I understand you’re frustration as you can probably tell
But I don’t think Guitar Pro can compete with a professional notation software.
I tried using it in the past but I never really liked it. I need more flexibility.
Just to clear things, I think Dorico is a great software and it delivers amazing scores.
But I agree it seems there’s not much interest in developing modern instruments notation as for guitar.
As I said before, my disappointment was born from noticing updates over updates and improvements in everything but guitar notation. And again, I am mainly asking for bug fixes. I have been waiting patiently for over a year to see at least some tiny changes and every update seems to totally ignore guitar notation.
I think if you want this to display for Fmin7 you’ll need to create the shape at the first fret rather than the third - shapes are allowed to move up the fretboard but not down. I believe this is deliberate, presumably because some shapes only become playable further up the neck where the frets are closer together.
As to the shapes with a barré next to a different finger, that won’t work currently, no. I’ll make a note of this.
This really isn’t fair. They can only develop so much at any given time. Every single development cycle, someone gets on here and complains as you do because their particular area of the program was not the primary focus. It’s not that the dorico developers “don’t care”. I assure you: they will happily gobble up Guitar Pro’s user base once they can devote sufficient time and energy to this particular area of the program. We’ve all had to “wait our turn” for features that are important to us, I can promise you that.
In fact, this is what I have also noticed.
But see, this is one of the huge problems that messes up the whole diagram library.
First of all, this thing is only possible through the diagram library and not directly on the score in write mode. Then I don’t think it’s up to Dorico to decide what is playable or not.
So every time I have to introduce a new chord shape I can’t do it “on the spot” but only by going to the library (always thinking of the shape closest to the nut) and, as I think you can understand, it’s a really awkward procedure.
Doing it in write mode I can only generate the shape for the root I’m using… among other things using the edit function of an already existing shape (often unusable and non-deletable) generating a duplicate.
But then if I need an equal but lower chord I have to generate another one, but to clean up I have to go to the library and remember which was the root used previously. Keep in mind that a chord library can include hundreds of shapes, so I expect to be able to use it in other projects and would therefore need to keep note of the roots I used so I can find them again.
Now, I gently ask you to try to create a little library on your own, maybe a library of drop2 and drop3 chords with all their inversions (to be available for everyday use in every project) and see what happens.
I think if i could create all shapes (inversions included) with the root I want, let’s say “C” root and have it available for all roots would fix everything.
Everything would be fixed in a second if the transposition worked both ways, up and down the neck and it wasn’t root related but “family” related (as in Finale and as I previously said in other posts).
Here’s a practical example:
I wanna create a drop2 library for strings 2-3-4-5. I have to go to diagrams library before i start any project, then create a Bb root postion, an Ab first inversion, an Eb second inversion and and a Db third inversion. All this to avoid a million duplicates. Don’t you think this is a “little” unusable? Now do this for drop3, drop3-4, triads, 9ths, 13ths and so on and so on. I mean…
The other two huge problems are the inability to delete the shapes imposed by Dorico (most of which are unusable and automatically generated by Dorico based on the notes that compose them) and the continuous and frustrating creation of duplicates every time a diagram is modified (especially in write mode).
That’s what I mean by “chord diagram library is totally unusable and messy”. As you can see this system is so buggy and awkward that it is really hard to even expose the problems. Sorry to say that.
But please, try it yourself…
Just one small point of clarification: the shapes that Dorico shows aren’t automatically generated, in that they were all created “by hand” based on shapes used by guitarists, but of course they are not associated with single chords – instead Dorico tries putting them onto the fretboard at different fret positions, and determines which chord that produces.
So, if you like, it works backwards from the pitches that are in chord symbol, and finds shapes that produce those pitches when placed on the fretboard.
At least give me the option to delete them and keep my library organised with useful forms… I’ll write these ones myself for the single time in a lifetime I will use them…
I certainly understand where you’re coming from, Ludo. At the moment, as you know, there’s no way to remove particular shapes from contention, but perhaps that is something we can add in future. We would only be able to do so in such a way that the shape would never appear for any chord symbol, but perhaps that would be acceptable to you.
I know this is somewhat off topic, but Lilypond can do anything due to being customizable with Scheme and it is totally open source. Would this tide you over until Steinberg does something?
You could create any others you need in Lilypond, and there is lots of technical help on their forum. Lilypond output is the equal of Dorico in terms of beauty and an intelligent layout engine.
I am confident that when Dorico implements what you need it will be better than anything from any other program, but the issue is the unpredictable indefinite wait.
