Just a little question!
In this example, why doesn’t Dorico offer me E-flat in octave by default, since this is not possible on a violin?
I understand the logic, as I was writing a descending melodic movement before, but the tessitura of the instrument should prevail, shouldn’t it? Or is there a setting I haven’t activated?
If one is entering the notes via the QWERTY keyboard (or foreign equivalent), Dorico by default chooses the closest version of the note name to the prior note.
Dorico doesn’t enforce the playable range of the instrument during note input. I’m not sure whether I think that’s a good idea or not. It’s certainly something that we could add (given sufficient time and effort) but I worry that it would make the current consistent behaviour (that it always chooses the nearest note with the chosen pitch name) harder to predict and therefore less useful.
Rather than calculate in advance whether the note I get will be in the right octave, I find it easier just to enter it and see, then transpose it if necessary. So for me it would be a definite improvement if Dorico didn’t keep giving me notes which the instrument couldn’t play.
There is a key command to specify whether it’s the octave above or the octave below. I think Shift+Alt+[note name] specifies the note above, and Ctrl+Alt+[note name] is the octave below. It’s a bit cumbersome, and I have trouble remembering the exact keystrokes… but it’s an available option.
Not that this is up to a vote, but I would strongly object to Dorico “helping” me based on the instrument. I’ll work that out myself. Anyways, there’s already the “out of range” color warning available for those who want it.