One instrument and two different labels for different layouts

I publish two versions of my music, an original version for orchestra and a reduced version for small orchestra.
Until now I always created one project for each version.

In the last days I discovered that it is quite usefull and to some extent time saving to combine both versions in only one project in Dorico.
There are then instruments appearing only in the orchestra score, others only in the small orchestra score and others appearing in both scores.
Creating a specific Layout for the orchestra version and for the small orchestra version within one project works quite good.

Inevitably I encounter the situation where for example the “Flute” in the orchestra version does not necessarily have the same musical content as the “Flute” in the small Orchestra version.
As we know Dorico automatically numbers instruments with identical names.
To get rid of this unwanted numbering I add an empty space in one of the the staff labels and Dorico does not consider the instruments to have an identical name.
I can then have a “Flute” in the orchestra layout and another “Flute” in the small orchestra version without any numbering.

I already succesfully could make two projects this way.
But right now in the third project I encounter quite exactly the opposite situation:
I have a player/instrument which should be used in both scores but it should be labeled differently in each score.
This is because in the orchestra score the instrument is called “Keyboard 2” because there are two keyboards in this score.
But in the small orchestra score the same instrument should be called only “Keyboard” because there is only one keyboard in this version.
I can’t find a way to give an instrument different names for specific layouts.

I am aware of course that I could duplicate the player/instrument and give each copy another name but any idea for an other solution would be welcome.

In situations like this, it would also be useful to be able to flag the player tabs in Setup with different colors to indicate participation in the small ensemble, larger ensemble, or both.

A similar option might be used to flag layout tabs with different colors.

(This sounds similar to what many DAWs do with track colors. So much for any originality on my part. :confused: )

Now that would be real luxury :wink:
For now in order to keep track of what belongs to what I label the players in the left panel of the setup mode with an additional number: 1 for score, 2 for small orchester and 1+2 for players belonging to both scores.
Luckily these labels can be changed in the layout tab!

Another option to prevent Dorico from automatically numbering the players is to put them into groups in the Players panel: each group is numbered individually. Though the downside of this is that groups are also bracketed independently.

Thanks for this answer Daniel but could you answer my question about if there is a way to give an instrument an alternative name when it is used in another layout?
In case there is no way, would you consider this?

No, there’s no way for an instrument to have a different name in different layouts. I understand the requirement, but I’m not sure how we would achieve it.

The only easy way that I can think of is to use Full names in one layout and Short names in the other layout. You’d have to cope with only having one style of instrument name in each score (probably Kbd./Kbd 1 as opposed to Keyboard/Keyboard 1) but that might be acceptable to you.

@ Daniel at Steinberg
I hope you can find a solution!

From my user view, a few additional fields in “Layout Options / Staves and Systems / Staff Labels” would be great.
Something like “Use alternative Staff Label”
And some other fields to choose from several alternative labels:
“Full staff label: Label 1” - “Short staff label: L1”
“Full staff label: Label 2” - “Short staff label: L2”
“Full staff label: Label 3” - “Short staff label: L3”

@ pianoleo
Thank you I will try your for your suggestion.

Although it is not exactly what is requested here (different names in layouts) in general it would be useful if you could change/override labels for staves manually., e.g. in a bigband score using “Reed1” “Reed2” … for the saxophone section players that also play doublings like flute etc.