I created a score that uses different meters for different instruments at the same time. Obviously, in the score some measures have to be broken from one page to the next because they don’t align for all instruments.
But for some reason the same thing occurs in the individual parts where it isn’t necessary at all and makes them really hard to read. How can I prevent Dorico from doing that?
I already activated the “snap system and frame breaks to barlines” option in the “allowing/disallowing breaks within bars” section. Also, I didn’t put any explicit system breaks.
Unlike other notation programs Dorico “thinks” in note durations rather than in bars.
To get different time signatures but same bar lengths you have to work with pickups and hidden tuplets.
This is an old but still contemporary article on Scoring Notes:
Hi Vadian, thank you. I’m not quite sure if I get your point, though. I don’t want the same bar length! The bars have to have different lengths and they shouldn’t be aligned in the score. So it’s completely fine with me that bars are broken in the score (that’s the seconds picture I posted). I just don’t get, why Dorico also breaks the bars in the individual parts (first pictures). That’s what doesn’t make sense to me and what I would like to fix.
It might be useful to share your project, or at least a duplicate version of it where you’ve deleted most of the music, only leaving just enough to demonstrate the issue.
Hi @florian-bergmann, your many local time signature produce the unwanted system splits in the parts.
Edit: I see that my suggestion for the parts, messes up the score... Possibly there is a better method. I leave my suggestion here, in case it could be the start for a correction workflow... (click to expand)
One fast way to correct this is to go into the first part, and reapply all time signatures (select>Enter>Enter>right arrow>select>Enter>Enter>right arrow>etc…):
This takes care of the first 4 parts.
Repeat the procedure for the Alto saxophone 1.1 part (reset the layout first), which will take care of the x.1 parts:
The last bar has an hidden TS: you can just delete it:
Yes I think that’s right – at least some of the parts need to have a global time signature, otherwise the auto-allocation of bars to systems won’t work properly.
It’ll be easier that way too, rather than having to manage independent time signatures on every stave!
Hi @Lillie_Harris, yes this is the reason. But I noticed that my suggested workflow (assigning the TS again in the parts so that they became global ones), messes up the sore.
Possibly there is a better method, to obtain what you suggest. (Working in the score, I tried to find the fastest way to convert some of the many local time signature into global ones, without messing things up…any ideas?). Thank you.
Edit: after trying to correct some of the global TS into global ones, I concluded that possibly inserting manual system breaks in the parts would be easier… (but I am happy to hear other methods…)
Hi @florian-bergmann, revisiting your project. I tried several things, and here the result.
I duplicated the flow and assigned flow 2 to a new Full Score (corrected) layout for clarity and to compare.
(I also grouped the players in 2 groups in Setup, so you don’t need a Bracket change)
Working in Full Score (corrected) layout,
I changed all the Time Signatures of the 1st group to global (some of them are also globally used by the 2nd group), setting some of the TS of the 2nd group as hidden. This takes care of the score and the first 4 parts automatic casting off (always on the barlines for the 1st group). Here my changes (as comments):
For the other remaining 4 parts (x.1), since many local TS remain, inherited from the score, manual system breaks are necessary (with some further moving of the resulting signposts). I also used Propagate Part formatting (Include system formatting checked) for the 1.1, 2.1, 3.1 layouts, so it goes much faster.
(I optionally polished the score layout to be on 4 pages)
Here the resulting Dorico file (see at Full Score (corrected) layout, and all the parts layouts. I hope it can be of some help:
Hi @Christian_R , thank you so much for your work! It’s very helpful and I think I understand the process. The project I shared was only a sketch, when I start the actual score I’ll try to do it the way you described from the start. So basically using global TS for the first group and local TS for the second. After that adjusting the layout of the second group.
Having the score on four pages is a nice touch, unfortunately my publisher doesn’t allow sizes smaller than 7.0 mm.
