I’m looking for a “legitimate” way of quickly muting everything in Write mode, and one way would be a key command that would – while still in Write mode – deselect the “Activate Instrument” button in the VST Instruments section of Play mode. However, so far, I’ve been unable to either find or create such a key command.
Help, please?
Thanks, in advance!
Why not just turn off the computer speaker? On my machine it takes one click on a speaker icon in the bottom right corner of my screen (or I also have an on/off switch on my speakers’ volume control).
There’s a preference for whether or not Dorico plays back notes when editing/selecting them in Write mode - is that what you’re after?
Thanks for the idea, Derrek – I appreciate it.
However, both my midi keyboard and my other midi and VST instrument sources also work through my computer, so switching off computer speaker volume (my computer’s audio goes to dedicated studio monitors) will also defeat the initial purpose.
But I appreciate the reply 
Thanks, Lillie.
No – I want to be able to quickly mute/turn off all VST instruments (or, sound, period) that are loaded in an open project whenever I need to use my midi keyboard outside of Dorico. (I could close the project, but this would be counterproductive for some of my uses.)
I recently discovered that using [Alt+S] can easily do this – so long as nothing has been selected in the Write mode window – but Daniel cites this as an unintended use of that key command, and therefore plans to “fix” it (which I take to mean “eliminate that use”). So I’m looking for a “legitimate” alternative – that is, until something simple and welcome, like a big “mute” button within Write mode, is implemented.
You can disable MIDI input devices from being used in Dorico, if that helps?
You can also use the Mixer to mute channels, of course. Or, if you’ve saved all your playback data as a playback template, temporarily apply the Silence playback template and then re-apply your sounds later?
Thanks, Lillie.
I’ve considered using the Mixer, and looked at using the Silence template, but both are too involved (from Write mode) to be a useful alternative to Alt+S.
Whatever method is used, it has to be effected by a single key command or click, within the Write mode window.
The idea is to be able to switch from Dorico’s sound to a different sound source while leaving one’s project open, in Write mode – and then switch back. This is required in teaching situations, as well as many other scenarios.
Of course, another very simple approach would be to make the Dorico project activate button into a toggle, between activate-deactivate (which is how its used in your parent company’s Cubase), but this, from what I’ve read, is still in the future.
I’d really love the ability to solo an instrument (or more) within the write page itself rather than having to go to the mixer. There are many times when I’m writing that I just want to hear one active instrument. A quick key command would be great.
You can do this using Alt/Opt-S as mentioned earlier in this thread. You can also just play back selected staves by selecting either multiple items on one staff to hear a single staff (e.g. a note and a dynamic) or at least one note on multiple staves to hear those - that relies on you starting playback immediately after making the selection, whereas muting/soloing in the Mixer is persistent.
Hi, Dr_Scardo. From what I understand, it’s very easy to solo one or more instruments in Write mode – ah, I see that Lillie has beaten me to it 
,
I just select a few notes on the stave(s) I want to solo, and hit “P”, which begins the playback – for only those staves – at the place I’ve selected.
Unless I’m mistaken Option-S mutes everything except the Dorico beep. It does when I try it anyway. Furthermore, it doesn’t seem to be a toggle function - re-keying Option-S doesn’t release the Solo mode.
And yes I know about selecting a few notes on a given stave (or even staves) but that is not particularly useful when playing about moving / editing notes, as every time something else is selected the solo disappears. It’s a clumsy way to solo a stave in my opinion. I’m quite surprised really (OK, coming from a very DAW background) that there isn’t a simple way to solo a stave - the way you’d solo a track in a DAW if were concentrating on editing that particular track for example. But quickly, one click - on and off - edit - check against other instruments etc.
Not coming from Sibelius or any other serious scoring program I’m no idea whether the competition allows this. But it’s a feature that would get a lot of use by me - especially when working on my 13" MacBook, where having the mixer open really isn’t an option.
But if it isn’t a feature that others have requested I guess I must have an odd way of working…!
EDIT - followed at the link in @Lillie_Harris post and it would appear that the behaviour of solo is not working correctly on my system. It doesn’t solo an instrument despite selecting a note on that stave. Hmmmm.
How are you soloing, as in just making a selection and then playing back in the usual way? For a temporary “solo” using that method, you have to select at least a note and something else on that staff - like a note and a dynamic, or a note, lyric, and slur. Selecting one note just gives you a way to start standard playback, with all players that are playing/are not muted.
Hi again, Dr_Scardo;
I mentioned the Option-S (for me - PC - it’s Alt-S) mute ability a few days ago, in this post: In Write mode, if nothing is selected on any staff
. . . but, as this shortcut was apparently not intended to do that, it has been announced that it will be “corrected” soon, which is unfortunate.
Like you (and others), I feel that this would seem to be a basic and necessary feature, best solved by either a big “MUTE” button (in Write mode), or by making the project “Activate” button toggle with “De-activate” (which it cannot yet do).
As for being able to toggle Option-S: it is toggled by preceding it with Shift: Shift-Option-S (Shift-Alt-S, on PC).
Hi @Lillie_Harris - makes no different what I select - the usual select more than one note will do the playback as previously mentioned solo but useless for editing for reasons stated. Option-S is always soling the Dorico beep channel.
And thanks @thinkingMusic.ca - to toggle Option-S - wow, that’s a very convoluted way of toggling what should be a simple on / off toggle. In any event out only toggles the dorico beep so no good to me!
Hmm. . . Using Option-S (without selecting anything in the Write window) should mute all staves on playback in Write mode, and Shift-Option-S should toggle everything back on. I’m not sure what’s happening there, in your situation
I wonder if for this particular use case identified, if having the option to disable all further input from midi device into Dorico might work. Not that that is easy to do without jumpthing through menu options, but perhaps a feature request would be to allow users to click on the midi “light” in the lower right corner to “disable” midi input until re-enabled.
For what it’s worth, in the next major version of Dorico it will be possible to assign a key command that toggles the Enable MIDI input checkbox on the Play page of Preferences, so you can quickly disable and later re-enable all MIDI input devices.
This sounds promising, Daniel, but will that key command toggle Enable MIDI input if used while in Write mode?
Yes, it will work from any mode in the application.
DYNAMITE!!! (as they used to say)
Thank-you very much!!