I have a Percussion kit that has nothing but four Concert Toms in it, each on a different space, F, A, C, E if spelling them in Treble Clef. I am trying to get the two lowest toms to beam together. Instead, I have this (see 1st pic), where the 2nd space tom will not beam with the lowest tom. How do I beam them together like the 2nd pic which is from the original file done in Finale? (My Dorico file is an musicXML file from a Finale file.)
Incidentally, the lowest Tom (the F) “thinks” it is the K. Dr. 5 (stem direction is up, voice direction 1), the 2nd lowest (A) thinks it is a Fl. Tom 5 (stem direction down, voice 1), and the next one up (C) is in the Sn. Dr. 3 slot (stem direction down, voice 1). I don’t know why; this is how it converted form the XML file. I’m not very proficient with kits.
I’ve verified that all four toms are in the up-stem direction and all show voice 1. These show different label names but they are indeed my tom instruments, just labeled incorrectly.
Also, another problem has crept in…rests are not showing and instead where they should be I just have blank space. No amount of forcing rests into these spots seems to work. Below are some screenshots.
I would, but how do I post a fragment of a Dorico file? I have extracted out the part itself and whittled it down to just a few measures but the file itself is still 8 MB. When I try to post it, it says there is a 4 MB limit.
I think I fixed most errors. To be honest, running the plugin Check region for durations before exporting from Finale would probably avoid the problems.
Thank you Jesper. Would you share how you fixed those issues? The beams that would not connect as well as forcing the rests to show? I need to know how to fix them myself and do so in Dorico without having to alter anything in Finale.
Per your suggestion, however, I went back to the original Finale file and ran the plugin “Check region…” and generated another xml. I did not notice a difference. The perc. 3 part looks identical to the other.
When I copied and pasted the file you corrected back into my full score, the beam fix remained but several of the rests disappeared again. But I think I discovered that it has something to do with the whole rest the precedes the bar where eighth rests are missing. I have no idea why a whole rest in a preceding measure would impact that bar which follows. But you’re dealing with a 30+ year Finale user turned 1 year old Dorico user. I was able to fix them just by messing around but I can’t for the life of me explain what I did. I would appreciate your insight. Thanks in advance for your help.
I couldn’t find anything strange for a while, so I just fiddled around. For pict 1, I deleted the note before the single beam one, then selected the note before and pressed r to repeat it. Same for the missing rests, deleting the note before the rest, and repeating the note before, possibly changing the pitch with alt+arrows. I also tried deleting the time signature at the beginning and re-entering it. I think that helped a few places, too. So no easy fix that I could find. No starts voice or ends voice property ticked, and no hidden time signatures. Resetting beams, positions, and appearance didn’t help.
Re: the missing rests, it sounds like that’s what I discovered in my fiddling too. Thanks for the tip on the beaming issue. I’m happy that the end result is what I need though I would like to know about why it occurs and how to fix it rather than just trial and error. Most of my Dorico work starts with an import of an xml file from either Finale or Sibelius given to me from the composer. Very little note input from me in Dorico. So probably if I were inputting this from scratch, there wouldn’t be an issue. Probably something to do with the conversion process. But I do appreciate your help very much, Jesper.
I still think there’s something strange in the Finale file. Some hidden rests perhaps. Is it only in percussion parts? I guess that’s the most difficult part since it’s handled differently in the 3 apps. You could try to import the XML to MuseScore and re-export it from there.
Indeed, it’s always the percussion parts that seem to give me the most problems when converting from Finale, as I expect is the case with most users. I do try to do a lot of clean up work with regard to percussion mapping in Finale before XML-ing it over. My concern is at some future date, when we’re no longer able to open Finale (the next OS, or the next?) and everything will need to be done on the Dorico end.
Appreciate the suggestion re: importing to MuseScore then re-exporting.
Face it: percussion is a tough challenge for any music notation/playback program, and each program suite has tried to tackle it in its own way–in the case of Finale, in multiple ways over its thirty-some-year history. Since there is no generally accepted standard how to organize the instruments, it is no wonder that transferring from one program to another has pitfalls to overcome.
I do a lot of drum notation and I wish (in Dorico or any other notation program) there was a mode where I could simply draw my notes and whatever else graphically.
No automatic correction, no sound mapping, etc., just as if I were writing on a piece of paper.
