I am working on a percussion ensemble where there are numerous players, each “holding” many instruments.
The composer wants the staves labeled “Player 1”, “Player 2”, etc. The new staff labeling feature in Dorico 4 is perfect for this, except that I am getting a bizarre result.
As you can see, I get the player names for players 1, 2, 5, 6, and 7. But I do not get the names for Players 3 and 4.
Any help would be appreciated.
Robby
I think I can guess why this might be happening. Is it the case that the “High Toms” and “Low Toms” instruments are set to display as “Grid” on the Players page of Layout Options? Percussion instruments that are set to display as grids have their own special staff labels, and it’s difficult to reconcile these two.
100% correct. I changed to the 5-line staff, and all is right.
Thank you very much for that bit of insight. It never even crossed my mind.
Robby
Will this change or do we need to use 5-line staff presentation? I need to write for a Bumbass instrument which has two different parts ringing (bow and foot) so grid seemed perfect… Unless it’s called bow and foot!
Is your problem with instrument changes, Marc, or is it just that you want more flexibility over the staff label for your grid? If it’s the latter, does defining a group within the grid help you at all? You can, after all, define a single group that covers the whole grid.
Actually, I thought I could have my player’s name (Basse de Flandre) instead of arco and feet markings. There’s no instrument change, it’s really a matter of consistency there. This instrument is only in one flow among 30+ flows, and I already use the group names (and this percussion player is part of the folkloric music group — can groups be nested?)
(Funnily enough I updated this page yesterday to include more explicit mention of how grid groups affect staff labels, with the example pic showing a grid with two tom instruments grouped together. And somehow missed the floor tom above - I’ll add that to the group on Monday.)
Thanks Lillie, that is very useful information!
And I can’t believe Richard and you answer my questions on a Saturday evening, at 8pm… Get some rest! 
