MusicXML import: soloist versus section

[rainbowkey]

Finale refugee trying wrap my head around soloist verses section player. When importing an .mxl file it seems to default to soloists and I can’t find a setting to make it import to section player. Nor is there a way to easily change a soloist to a section.
Should I create an ensemble first in Dorico then import?

[Christian_R]

Hi @rainbowkey , and welcome to the Forum and to Dorico!

@rainbowkey

a way to easily change a soloist to a section.

When you import xml there is no way to tell Dorico to choose single vs section players beforehand. This is only possible importing MIDI.

For xml, after the import you can:

• Create a new section player (don’t assign an instrument to it, it will stay as Empty-handed player)
• expand your single player (that was creating by the import)
• drag the instrument to the newly created Empty-handed section player (all the music will be moved with it to the new player)
• you can delete now the remaining single Empty-handed player

Here a short video:

[rainbowkey]

Thank you, yes, I found this method in the forums, it is super clunky, and would be a pain for every score for every large ensemble I have. I wish it was included in the many checkboxes in .mxl import to default one way or another.

[dspreadbury]

This might be helpful:

TIP: Import XML as Section Player

I’ve been importing all my old documents from Finale via XML, and rather annoyingly, the instruments always seem to come in as Solo Players. You can sort it out afterwards, but it’s easier to amend the XML itself beforehand. Here’s how. Open the XML file in a text editor. If it’s a compressed XML file, you may need to change the file extension to .zip, unzip it, and find the xml file inside. Some clever text editors, like BBEdit, will handle this automatically for you. You’re looking to a…