More suggestions

Dorico
1

Dear Dorico team,

after further work with this great program, some further improvements come to my mind:

  1. Adding the possibility to place at any location (note) a bookmark so that one can later jump to it. Or as an alternative add the capability to search for a text. In this case one could add certain TODO marks or a similar text so that one could later find these places again.

  2. Having the possibility in Write Mode to extend the octave lines or an automatism that if a new octave line gets added just after a finished one, that they automatically combine.

  3. Either automatic or as an configurable option that whenever one adds a tremolo over two notes that automatically a slur gets added. I have never seen that these come without a slur. Similar to the already proposed automatic slur with grace notes.

  4. Having the possibility to add a gliss, starting from a note, but ending not attached at a note. E.g. when using Bell-Trees, I have seen this a lot. Using a hidden note does not work, as far as I can see, because then the rest would be missing.

  5. Having the possibility to move dynamics and hairpins to the left or right in the current defined metric steps by using a key stroke sequence in Draw Mode. I know that it is possible to do this in Engrave Mode, but regular toggling between both modes is within a large score nearly not usable because of the long time that such a switch takes.

  6. Selecting a complete bar is pretty easy with a click into it, but it would be even nicer if the “tiedness” of a note would not be taken into account. It happens often to me that I have to copy a certain part from one instrument to a n other instrument because they play unisono but I must not tie the notes together, because later I get into trouble when I have to copy the bars. I just can tie the necessary notes together, when I have done all copies of the phrase. The same vice versa, clicking into a bar that has only a tied note into the previous bar does not select that bar at all.

  7. It is great that one has the possibility to hide certain instruments in the Setup Mode, when they are not needed in a certain Flow. But I think it would be helpful if one could hide certain grouped instruments within a single player as well. E.g. I have two percussionist, each of them have to play in the complete score about 20 individual instruments. But in many Flows they only have to play one or two. I would like to hide the others. Or is it intended in this case, that one keeps them as individual players and hide them then?

  8. I can hide a note head by make it transparent. I would like to do the same for the complete note.

  9. When I have a phrase that switches from a lower system to a higher system or vice versa as it often happens for piano or harp, I have to remember in which system I added the notes initially, because when I want to copy and paste them I have to select as target the correct lower or upper system. Otherwise the pasted result does not appear where it is expected to be. Eg. When I started entering the notes on the upper system, then later I moved some of the them to the lower system and when I now want to copy and paste the complete phrase to an other two lines instrument, then I have to select the rest of the upper target system and the perform the paste. If I would select the lower system, then the originally notes from the upper system appear in the selected lower system and the notes from the originally lower system appear in the system below of the target lower system. As far as I understood, Dorico uses the notion of instruments and so it would be nice, if I select the notes from one instrument and copy them to an other instrument, they should stay at the new instrument.


    As well it would be great if you could given an overview what you intent to add as features within the next half year and the time beyond. As a software developer myself I know that this is not easy and I would not try to make you accountable on this. It is normally that plans change regularly. You already mentioned that you are working on chords and pedals, but what comes as well soon? E.g. I would be very interested in having soon more capabilities within glissandos and big wavy lines, to indicate that the glissando can happen in an ad libitum fashion.

Please keep going with the same quality. It makes fun to work with Dorico!
Kind Regards, Felix

2
  1. In Layout options, Vertical spacing, you can choose to hide empty staves… Would that help ?
3
  1. Adding the possibility to place at any location (note) a bookmark so that one can later jump to it. Or as an alternative add the capability to search for a text. In this case one could add certain TODO marks or a similar text so that one could later find these places again.

Yes, we agree this would be useful and improved features for navigation are certainly on our wish list for the future.

  1. Having the possibility in Write Mode to extend the octave lines or an automatism that if a new octave line gets added just after a finished one, that they automatically combine.

