Hi all, new user here. I’m probably going to go ahead and purchase the full version with the offer from Coda/Steinberg, but for now, I’m on the 60-day trial and just getting familiar.
Is there a space in this forum for dumb questions from finale users?
I’m currently trying to figure out why I can’t add a second voice using pitch before duration input. I’m in note entry mode, press k for pitch before duration, then I press shift+v for the second voice, and click on the measure. Normally a ghost pitch would appear and I’d move to the appropriate pitch and press the right number for the note. But I can’t get the ghost pitch to show up, just a rest that changes when I press the number. I must be in a different mode or something, but I don’t know what.
Happy to re-ask this in the appropriate place, if there is one!
I cannot give you any advice on your particular issue just yet as I haven’t used pitch before duration that much yet, but let me point this out: This is the place to ask “dumb” questions, especially at this time and especially when crossgrading! ^^ After all, the effort any crossgrading user has to take is not to be underestimated in any way, the more so if they are coming from a scorewriter that has been developed for 35 years and has been a staple in the industry for most of this time span. Moreover, I presume that a large portion of us Dorico users either comes from Sibelius or other scorewriters or has Dorico as their first scorewriter, so there are probably many among us who do not even know how things worked in Finale and how big the (kind of forced) transitition really is, and thus lack the background to allow themselves to judge what a “dumb question” is.
Sorry I couldn’t help you with your particular issue just yet, but I thought it was important to point out that no matter how “dumb” you might qualify a question you have, it is not, especially here and at this time! I am certain it won’t be long before someone will help you with this.
@gdgross
Geoff, welcome to the forum.
I am also not familiar with pitch before duration input, but I would like to point out, that your shortcut Shift+Vintroduces a new voice. If you already have more than one voice you can just press V to change and enter into another voice. It is good to be aware of this difference.
Note that Dorico uses “Up-stem 1” and “Down-Stem 1”. What you’re showing in your picture is the creation of “Down-stem 2”, in addition to the other two voices you’ve already got!
When I’m working with multiple voices, especially in piano scores, I like to turn on Voice Colors in the View menu. That way I can see exactly what’s going on - it’s easy to accidentally create lots of extra voices with Shift-V.
ooh the voice colors is great. (I couldn’t figure out how to set the first voice to black, but no matter - looks like each staff will have a different color for the main voice anyway, so it won’t be 1-1 with finale anyway.)
I’m still having trouble getting back into the note entry mode for some reason. the little precursor pitch note that shows what pitch your next entry will be is no longer showing up, whether in my original layer or a second layer.
I made a quick little screen recording, but looks like we can’t upload videos to the forum, so I put it on my dropbox:
The (Discourse-based) forum only accepts certain video formats. From my Mac I always have to upload to an online video editor to convert to MP4 format. I actually trim it first inside the Screen Capture app, but I think many of the conversion websites will let you trim.
I see that you’re in Pitch before duration entry mode. Just checking: after you position the caret where you want to enter, are you then pressing either a note-letter name key at the computer or a MIDI key? (Apologies if I’m not understanding the problem.)
I was trying to enter from computer keyboard by pressing the number for the length. But your answer reminded me that I have to enter the pitch via the letter first! I had thought that I just double clicked on the measure and the guide note appeared.
In finale, when using manual note entry (speedy entry) if you hit the end of the measure set and still had more music to notate, finale would automatically add another bar and let you keep going.
Is there a similar setting in Dorico? I keep having to add bars when I hit the end lol
have you tried notating using pitch after duration? it might work better for some new users from finale. I tried both methods but now am settled on pitch after. ( i use pc keyboard and the mouse for note entry.)
If you are using Note Entry, then bars should be created as you go along. If you are recording MIDI (e.g. playing a whole melody in one go), then it won’t.
I usually start every project by adding 100 bars (Shift B, 100); and then I Trim the flow (Shift B, “trim”), to delete the empty bars at the end.
Got it, thanks all. Was just used to pushing the right arrow in finale and it adding an extra bar. In Dorico, it seems I have to add an extra note in the already-filled-in bar and then Dorico adds that note to a new bar.
I’m starting to think that once I get used proficient ar Dorico, I’ll actually like it better. It does seem little more well thought out to me.
