My main request would be an option in the properties panel to vertically flip laissez vibrer ties, like this:
Full support for ties into bar repeats or slash regions would be great eventually.
And if I remember correctly, this is for four (!) piccolos in unison. Generally the players will cover the instrument with some sort of cloth to mute the sound a bit.
Still…
I’m not a flautist but I spend much of my time accompanying flautists. Four ledger lines is remarkably normal: check this set of audition excerpts from the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland - https://www.nyos.co.uk/files/5b743831a76bd-fluteexcerpts2018.pdf, for instance.
In the past week I’ve recorded the Dutilleux and Sancan Sonatines and Jolivet Chant de Linos with conservatoire students (it’s mostly recordings rather than recitals this year) - all of these Paris Conservatoire test pieces contain octave lines but in places hit five or six ledger lines.
That’s not to say that notation from eighty years ago is necessarily perceived as “correct”, but current students and professional flautists are very used to reading five ledger lines.
Control Z for me.
+1. I’m just a doubler so might not have as much knowledge of the repertoire as a more serious player, but most flute music just uses ledger lines up to high C. Above that is much more infrequent and will use 8va. Some very famous exercises like the Taffanel/Gaubert #1 and #2 use 8va, but I imagine that’s to fit more on a page, and no one is really reading that anyway once the pattern is established. The remainder of the book just uses ledger lines.
Rampal plays an F at the end of the Ibert. It’s a C in the score, but I imagine that would use 8va if notated. Everyone who has ever done a club date knows how to finger a high D for Oye Como Va, LOL! (6 ledger lines) I’ve done quite a few Richard Egües transcriptions from his Orquesta Aragón recordings where I’ve given up and used 8va, but really anything up to C is fine as written.
And I’ve had a stream deck XL with shortcuts for so long that I forgot too.
My understanding is many non-keyboard players prefer ledger lines to 8va. It has to do with fingering patterns. On a keyboard, fingering rarely changes with octaves.
Trombone players in the US never see anything except bass clef with ledger lines as needed, until they start playing orchestral music, so it is common to see 3 or 4 ledger lines. High orchestral parts are typically written in alto clef for Trb1 and tenor clef for Trb2, and engravers are free to switch between alto-bass and tenor-bass at their liberty, in order to make the music fit the page better. You will rarely see anything but bass clef in concert band music, unless the composer writes with a British accent, in which case they will write it like a trumpet part and God only knows why.
Isn’t there some story about David Baker (when he was playing Tbn) sending Curtis Fuller as a sub, but giving him all the parts in tenor clef? That way Curtis would be able to make it through the gig, but not well enough to take the gig, LOL!
I was Slide Hampton’s copyist for years, and he occasionally used 8va notation. Here’s part of the Trombone 1A part to Lester Leaps In from the 2nd World of Trombones recording:
I was especially honored that he asked me to arrange Dolphin Dance for that live recording too. The lead part got pretty high so I used 8va on that as well:
At rehearsal, I remember Slide was messing around and took the B up an octave when the lead player was struggling with the F#! (B out of the treble clef) That’s pretty crazy considering he was playing a such a large bore horn.
Flute players I have discussed this with have always expressed a preference for ledger lines rather than 8va signs, claiming that it is easier to read because of the different fingerings from the octave below. If it were just a case of opening one hole to take the music up an octave, 8va would be much easier to read. I suspect that, since Fl. 1. is at the very top of the score and is therefore not going to run into another part, engravers did not find this a problem.
David
Right, and in jazz, high solo parts (almost never in ensemble parts) are often switched to non-transposing treble clef. That is OK because people playing that idiom should be used to playing from T.C. fake books.
But we’re talking about a small number of players here. People coming up through school band programs never see this stuff – but they also don’t play in that register (octave above middle C.)
Yes, Slide is an amazing musician. In later life, he seemed to have a preference for much larger bores than just about any other jazz player uses. I saw him about 10 years ago in a show that included Bill Watrous, Steve Turre and Curtis Fuller. Do you know if Slide is still playing now?
