Is there a way to put a text object over a multi-rest? At the moment if I put text above a rest it breaks the rest in that bar.
Will the text be linked to a specific beat?
If not, you could add a text frame to the page, but this would have to be done for each layout/part in which the text needs to appear.
There appears no easy way to do this in any of the notation packages I am familiar with.
If you find text frames to be too quirky, you can always add the text object to another bar in the part, and position it in engrave mode.
Finale does it quite normally. If you put text above the first bar of a bunch of empty bar and Create Multi-Measure Rest, the text appears over the rest.
Dunno about Sibelius.
I suppose Iâll have to muck about with text frames, or use the previous bar hack.
Am I the only one trying to do this?
Multi-bar rests will break if you put information at a rhythmic position inside them, so that the information is shown to the player at the correct rhythmic position. Text is attached to a rhythmic position, so it causes the multi-bar rest to break so that the player can tell where that instruction is supposed to be performed. This seems entirely correct to me!
You can, as suggested by Anders, put the text in the bar either before or after the multi-bar rest, and then nudge it into the right spot in Engrave mode.
Hi Daniel. I only wish they could be assigned to a barline. Iâve seen countless orchestral parts where multi-measure rests are broken, and a new instruction given (piu mosso, for exmaple), but that doesnât involve having a full single bar rest, just a multi-rest broken into two sections with the text over the second section.
Yes. This is how tempo text behaves today and I agree it would be great if Shift-X text could optionally behave the same.
Although shift-x doesnât act that way, it should be noted that alt-shift-x does behave like tempo text. Therefore, if it is anchored to the first bar of a section starting with, letâs say, a rehearsal mark, the multirest which starts that section will not be broken. This allowed me to write this Vamp instruction, for example:
2 Likes
Many, many thanks!
Is there a way to hide Shift-Alt-X text in a particular layout? My use-case is showing a lyric cue such as âTONY: The most beautiful sound I ever heardâŚâ in all parts except for Tonyâs.
In your âTonyâ layout, in Engrave mode, select the cue line (single click, not double-click - you want it to be orange rather than showing a cursor). In the bottom panel flick the âcolorâ switch and then click the black square that appears to the right. Drag the opacity slider to the far left, or type 0 into the percentage box. Click OK.
I believe this will only affect this one layout, but do double-check!
Thank you.
Itâs a great trick, but if you export to pdf, make sure to choose âcolourâ instead of the default âmonoâ
I donât quite get it. I donât seem to have any functionality for an Alt-Shift-X key combination (Iâm on Mac with Dorico in German, by the way). Whatâs that? Is there any way to access this secret text function via the menu or whatever? I also need text above a multi-bar rest with the additional requirement that there is a system break right before that multi-bar rest section, so I canât position the text at the bar before because that would make the text appear completely out of place.
Write > Create System Text should be in your menus. You can assign the shortcut in the Key Commands page of Preferences.
Thanks for the quick reply. Thatâs it. And there is indeed no shortcut assigned to it by default in the German version, it seems.
No, the shortcut is assigned by default, but you have a set of customised shortcuts that you created before Dorico 1.1 was released, and any new shortcuts we added in 1.1 or 1.1.10 will not automatically be added to your own custom set. You can click âReset Key Commandsâ to revert to the default set and gain any new default key commands we added in those updates, but at the expense of losing your custom ones.
In the next update, this wonât be a problem as we are changing the way the key commands are saved, so that only the ones you have added, changed or deleted are saved, and any new ones weâve added will still appear automatically alongside your custom ones.
A case in which this seems to me not correct is an instruction in a string part to attach or remove a mute. This can be done at any time within the duration of the multi-bar rest, and it makes no sense for the rest to be broken. Placing the instruction in a previous bar and moving it graphically across the barline leads to complications if a system break happens to fall between.
Would it be possible to recognise a property âdoes not break a multi-bar restâ for text objects?
1 Like
One of our beta testers was talking about this kind of situation the other day; it happened to concern tempo rather than a player-specific text instruction, but the same basic principle. His assertion was that Dorico should split the multirest at the start of the bar in which that tempo occurs, rather than at the rhythmic position at which the tempo appears, if that bar is otherwise empty for that player. Iâve been thinking about that and I am coming around on it.
This is a similar case, except that you want to prevent the item from breaking the multi-bar rest at all, but you want it to continue to appear. That might be complicated with the way things work at the moment, but Iâll definitely think about it and talk to the team about it.
1 Like
This would seem to be more an issue for those trying to reproduce a specific engraving style than an issue of clarity for composers/arrangers, since a player confronted with a multi-measure rest is bound to see a Mute indication at the start of the measure where playing resumes. That would satisfy my need for clarity (rehearsal efficiency), but I realize that someone trying to duplicate an existing engraving job or stick to a publisherâs style book might have very different needs.
Changes in tempo, however, whether MM settings, holds, or tempo alterations, are different and would (IMO) need to be tied to specific beats.