Patch change icons

Dorico
1

I’d like to create a series of patch change markers for a keyboard part. How can I do this?
Thanks for any help.

2

What would you like them to look like?

3

Patch change icon.HEIC
Patch change icon.HEIC3024×4032 1.21 MB

Something like this.
Thanks very much for your quick reply Daniel.

4

Any luck with the icon?

5

I’ve created some custom playing techniques that look like this:

CleanShot 2023-01-06 at 17.24.03@2x

You can find them in the attached project.

patch-change.dorico (295.8 KB)

To make a new one for a different patch number:

  1. Go to Library > Playing Techniques
  2. Select e.g. Patch change 127.
  3. Click the button to create a new one based on this one.
  4. Change its name to e.g. Patch change 17 or whatever.
  5. Change the Popover text string to something unique – e.g. pc17.
  6. Click the pencil icon below the preview to edit the playing technique.
  7. In the dialog that appears, select the existing number and delete it with the trash can icon.
  8. On the right-hand side, switch to the Text tab.
  9. From the Font style menu, choose Patch change.
  10. In the Enter text here box enter the number you want it to show.
  11. Click Add Text to add the text to the playing technique.
  12. Now click the Attachment tab and set the Attachment from menu to Top center and Attachment to to Bottom center.
  13. On the Component tab, set Y offset to 8.00.
  14. Click OK to close the music symbol editor, then OK to close the parent dialog.

You can then create these symbols via the Shift+P popover, e.g. typing pc127.

14 Likes
6

Daniel, thanks so much for that. That’s excellent!
Best regards,
Jon

7

Daniel is it likely these will be included in an update or is it best to download this if I need it in the future?

8

No, it’s unlikely we’ll add these to the default library, but it’s also unlikely that the project attached to this thread will disappear any time soon.

9

It would be a great feature though if it would work like a rehearsal mark and be inputted. automatically in succession. :slight_smile:

10

Continuing this theme. I’m trying to import the icon into an existing project. I use Version 4.3.11.1117. Is this possible?

11

Just open the template in your copy of Dorico, go to the Playing Techniques folder, select one of the patch-change icons, click the edit pencil (one may have to temporarily apply the PT to an instrument first), and then click the Star icon in the edit panel to make the PT a default for future use.

Not sure how to get that into a project retrospectively unless one can use the Library Manager menu to update your Playing Techniques.

(Ah, ninja’d by Daniel.)

12

You can also use the Library Manager to bring items from one project into another one.

13

Thanks very much for that. That worked.
I have written orchestral arrangements for a tour coming up this year and the Kbd 2 player needs to have a succession of patch change numbers. I was fiddling around and made a patch change icon without a number and just inserted new number swith the text frame in engrave. Is it possible to programme a function like rehearsal marks where it changes the number automaticaaly?

14

No, I’m afraid not, at least not as the functionality in the software stands today.

15

Thank you, Daniel. Always so helpful.

16

This is really useful! Curiously, when I opened the file, I got a warning message saying that it was created with a later version of Dorico than the one I’m running (4.3.11.1117). Nice to know that there are irons in the fire! :slight_smile: