Music Notation Missing From An Imported Flow

Dorico
#1

I imported a Sibelius XML file into my Project that now contains 3 flows.

I have a 11 Players in the project.

In flow 3, I only want to use the Piano.

In Setup mode, when I right-click on the 3rd flow, the Layout menu shows Full Score checked and the Players menu has only the Piano checked.

Layout Options > Vertical Spacing > Hide Empty Staves is set to “Never.”

But no notation appears in the layout.

Strangely enough, when I go to Play mode, and select the 3rd flow, the music plays, so I know it is in the Project somewhere.

How do I get the notation to show?

#2

Unfortunately you can encounter a problem when importing MusicXML files into an existing project such that an instrument that is not present in the flow will not be set up with the necessary voices such that it can be later added to that flow.

To work around the problem, I suggest you create a new piano instrument held by a new player and copy and paste the music in the existing flows into this new piano. You should find that this instrument shows up in all flows when you assign them.

#3

I tried your suggestion on my project but I was unable to locate the notation (it only appears in the Play window), so I could not copy it into the new Piano player that you suggested I add. For the new instrument, I receive Tacit. So, instead of trying to wrestle with it, I started a new project. For the first flow, I added all of the instruments I thought I might need and added one note for each instrument. I then copied in the two flows from my previous project that looked good. For the 3rd flow (the one where I had problems), I imported the original XML file and now, since I had the instruments already in Flow 1 (as you suggested), everything came through correctly and it’s ready to be cleaned up. I’ll wait until I have imported all of my flows to delete the first flow that contains all of the instruments, only. I’m still trying to learn the program, so I don’t mind experimenting to determine best practices. The players list seems to keep expanding and Dorico is inserting a new Layout for every flow/XML import I add to the new project. I’m hesitant to clean out the instrument list or the layouts, since I’m still new with Dorico and I am unsure of what Dorico needs to maintain each flow as presented. The connections between the Players, Layouts and Flows is still unclear to me. I’m sure that will resolve the more I use the program. I think I am now able to complete new projects in Dorico and leave Sibelius in the past. On a side note, I’m very impressed with what the Dorico team has done with this program to date and I look forward to the improvements that will come in the future. Thank you for all of your help. The Forum is very helpful.

#4

When you import each MusicXML file, if they use consistent instrumentation throughout the project, it’s a good idea to use the Merge with existing players where possible option in the dialog that appears after choosing your MusicXML file. Then you’ll have a smaller set of players and instruments to deal with at the end. If you instead tell Dorico to create new players for each flow, you end up with many players, each of whose instruments is only assigned to a single flow.

If you’ve not already put a lot of time into tidying up each flow, it might be a good idea to go back to the start of the process once more and re-import the flows, this time using the Merge with existing players where possible option.

Sorry that this isn’t a bit clearer and easier to understand for a new user!

#5

Yes, Daniel, I have been Merging with existing players where possible – I should have mentioned that in my previous post. It is VERY easy to end up with multiple players, when only one is wanted. All of the names in the original file have to be consistent for the “Merge with existing players where possible” to work properly.

Also, I did notice that for one Sibelius XML import the rhythms were trashed and I’m not sure why the rhythms came in so poorly into Dorico.

#6

If you’d like us to take a look at the problem MusicXML file that resulted in rhythmic errors in Dorico, please zip it up and attach it here, together with details of from which bar(s) in which instrument(s) the problems occur.