In my experience, piano dynamics are almost always between the two staves and apply to both right and left hands. Even if the right hand is resting, the dynamic will be between staves. Although I can imagine cases for separate dynamics for each staff, Dorico seems to consider that the default.
Is there a setting I can adjust so I can easily enter a dynamic in between staves that will apply to both?
Thank you.
I just quickly tried a piano staff rests in right hand notes in left, and it automatically placed the dynamics in between. I was able to make it go above the staff by changing the placement properties in the bottom panel and move it back again.
Did you select piano as the instrument in setup or just add the staves separately?
— Jim
Ah! Only select the treble clef! I think it should apply to both for playback but I’m not sure.
EDIT: Unfortunately, if you’re doing a score both staves will get the dynamic if you select all staves in that position. I’m on my iPad so I don’t know if there is an option to avoid this….
I’m not sure what you mean here. But it’s true that you should only select one staff when inputting dynamics on a grand staff. For playback purposes it doesn’t actually matter which staff — dynamics on a grand staff apply by default to all voices on both staves. It’s just a question of which staff you want the dynamics to appear under.
I’ll see if I can describe it better….
If you use the mouse to click-drag select a number of staves in a multi-instrument score (orchestra, chamber ensemble, etc.), both staves of the piano are selected and will result in the dynamic being attached to both “hands” instead of just “between” the two. (Is that better –more clear?) 
(Sometimes I feel like English is my second language — especially when it’s this early!)
Yes. Still the dynamic will apply to both staves, even if you remove one of those dynamics.
If one does not want a doubled dynamic, one has to select only one of the staves when inputting the dynamic. I guess with that flexibility all cases are covered?
I’m not disagreeing — just pointing out that when your piece includes a piano (or other multi-staff) part, it becomes a two-step process when inputting the dynamic for the entire ensemble. You either have to delete the dynamic from the left hand, or add the piano separately from the rest of the ensemble if adding it by selecting all the parts in one grab. Of course another choice is to have it displayed for both hands (driving my OCD crazy)!
I can live with it since it is not something that I am having to deal with very often (and I have no deadlines to consider
). However, it might be a reasonable feature request that a piano/grand staff or similar could have an option to automatically conflate the dynamic markings into the center.
A Nuance for me: There are different ways to set up playback, so I think we have to add a qualifier maybe: It doesn’t matter which staff has the dynamic - if you a using a single VSTi that has just one output. Some of my own scores, I need to separate the output for each stave and for each to have individual dynamics so I use two. Usually happens when they need to be able to pull the melody down.
