I’m just switching to Dorico after Finale decided to leave us high and dry.
I do a lot of concert band writing. As such, I write unpitched percussion. I’m used to being able to put multiple percussion instruments on the same 5-line staff using layers (Finale term). I want to accomplish what I’ve done in Finale in Dorico but am pulling my hair out trying to figure it out.
An example of what I want to accomplish: Eighth note snare part with quarter note bass drum part underneath. Snares stems up, bass drum stems down. The should both appear one the same staff. Imagine a traditional march part from the Sousa book.
This is standard practice. In setup you can create an empty drum kit instead of a player (bottom left in the instrument entry menu list) and then you can add whatever percussion instrument you want and put it on the line you wish by editing the drum kit in the setup. You can also select the stem directions there and you can define percussion techniques with specific noteheads.
It is not much use to copy the manual here but you should search under drum kit in the manual. There are also a lot of videos on this subject. This is what you want I think:
If you do not see the 5 line format (I think a grid is default) after you created your kit you have to set the format for the particular percussion in the layout options. SO shift+command (CRTL)+L and then type percussion in the search bar. There are three formats.