I talked to him a couple of weeks ago. He seemed in good spirits! He’s still writing and practicing, although he hasn’t performed publicly in quite some time. I was supposed to play lead alto in his big band for a weekend at Dizzy’s two years ago. We had a half dozen rehearsals, then about a month before the gig there was some sort of blow up, he fired his manager, and the gig got cancelled. AFAIK he hasn’t performed publicly since.
Arrrg, getting bit by this one again today. I really would love to see double bars and repeat bars unlinked in the next version. While often occurring together, they really don’t have anything to do with one another so linking them doesn’t make musical sense. There’s no way for me to have a double bar here if I’m using a repeat unless I redo the casting off to make this occur at the end of a system.
Apologies for beating this dead horse, but I am repeating the request to implement playback of glissandi on string instruments and voice. I would gladly pay the price of the upgrade for this one feature.
Two words: House Styles
Ah! The elephant in the room…
David
Don’t apologise as it’s near the top of my list as well though as most libraries have limited or no sampled support for glissandi of this type, Dorico will have their work cut out to produce something good. Except for NotePerformer where it already does work in Sibelius.
And a proper template / library system where we can easily import and export settings to/from existing projects without having to import every setting.
Hello Dorico team, and colleagues,
I hope you are all doing well! 
I would like to add some more features and improvements which are important, too:
- Expression Maps Improvements. For more information (there are links to other topics in the link):
[FIR] Expression Maps Improvements for Dorico 4
- This will surely allow the creation of large layered templates, or combination of techniques from different libraries.
- This most probably will lead to Track Export improvement in order to Export the Channels, or Ports as separate audio tracks for further mixing and mastering.
- Will lead to Play Mode improvement, in order to edit the CCs, Velocity… per channel and port basis.
- Option to edit, or populate the Default Automatic Mutual Exclusion Groups is needed.
- Automatic detection of L/R Hands during Real-Time and Step Input recording. Just like in
Sibelius and Overture. - Native Aleatoric boxes and decent Aleatoric playback.
- Real-time audio (switchable monophonic<->polyphonic and sensitivity control) transcription from voice, acoustic or electric instrument by using microphone, or instrument Line-In.
- As we all know the instrument itself has strong influence on the performer, and the way how one thinks and feels while performing piano, guitar, armenian duduk, saz, flute…
If one is a multi-instrumentalist such way of a real-time recording will be very helpful.
- Left and Right locators and option to loop the playback between the locators (with option to change notes, real-time recording, etc…), and of course an option to export Mixdown, or Tracks between locators.
- Logic Pro-like Smart Tempo Detection:
Scoring to Video requests - #5 by Thurisaz
- Cubase Pro has a tempo extraction from MIDI, too, but I find the one in Logic a bit more advanced which is very important for those who score for media.
- On the other side such function will Humanize the tempo and grid related playback even for non-media music. Which is very important.
- The Smart tempo should be applicable even on already existing scores without destroying them.
- Cubase Pro like MIDI note Quantization and Humanization.
- The real life musicians rarely “snap” the notes notes to grid, even if they play by Metronome. Most commonly they trigger the notes slightly before the grid, or slightly after the grid. This “imperfection” makes the orchestral sections to sound very spatial. Otherwise they would sound just louder.
- Of course such feature will need the Expression Maps to have playback offset, otherwise the notes which starts before the grid will not be affected by the assigned techniques…
- Horizontal and Vertical Rulers, and Page Grids in Engraving Mode. Just like in Word, or other Text Editors.
- The Horizontal & Vertical Rulers and Grids will surely improve the positioning of the objects on page.
- Mix Console Improvements:
- Adding of Cubase Pro - like Control Room, a monitoring channel were we could insert plugins that will not affect the export and will open with every new project. Just like they work in Cubase.
- Channel Loudness measurement digits. Currently the mixer loudness measurement is blank.
- Implementation of Combined Pan, like in Cubase is needed since most of the VIs are stereo.