I think you’ll have less need of this when you can more reliably edit existing octave lines (and other notations) in Write mode, either by dragging them with the mouse or by using Alt+left/right (to move them) and Shift+Alt+left/right (to change their length), which we plan to have implemented in the next update.

  1. Either automatic or as an configurable option that whenever one adds a tremolo over two notes that automatically a slur gets added. I have never seen that these come without a slur. Similar to the already proposed automatic slur with grace notes.

This is an interesting idea. I have certainly seen quite a few two-note tremolos without slurs, but perhaps this is something we might add as an option in future.

  1. Having the possibility to add a gliss, starting from a note, but ending not attached at a note. E.g. when using Bell-Trees, I have seen this a lot. Using a hidden note does not work, as far as I can see, because then the rest would be missing.

Yes, we need a better solution for glissando lines with indeterminate starting or ending pitches. This is on our wish list for the future.

  1. Having the possibility to move dynamics and hairpins to the left or right in the current defined metric steps by using a key stroke sequence in Draw Mode. I know that it is possible to do this in Engrave Mode, but regular toggling between both modes is within a large score nearly not usable because of the long time that such a switch takes.

See my answer to your point number 2 above.

  1. Selecting a complete bar is pretty easy with a click into it, but it would be even nicer if the “tiedness” of a note would not be taken into account. It happens often to me that I have to copy a certain part from one instrument to a n other instrument because they play unisono but I must not tie the notes together, because later I get into trouble when I have to copy the bars. I just can tie the necessary notes together, when I have done all copies of the phrase. The same vice versa, clicking into a bar that has only a tied note into the previous bar does not select that bar at all.

Block selections take only the starts of notes, and you can’t copy only part of a tied note, because it is a single event and thus has to be copied and pasted in its entirety. So if you try to select a bar that contains only a portion of a tied note, you won’t get anything selected because of course there is no onset to select there.

  1. It is great that one has the possibility to hide certain instruments in the Setup Mode, when they are not needed in a certain Flow. But I think it would be helpful if one could hide certain grouped instruments within a single player as well. E.g. I have two percussionist, each of them have to play in the complete score about 20 individual instruments. But in many Flows they only have to play one or two. I would like to hide the others. Or is it intended in this case, that one keeps them as individual players and hide them then?

You can use the features to hide empty staves on the Vertical Spacing page of Layout Options for this.

  1. I can hide a note head by make it transparent. I would like to do the same for the complete note.

Eventually we will have a means of adding notes in Play mode that are not notated in Write mode.

  1. When I have a phrase that switches from a lower system to a higher system or vice versa as it often happens for piano or harp, I have to remember in which system I added the notes initially, because when I want to copy and paste them I have to select as target the correct lower or upper system. Otherwise the pasted result does not appear where it is expected to be. Eg. When I started entering the notes on the upper system, then later I moved some of the them to the lower system and when I now want to copy and paste the complete phrase to an other two lines instrument, then I have to select the rest of the upper target system and the perform the paste. If I would select the lower system, then the originally notes from the upper system appear in the selected lower system and the notes from the originally lower system appear in the system below of the target lower system. As far as I understood, Dorico uses the notion of instruments and so it would be nice, if I select the notes from one instrument and copy them to an other instrument, they should stay at the new instrument.

I understand this complaint but I don’t think we will be changing this any time soon. There will be some additional features coming in the future that will take better advantage of this instrument-based approach, such as being able to paste from and to instruments with different numbers of staves in a more intelligent fashion.

As well it would be great if you could given an overview what you intent to add as features within the next half year and the time beyond. As a software developer myself I know that this is not easy and I would not try to make you accountable on this. It is normally that plans change regularly. You already mentioned that you are working on chords and pedals, but what comes as well soon? E.g. I would be very interested in having soon more capabilities within glissandos and big wavy lines, to indicate that the glissando can happen in an ad libitum fashion.

