I see some discussion elsewhere about this, but nothing about a solution.
Even though I am in Page View, when I use “Move (or copy) to Staff Below” I’m finding that it will only move the selection to the staves visible in Galley View (even though I am not in Galley View as I do this.)
Is there an option to change this behavior somewhere, or do I always have to turn off my Galley View filter after using it each time to avoid this problem?
That sounds like a bug to me, Michael. I’ll look into it, and make sure it gets fixed.
Daniel -
Thanks. It bothered me when I was trying to copy a line from one woodwind to the line below - and instead it jumped down to a marimba line. My Galley filter was set to show percussion only. Turning off the filter fixed the problem.
But it may also be something you want to keep as an option.
In my theater scores each of the 5 woodwinds players has 5 to 6 instruments each that they double on. And my single percussion player has many instruments as well (since I’m set up for playback.) As a result my unfiltered Galley view has a vast sea of staves - so the filter becomes essential to use Galley View. This makes for two suggestions -
Daniel - what a great piece of software. Last semester I taught a Dorico course to my students. This semester they are orchestrating and making parts for their orchestration class. And this semester I started a class for established musical theater composers who have been dreading the upgrade from Finale after 20 years in that one environment.
I myself am still working in all three environments since it’s quicker to just do something in the app being used on that project. Judicious use of Keyboard Maestro has made that possible - my keystrokes are a very strange melange of all three programs. I like Sibelius’ use of the keypad for articulations so my fingers are in the same place as note values. The individual keystrokes for dynamics (that use the dynamics popup through Keyboard Maestro) are still based on a quarter century of Finale input.
I’ll always be a bit unhappy about the difficulty of just entering rests like the other two apps (just type the duration without a pitch pressed.) You made it so easy to switch to duration-first-entry (when I want to use it), that I don’t need pitch-first-entry to ‘remember’ the pitches just entered. How nice it would be if it just didn’t remember what pitch had been previously pressed, and entered a rest instead upon getting duration input. When I’m forced to revisit Sib or Fin for work, it is the only thing that makes me wish I could add it to Dorico.
But your universal keystrokes for lengthening and moving notes, slurs, etc. – that is brilliant programming that hugely accelerates the work process.
Michael
You may already know this, and I don’t know if they’re accessible via Keyboard Maestro, but all of the filters you have defined in a project are available from the dropdown menu in the instrument filter.
Yes, but I’m looking to automate the menu. And automating a dropdown menu in a window with a macro program is much more difficult than automating one of the application menus up above.
If the Galley View filters appeared in the app menus, it would allow me in Galley View to select filters without mousing but with keystrokes. Mousing is always less efficient than a keystroke.
One of my favorite Keyboard Maestro keystrokes open the regular filter menu without selecting anything. Then i can quickly click on what I need:
Yes, I create keystrokes for the filters I use all the time - but for the ones I only use occasionally this is a time saver.
Here’s another thing I use Keyboard Maestro for: When I want to add a system or frame break while in Write mode, I select the barline, then with one keystroke my macro in Keyboard Maestro 1) switches to Engrave Mode, 2) calls up the Frame break and 3) takes me back to Write mode.
There are actually ways to set up shortcuts in Dorico that add system and frame breaks in Write mode, so that you don’t need to switch.
Hi Michael,
I’m not sure if you use the 0 key at the bottom of your keypad. By default, it is set to Stop Playback. I have changed this to Advance Caret (which is the same function that the Spacebar triggers).
By doing this, I can advance the caret by the currently-selected duration using only my right hand, thus freeing up my left hand for pitch input.
I guess this is almost like entering a rest?
Literally the only time I ever need to actually input a rest directly is to make explicit ones, which requires further steps anyway.
Daniel -
I find the using the space bar for advancing problematic. It has a habit of changing the value as it advances depending on what I’ve recently entered. So even if I’m working in 4/4 with an eighth note grid, suddenly the space bar is advancing me by half notes. (Why?) Since it is undependable I tend to not use it. (Is there a way to turn off that adaptive behavior?)
But even so - let’s say I’m in 4/4 working with an eighth note grid as most of the number is in eighth notes. Suddenly I need to enter a 16th note pickup at the very end of the bar with a rest before it. Do I …
change the grid, advance a 16th, enter the note, change the grid back (3 extra steps)?
work in a 16th note grid the entire time, creating many, many unnecessary keystrokes to advance?
It just seems to me that typing an eighth rest and a dot is so much more natural and a much more musical way of writing music. Again, some of us are not copyists and engravers making a static, established piece of visual information - we are composers and arrangers creating a flow of sound - and silence is a natural part of that flow that makes music. Thinking of music as a grid (excepting Morton Feldman who composed music on graph paper) gets us further away from the aural world we are creating in a visual representation.