- Option to configure the Default Mixer appearance, just like in Cubase. Currently we have to configure it for every project.
- Adding of SuperVision plugin in Dorico will be great, too.
- Sorting of plugins by Vendor or Type + Search Bar. Both options should be available, like in Cubase.
- This will shorten the Instrument and Mixer Insert drop down lists and will improve the workflow.
- Font improvement.
- Option for Dorico memorize the users most commonly used fonts and to bring them to top, as any text editor does. It should be able to remember at least 6 - 7 text fonts, the same amount musical fonts… etc…
- Would be nice if we have Font Search box, too.
- Optimization of the Screen Space.
- HiDPI options like in Cubase:
Cubase-like HiDPI Scaling Options in Dorico - Reduction of the Top app border line, just like in Cubase:
FR: Change of the Dorico's Top Bar Appearance
I know this isn’t a priority, but it save space, especially on laptops. We need as much as possible visible working area. This will free up some vertical space. - The size of the Left and Right Panels could be reduced just a little bit, too. In order to free some horizontal space. Or they could be made resizable (in all Modes), to fit the users needs.
- In the area of Screen Optimization many ideas could be taken from Cubase. It’s well optimized for various screen sizes.
- Single Screen workflow improvement.
Well for this improvement I was asking many times, and I won’t step back from it.
Especially since some people, here, complain of performance issues when multiple Dorico windows are opened.
- Option to have an instant access to Piano Roll, CCs, Velocity, Dynamics… per instrument in
Write Mode > Galley View:
[FR]:Adding Instant Access to Piano Roll in Galley View
This won’t lead to major design changes and surely will vastly improve the workflow, and of course will save precious space when working on laptops. The Windows app container borders take space which can be saved. - Probably the most problematic area here will be synchronization between the bar lines and the piano roll grids, because the distance between bar lines may vary, while the distance between the Piano Roll grids is fixed. Still this synchronization could be achieved and Overture is a good example for this.
Worth to think about this improvement more seriously!
- Chord Track and Automatic Chord Extraction + Level of complexity option, similar to Staffpad. Such feature could save so much time…
Chord Staff and Chord Extration Features in Dorico - Bezier Curves for automations and tempo track. Just like in Cubase.
- Improved Audio Export, like in Cubase.
- Option to switch the Sample and Bit rates for .WAV and .MP3
- Option for custom naming scheme
- Id and Metadata
- Option to disable all Mixer Inserts (excluding the Control Room)
- Option for Real-Time export + Volume control slider
- List of the Instruments in Dorico
- Extended list of the folk instruments used in Eastern Europe and Asia
- Option to Save Custom list of Solo, Section and Ensemble Instruments,
as separate file which would not be affected
after updates or upgrades, and will be presented in the Insert Instrument Window. - The adding of instruments and their order could be also improved as Martin Kaery a.k.a. Tantacrul suggested in his video on Dorico. This surely will speed-up the workflow
Music Software & Interface Design: Steinberg's Dorico - YouTube to 29:35 min.
MuseScore has automatic instrument ordering conventions integrated:
- Midi File Export Improvements
- Separate options for Excluding/Including KeySwitches and CCs. Without the need to Switch the Playback Template to HSSE.
Options to exclude Expression Maps and CC Data in the MIDI Export Dialog
- Full control over the performance of the Baroque and Classical ornaments.
- An easy way to manually overpopulate a bar, by mouse (just like in Finale and Overture) without the need of adding extra beats, or use of hidden tuplets first.
- Staff/Track Versions, similar to the way how they work in Cubase.
- This would help to have multiple variations of themes, from which we could choose the best.
- We would not waste Flows just because small changes
[FR] Staff and Track Versions
Arreglos - #6 by Thurisaz
- And option to change the Voices for Percussion/Drum Staff in normal way (directly in the score), without invoking the Percussion Kit.
I hope you would think about all these important improvements and features!
Thank you very much in advance!
Best wishes,
Thurisaz