We are currently as open as we feel we can be: even though you might not personally hold us accountable for not meeting our stated goals, other users will. Remember this thread from the day that the 1.0.30 update was released and didn’t include chord symbols, even though we had tried to be as clear as possible that it did not. We have said that we will be working on cues, unpitched percussion, repeats, and fingering, and those are still our main priorities beyond what is coming in the next update.

4

This would be true if the original poster meant to hide the instruments in a layout, but would the hide unused staves work in Galley view to make the full percussion set more manageable there? I imagined that the questioner was thinking of vertical spacing while working in Galley, not in the final layout.

5

Dear Derrek,
I certainly thought about that… I thought if that was really a problem, then after having written a little bit in galley view with too many staves, the OP could use the Layout option to hide staves in the Percussion part layout (or any other Layout designed for work) in order to focus on this instrument and not have the whole orchestra instruments… I understand this is not ideal, yet it can give good results. That is why I added “Would that help ?” — no condescendance here, just a real question :wink:

6

Marc,
Certainly nothing I said was meant to imply a criticism.

7

Hi Daniel,

  1. Having the possibility in Write Mode to extend the octave lines or an automatism that if a new octave line gets added just after a finished one, that they automatically combine.

I think you’ll have less need of this when you can more reliably edit existing octave lines (and other notations) in Write mode, either by dragging them with the mouse or by using Alt+left/right (to move them) and Shift+Alt+left/right (to change their length), which we plan to have implemented in the next update.

This is great news!

  1. Selecting a complete bar is pretty easy with a click into it, but it would be even nicer if the “tiedness” of a note would not be taken into account. It happens often to me that I have to copy a certain part from one instrument to a n other instrument because they play unisono but I must not tie the notes together, because later I get into trouble when I have to copy the bars. I just can tie the necessary notes together, when I have done all copies of the phrase. The same vice versa, clicking into a bar that has only a tied note into the previous bar does not select that bar at all.

Block selections take only the starts of notes, and you can’t copy only part of a tied note, because it is a single event and thus has to be copied and pasted in its entirety. So if you try to select a bar that contains only a portion of a tied note, you won’t get anything selected because of course there is no onset to select there.

I understand that it is like that today. But from the user’s perspective my proposal makes sense. E.g. when there is a system break, Dorico of course allows to break in between a tied note, even there is only one note event. I think that there should be a stronger separation from the midi output, where only one note is sent, and from the graphical display.

  1. It is great that one has the possibility to hide certain instruments in the Setup Mode, when they are not needed in a certain Flow. But I think it would be helpful if one could hide certain grouped instruments within a single player as well. E.g. I have two percussionist, each of them have to play in the complete score about 20 individual instruments. But in many Flows they only have to play one or two. I would like to hide the others. Or is it intended in this case, that one keeps them as individual players and hide them then?

You can use the features to hide empty staves on the Vertical Spacing page of Layout Options for this.

I probably did not explain detailed enough what I want. I would not like only to hide/uncheck a player in the setup mode, but I would like the option to uncheck a certain instrument that belongs to a specific player so that I have less systems in Galley View.

As well it would be great if you could given an overview what you intent to add as features within the next half year and the time beyond. As a software developer myself I know that this is not easy and I would not try to make you accountable on this. It is normally that plans change regularly. You already mentioned that you are working on chords and pedals, but what comes as well soon? E.g. I would be very interested in having soon more capabilities within glissandos and big wavy lines, to indicate that the glissando can happen in an ad libitum fashion.



We are currently as open as we feel we can be: even though you might not personally hold us accountable for not meeting our stated goals, other users will. Remember > this thread > from the day that the 1.0.30 update was released and didn’t include chord symbols, even though we had tried to be as clear as possible that it did not. We have said that we will be working on cues, unpitched percussion, repeats, and fingering, and those are still our main priorities beyond what is coming in the next update.

[/quote]

Daniel, many thanks for the detailed response and please keep all going on with the great work!

Kind regards,
Felix

8

+1

Maybe an option to toggle display of player/all instruments in galley view?