Piano-style MIDI input - not working

Dorico
1

This must be something very elementary. I have a Piano instrument (grand staff) in Dorico. I’d like to play on my MIDI controller, piano style, and have Dorico transcribe it. And I see the new features about the intelligently moving split point. However, it’s not working for me. I must be missing something really basic, but I can’t find the answer in the forums nor in the YouTube tutorials.

Before recording, this is what it looks like: I’ve entered note entry mode, and I’ve specifically hit shift-down-arrow to make sure that both staves are ready:

Screenshot 2026-01-26 at 4.38.09 PM
Screenshot 2026-01-26 at 4.38.09 PM511×183 7.13 KB

Then I hit record and play a few bars of two-handed piano-style MIDI input. Then this appears, which has all the notes in the top stave and none in the bottom:

Screenshot 2026-01-26 at 4.38.21 PM
Screenshot 2026-01-26 at 4.38.21 PM537×173 13.2 KB

What am I doing wrong?

2

You are starting note input (showing the caret)
To record MIDI just select the top rest and start recording.

You only need the note entry if you are doing step input.

1 Like
3

Or if you only want to record music into only the selected staff. I find that quite helpful when transcribing existing material.

4

Thank you! Got it now. I couldn’t find that in the documentation.

Secondary easy question: now that it’s working, I’m finding Dorico inserting all kinds of slurs (I guess, trying to be smart, interpreting my playing) but it’s doing them entirely wrong, so I’d prefer to disable that so I don’t have to undo all its guessing work. Is there a pref somewhere for this?

EDIT: Never mind, found it in Preferences > Play.