I am inputting No. IV. of Messiaen’s “Vingt Regards” which is written in open meter. In bars 18 and 19 there are grace notes; bar 18 is played back correctly (=fast), bar 19 incorrectly (=slow). The second flow has these two bars in 2/4 resp. 1/4 time; they are played back correctly. But if I inserts these time signatures in the corresponding bars of flow 1 playback is still incorrect.IV. Regard de la Vierge.dorico (433.8 KB)
Dorico is struggling here to find a way to play these. For bar 18, there are short notes at the end of b17, so it has to squash the grace notes so the half note ends on the beat. In bar 19 there is lots of rhythmic space at the end of the half note in b18 so it will expand into that region. You can adjust the individual grace note timings by dragging the notes in Play Mode, to create the effect you desire, as it’s not obvious what Dorico should do in this situation.
Thank you, Paul. This explains the situation and gives a solution.
Paul - you unknowingly helped me as well with your brilliant answer. I was trying to fix a grace note duration problem in Write mode when I could have clicked over to Play mode for a quick DAW-like solution. Thanks!