When I extend the length of two notes that stems from a midi recording and has odd lengths, say 4 beats and 1 64th note and another 3 beats and 1 64 note, whenever I try to make them say 5 beats they “always” end up being of some odd length. When I select one of them and try to make it of a “normal” length and afterwards the other note and try to make it of a “normal” length, it’s just not possible. When selecting both of them and activating the “chord” function, it’s not possible. I use the key command shift-option-right arrow, and no matter what rhythmic grid I choose this happens. What’s wrong (with me)?
Also, when I change the length of a note that’s held from across pages, whenever I change the length - being on the page where I see the end of the note, the view jumps back to the previous page/the beginning of the note which is quite irritating to put it mildly. How can I make Dorico stay on the page I’m currently viewing and editing?
How can I make Dorico stop jumping the view from side to side or from page to page, back and forth when inserting notes, copying notes etc. where the length of the bars are altered? In my view this is bad GUI.
The Dorico “Now you see me, now you don’t” feature
Please don’t misunderstand me, Dorico is an amazing application and with Noteperformer for me in many respects a dream come true.
Remember that that key combo lengthens or shortens notes by the grid value, not to the grid value. So if your note is 3 beats + 1/64, and your grid value is an eighth note, and you lengthen the note – you’ll wind up with 3 1/2 beats + 1/64. What you probably want to do is first shorten the note by 1/64 so that it’s just 3 beats, then make any other adjustments.
Or you can just directly change the note to something “normal” and then lengthen/shorten as needed. For example, if your note is 5 beats + 1/64, you can select the whole thing and press 8 to turn it directly into a whole note (and then . to turn it into a dotted whole note or 6 beats).
You could also go into Note Input mode, postition the caret at the 64th, and press U to untie it from the rest of the note. Then you can select the 64th and delete it.
It’s hard to tell exactly what you’re seeing, but you may find it easier to make these kinds of edits in Galley view rather than Page view.
With this one it’s hard for me to tell where I should untie to get rid of the hard to read notes. Do you have any trick up your sleeve or is it just experience that’ll help me?
Ah, sorry, I thought it was a technological thing.
If you’re using Dorico 6, you might be interested in Fill View, which is sort of a combination of Page and Galley views. Things still move around a little as note spacing and measure width change, but since there’s no such thing as a “page”, it’s less intrusive.
I would always try to have the music quantized before getting it into dorico. Is it a midi file from another application? Maybe this application can export musicxml instead. Or do quantize the data before exporting as midi.
Or do you record midi directly in Dorico? In almost all use cases using step input with computer and midi keyboard is effectively faster as there usually are no afterward adjustments necessary-
Yes, thanks. I’ve done that and it helps tidying up the mess. However, I cannot find a way that works for everything because the end of the notes are not quantized + the notes are “chords” with uneven lengths. It just looks unreadable.
If you invoke the caret (as for note entry) you can move it around and cut the ties wherever you need (rather than cutting them all). This might be a more surgical approach. (T will remake the tie)
You can prepare your score in Logic in different ways.
Quantize note length: You can quantize the note length: in the score editor’s local functions menu go to MIDI-transformer, there is a preset called ‘quantize note lengths’. I never have used it. I would assume that it will actually quantize the length, not the note off event. So if you have quantized the start position of your notes, it will quantize to correct note lengths.
Score quantization: When score editor is active, the region parameter box on the left info panel shows the score quantize parameter, which defaults to 16,24. This parameter controls the smallest note value the score editor can show. If you set it to 4, the score is quantized to quarter notes, but the score only! The playback is unaffected. 16,24 means you can show 16th and 16th triplets (24th notes). So set it so that the smallest not value you use in your music and see if it fits.
Trim events: In consecutive notes (without a rest between them) you can use the command ‘force legato’ to trim the end of the selected note to the start of the following. This works also when multiple notes are selected. Be aware that you cannot select all notes at all, otherwise the last note before a rest will be lengthened to the next. You have to do it phrase ba phrase.
The Advantage of the xml import is that it exports only what you see in the score. So even when you have notes that overlap in the piano roll, as the score editor normally can only show one voice you do not get the overlap in the exported file.
So my suggestion would be: quantize the note starts, select an appropriate score quantization, then export as xml and import to dorico. With xml you will have to do some different kind of cleanup, but the overall amount of work is way less.
Wow I only have the SE version but the tips and help I get here on the forum are really pro-tips - thanks so much for taking the time and sharing your knowledge