Flame off - I know you are all tired of people bringing this up. But it keeps coming up for a reason. I’m all in favor of technology - but technology that ignores the element of time (we write in a direction creating a line, not assembling a page) is getting away from the nature of music itself.
Okay, getting off my soapbox.
Michael
Because the space bar doesn’t advance the caret by the rhythmic grid duration – it advances it by the currently selected input rhythmic duration. So if you have the half note duration selected, the space bar will advance by a half note. I have never found this not to work as expected.
Unlike the space bar, the arrow keys move the caret by the rhythmic grid duration.
I know a lot of this depends on personal working preferences. I use duration before pitch, so if I want to enter a dotted eighth note, I double tap 5 to select a dotted eighth, and then I select my pitch. If I want to “enter” a dotted eighth rest, I double tap 5 and press the space bar.
I enter notes using the computer keyboard, so the space bar works well for me. If you use a MIDI keyboard, then remapping the keypad 0 key may work better for you, since your hand is over there for durations anyway.
Ah … someone told me it advances by one beat in the meter. Now I understand what it is doing. Still - that means my dotted eighth rest now needs to be entered as three 16ths, or type8th, spacebar, type16th, spacebar. Just feels kludgy - you’re taking my head out of the music I’m writing into what feels like a non-musical manipulation of a grid
-
Aaron - you use duration before pitch - that would be great if I was simply entering music. But when I’m writing, note entry alternates with my fingers just trying things out without entry till I am ready. That’s possible in pitch-first entry - I stay in note entry mode the whole time. But with duration-first entry I have to continually pull myself out of note entry mode to experiment and then invoke note entry again to continue notation.
I do see the advantage of duration-first entry - when I do running patterns of 16th notes for example. But (for me) pitch-first entry is much more conducive to the creative process.
thanks for your patience - Michael
You are perfectly entitled to express your opinion. But I’d guess there as many different preferred workflows as there are users (and many of us compose)!
Personally, I find not having to think too much about rests to be a godsend.
Let’s say you’ve just entered a 1/4 note on beat three. Using my custom shortcut, all I would have to do is double-tap number 4 (to set a dotted 16th duration) and then number 0 (to advance the caret). After that I continue writing and the rest appears automatically.
Three very quick taps without moving my hand.
Sorry to keep editing this post but I think I created this setup as my thumb is already ok that key - and also, it matches the “rest” button in Sibelius.
Daniel -
I’m not sure I understand (please remember I’m in pitch-first note entry.) In that mode the cursor (or carat) is always ‘remembering’ the pitches I just entered.
So to use the space bar to enter rests I need to:
For that reason I still need the [0] and space bar to do different things. And it becomes more keystrokes than you described.
It’s the ‘remembering’ of the pitches that makes entering rests so difficult. If it didn’t remember the notes I had just entered, then YES, it would be easy to makes rests with the grid and the space bar as designed.
Did I miss some option somewhere to turn off the ‘remembering’ of the pitches just entered? Please tell me I’ve been foolish and missed that. I fail to see the purpose of remembering that pitch. If I wanted to enter those same pitches repeatedly, I would simply leave my fingers depressing the pitches and repeatedly hit the duration key - I don’t need that ghost ‘remembering’ for anything.
After some experimentation I’m pretty sure that double clicking on a duration (in pitch-first entry) does NOT add a dot to the note value. It simply enters the duration value twice. Am I wrong?
For many of us transplanted from Finale (passing through Sibelius in my case) pitch-first entry is what we’re used to (and as explained above is friendlier to ‘sketching’ while writing, imho.)
thanks -Michael
Ahhh, sorry Michael. I had the wrong impression.
No, you’re not - in pitch-first entry you need to select the rhythm dot in addition to the duration.
Perhaps assigning one of the other keys on the keyboard to toggle rest input (rather than , ) might help somehow.
I just noticed a previous thread about this topic (that contained a workaround) and so I won’t comment any further in this thread.
Daniel -
Thanks for those links - though the suggestion from the user was for a Windows macro program, I can see if it’s something I can do in KeyboardMaestro in MacOS. If I can get MacOS to treat the NumPad0 as a modifier key, I can build macros that 1)invoke rests, 2) type the desired duration and 3) move the carat all from a single keystroke.
Just not sure is I can use a regular key as a modifier key in MacOS - does the OS recognize two regular keys being simultaneously pressed?
Michael
Side note: if the main reason you prefer pitch before duration is that you often need to play notes without entering them: I personally use duration before pitch (which I find much more powerful in all aspects), and when I need to improvise on the keyboard without inputting notes, I just press K, then press K again when I’m ready to write. No need to exit/re-enter note entry mode.
It’s a habit to develop, but once you’re used to it, it’s very efficient — and it lets you benefit from all the advantages of duration before pitch!
