Player with 2 instruments: Define when both staves are shown?

Dorico
1

I have a player that plays on a marimba with some hits on a wood block (and other special effects) in between.
When there is a note on the marimba and a wood block hit at the very same time, Dorico shows both staves.
When the wood block note falls in between the marimba notes, I get an instrument change every time, leading to sections like these with instrument changes on almost every beat:

grafik

(Please ignore the “Dr.S.” - the special effects kit started as a drum set. :wink: )

In cases like this I would love to see both staves, as this would be much more readable for the player.

Any Ideas?

2

Add something to the staff not currently shown that prevents an instrument change, such as a chord symbol region.

Instrument changes are allowed within the same staff when the two instruments have no overlapping material.

3

Thanks. Lillie, for this very easy workaround.

Just wanted to make sure I’m not missing something hiding in one of the option windows like “show both staves if …” :slight_smile:

4

Maybe it’s easier to simply define two players and show them both in the same part layout (and hide staves when needed). Or use an ossia staff occasionally. It’s not really an instrument change, it’s an extra ‘voice’.

5

Or better yet, if you never want to allow instruments to share a staff in this layout (if you always want the wood block hits to be separate), simply disallow instrument changes in the layout.

6

Hi, Lilly.

Thanks for the quick follow-up.

In principle, I do want (and need) to allow it. It’s only at those places where many intrument changes occur in quick succession that I would love Dorico to display 2 staves. (Just like the option “Maximum number of voice crossings” for the condensing feature.) In these places it’s more a “playing all instruments at the same time” thing than a “changing from one to the other” situation.

Your workaround of course does everything for me that I need :slight_smile:

7

It’s been requested before to be able to set something like “minimum duration between notes before allowing instrument changes”, so the team is aware.

8

Perfect, thanks! :slight_smile:

9

I see what you’re saying.

In this piece the player is switching between all kinds of instruments (currently 14), and most of the time the setup works perfectly. It’s only at those rare places where two or 3 of them are played in quick succession, like an ongoing marimba rhythm including a wood block, or a triangle rhythm with wind chimes in between.

But Lillie already gave me a good workaround for those rare places :slight_smile: