Instruments. (This feature requires Dorico Pro.)
Thank you for the quick reply. I do have pro 5. Unfortunately Library>Instruments only changes the clef on the 5 line standard notation staff for me. That works fine. When selecting standard notation and tablature from the layout window, the 4 line mandolin tab staff clef seems to be unchangeable. The TAB clef is bigger than the staff. Not a world ender, but looking for engraving perfection.
In Library > Music Symbols, if you set the Category to Clefs and select the 6-string tab clef, you can change the Y-scale of this clef to reduce its size. Setting the Y-scale to 66.25 makes this clef about the same size as the 4-string tab clef.
Well that did the trick. A huge THANK YOU!
If you want to make the more permanent,
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Download this Tuning file and unzip
mand-tuning.doricotuning.zip (980 Bytes) -
Go to Library > Instruments and select the Mandolin Instrument.
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Click the Edit Strings and Tunings button in the Upper Right corner.
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Import the downloaded Tuning file. Click OK.
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Back in the Edit Instrument dialog, click the star icon to save as default.
This should now be preserved for all future Mandolins.
Note to @dspreadbury The clef definition for Mandolin in the fretted instrument tuning database should be clef.tab.4.
Yes, you’re right: I will take care of this in due course.
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FWIW I think the Ukulele instrument default has the same issue (it appears to use the 6-string clef rather than the 4-string). 