Notating Harmonic Slides (Fretted Inst) + TAB

Dorico
#1

I’m enjoying the new harmonics support. I’ve got one tricky thing I don’t quite know how to do in the current implementation:

On a fretless bass, it’s not uncommon to create a natural harmonic then press the finger to the fingerboard and slide it up or down. In tablature, I can specify the fret and string where the natural occurs, but when I slur/gliss the note up a half step, being a harmonic, Dorico (3.1.10 Mac) doesn’t know how to generate one and gives me a “?”. The harmonic is at the 7th fret, 1st string and slides to the 8th. I’d really like the TAB to show the 8th fret instead of a ?.

If I set the destination note to an artificial harmonic, and set the Style to “sing notehead (sounding)”, I get the 8th fret marking, but cannot get rid of the (20) in the TAB section, which displays as “8(20)(8(20))” which is both incorrect and visually noisy, as the note is tied to another.

Perhaps there is a creative work-around?

Example File:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/e7bvuc1aixv6ikh/Fretless%20Harmonic%20Slide.dorico?dl=0

#2

I’m not sure there’s going to be a good solution to this as things stand using “real” harmonics, i.e. the ones that you can set via the Properties panel, but I’ll check with my more guitar-savvy colleagues in case I’m missing something.

#3

Cheers Daniel. Perhaps an option in the properties to insert an “overridden” fingering? At this point, I can notate it traditionally, it’s just a matter of telling the logic to stop being rigid for one note and let the user have manual control.

#4

I checked with my colleague Richard about this, and he tells me that the closest you can get at the moment with the features Dorico provides today would be to use a pinch harmonic based on D#3, which will produce the correct fingering in the tablature.

#5

Okay, thank you for asking; I see what’s going on with that workaround. This is what you end up with:

Either way is a compromise, because for the TAB to look correct, the notation goes a bit wrong, so for now I’ll choose whichever is more important and hope you add a clever solution in the future.

#6

I’d just like to pitch in and say from myself too, that being able to override Tabs "?"s and type any number would be very useful, even if it involves some ‘unlinking’ of the tab and notation, relying only on the notation for playback. I’ve already taken to doing the notation and tab staff as a separate (muted) instrument to have more flexibility between the two

#7

A separate, muted instrument is a rather good workaround for now, thank you for the idea.