I’ve gone really deep into Dorico on this giant project and I love it… except that everything around percussion continues to be a daily disaster for me.
Let me tell you, I am someone who has spent literally dozens of hours trying to understand these various issues via the manual, videos, forums, you name it. But… it’s too hard to explain, so I made a couple of short videos.
quick followup:
Can anyone help with this…? Please?
Maybe if someone is doing things in the perfect order, it can work. Like: take a month off to master the entire Dorico percussion system, then choose every percussion instrument and technique that will ever be needed in your score and create the perfect map for them, then begin to compose/notate the percussion music, without revisions or mistakes, using this perfect map that you made. But if you need to import from elsewhere, or change your plans in some way… you are in hell.
I know that the system is powerful and can give good results. But I need flexibility. Trying to import MIDI percussion is mind-boggling, and then once it’s in there, it’s right in front of me but I can’t work with it. Beyond frustrating.
If you switch both kits to view as a grid in Layout Options, hopefully it should be a bit clearer about what is happening when you’re trying to copy the music to the new kit. In fact, you’ll be able to select the music from one particular instrument e.g. tom-tom (medium-low) and paste straight into the other.
Hi @Brent_Arnold
Now the videos are there.
I tried so:
-create a player with a percussion kit and write some notes
-create another player with a percussion kit with some of the instruments of the first one, but changing their lines position (kit editor)
The duplicate to staff below didn’t work, but the select and alt+click in the new staff worked or just a copy-paste. Maybe can you try,
Thanks for trying Christian. Unfortunately it didn’t work, it’s the same as copy & pasting (which I try in the video, it only moves one drum for some reason)
A simpler way to say what I was trying to is that because your Percussion Kits have a different setup (one kit with n number of instruments and another with n number of instruments), Dorico can’t tell where to paste the music correctly
e.g. Dorico isn’t trying to paste from the Tom-tom (medium) in kit #1 to the Tom-tom (medium) in kit #2, it’s trying to paste from the 8th instrument of kit #1 into the 8th instrument of kit #2 when in fact the instrument you had at #8 is now at #4.
I THINK this is what is happening but I have a feeling I’ve missed something…
Thank you Daniel… hmm… tried it but nope. It just won’t copy and paste, even when I select a single drum from the one player, then go into the other player and choose the specific drum I want to paste into.
Umm, except for that one high tom, which does work…
So, basically the same I’m afraid. Thanks for trying though!
Another way that you can try (before posting the Project, if it doesn’t work, ):
-you can click on the three dots near the old kit andRemove All Instruments From Kit
-then create a new player with an empty kit (Create Empty Kit) and then Add Existing Instruments From Player (Dorico positions the added instrument in the middle line after adding, just move it to the desired position before adding the next).
Oh I see… yes ok that worked! Thank you! But…ok that immediate problem is solved, but I’m not exactly happy.
Is this what I need to do for all 3 percussionists, for all 20 scenes of this opera? I currently have most scenes in separate Dorico projects.
When I made a kit and chose Export Kit, I thought I could use that kit in my other projects. Now I have to rebuild it from scratch every time?
Also, the problems around importing (in the later part of the vid) are still so confusing.
I’m so sorry: I meant view the kits as Single-line Instruments in Layout Options>Players.
You’ll then be able to copy/paste between the instruments you want to (I just did it). You can even leave the new kit as 5-line staff, choose your instrument to copy from the old kit (single-line), paste into new kit, and move where you want.
Jeah, this (single lines + copy and paste) works @DanielMuzMurray !
Something strange is happening when the 5 lines Staff layout option is activated (like in the posted file): if you write something in the Ali Kit v1 and then copy paste to Drumset (Old Perc 1) it works, but not the other way around! As you say, probably
Ah, I see. Yes, I can move notes around when they are viewed as single-line instruments, even from instrument to instrument. It’s messy if you have a lot of drum instruments in the kit, and it’s awkward to have to go into Layout Options for it, but it works.
Maybe this is the solution. My biggest problem with percussion in Dorico has been inflexibility, like the notes are in a black box.
The crazy hassles around importing MIDI are not solved. But at least I should be able to fix things now, after the fact.
