Playhead position at start of playback

I normally leave the first measure blank so that playback can have a little time before it is engaged. In my first Dorico exploratory score, I started in measure 1 and the sound was partially muted on the first beat and note of measure 1. I noticed that when editing an articulation of a note in the properties box that there was an item labeled “play start offset.” Is this used to position the playhead at the beginning of playback to prevent the playhead from missing a note at the beginning of a score?

Jack

I suspect that the problem here is a bug that can affect the first note of the score under some circumstances. If playback timing humanisation is turned on then if it results in a note having a negative timestamp then it won’t play. Try turning the option off in Playback Options or in Play mode just drag the start of the note very slightly to the right (which actually is the play offset property you describe above. You could set it to zero too)