How many flows per project do you typically use (excluding fragments and placeholders)
0 voters
I don’t have an ulterior motive, just wondering.
I’m specifically wondering about single-movement vs. multi-movement projects.
Multiple Flows are one of the great aspects of the program for me. Every mass setting has six sections - Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, etc.
Concert works for choir, soli and orchestra are subdivided in all sorts of ways. To think when I had to use Finale’s Expressions to create Section Headings for Parts (hidden in the score)… 
I’m doing several Magnificat & Nunc dimittis settings; I’m also making anthologies of motets, madrigals, and songs. And an Anglican Psalm Chant book. Plus I’m working on my third opera, and I’ve got an edition of Monteverdi’s Vespers that I’m resetting in Dorico.
The way that you can import/export any Flows to/from other documents makes it dead easy to mix and match stuff, so that compilations (and getting the page numbering right) is an absolute doddle. Loving every minute!
For me
Multiple flows:
Single flow:
However, using single flow projects might also be good because working with long files has the following problem:
Multiple flows including an Evensong setting, musical theatre arrangements, chamber music and some film work. I don’t think I’ve done anything with only one flow.
I appear to be in the minority. The vast majority of my projects are single flows.
Even when they have multiple movements?
Most don’t.
Single flows here. Lead sheets, songs, big band, orchestral, orchestra+band, stage band… all single flows.
I’m typically a single flow guy too, with the exception of when I duplicate a flow to add a transposed version (down one step for instance) but that to my mind is a bit of a loophole, and even then, I’m typically only one flow.
I use many flows in my projects, musicals with up to 35 flows. And I find that Dorico is getting REALLY slow when having more than around 14 flows. This is a problem to me. I have reported this from the start - first mover here in Denmark - and although the latest update is improving a bit, it’s the single issue that makes me think about going back to S…
And my set-up is really fast and everything works just fine, but Dorico has to do a lot of “thinking”.
Going from Write mode to Play mode = 8 sec. AND the playback template is “Silence”.
I would like to hear from Dorico team if this is an issue that have their attention?
I will typically end up with one “real” flow, but will have another one or more that I use as a sketchbook, jotting down ideas and snippets that I don’t yet know how to incorporate in the final piece. It’s my favorite aspect of the flow system.
Write mode to Play mode takes under 3 seconds for a 97-Flow, 277-page document here! And that’s using the ARIA Player VST. Twice, with 20 Instruments.
Adding Players or changing Players/Flows would take several seconds, as would other major layout changes. Note Entry got a little sluggish towards then end, but not as bad as some versions of Finale I’ve had to use!
I use multiples flows about 80% of the time. It’s one of Dorico’s greatest features. The addition of the flow headers system makes it even sweeter.
Examples:
I’m preparing a performance edition of Monteverdi’s Vespers that I’m doing in May. All movements have their separate flows. Each flow has a different personnel composition. The two choirs are in their separate groups with Choir-2 taken out of every flow except Nisi Dominus, Lauda Jerusalem and the Ave Maris stella. The divisi feature makes choir composition a breeze to manage from one flow to the next. I also added an extra tenor for Lauda Jerusalem because of the funky player order there. Tacets for all instruments are automatically generated and I will also add a cue line for the Bassus generalis part which will not appear on the score layout. Even the Magnificat (we are doing the 6 part one) is made up of different flows, but I have a new first and default master pages for that, with a differently formatted flow header so that the headers look more like subsections which I have numbered manually in their flow titles from 1 to 13. Of course, if I change the layout, I have to move those Master pages around, but the flexibility Dorico affords to accomplish this is simply a dream some true: it’s ALL in ONE file!!! And it’s easy to manage. 25 flows, and no slow down in this particular project.
I make concert books when orchestrating either a whole Pops concert or a large segment of it; at least when appropriate. The 2nd half of RDSO’s Christmas Show was such a book, including orchestra tacets when the choir sang alone. In facts, I make books all the time. My wife is involved with a baroque concert with dancers in Calgary later this month. I took an afternoon and made her a multiflow book with correct page-turns from her material. While her colleagues flip whole scores and photocopies around, she just turns a page!
The flexibility of the flow system has allowed me to do things that were huge headaches in the past, especially with concerts made up of 20 small pieces as we often have to do with some of our children-orientated stuff. But now, it’s simply run-of-the-mill stuff. I’m very grateful for flows.
For me - multiple flows all the time. I can’t remember the last time I stopped after just one flow.
Whether it’s a months worth of ideas, examples of something I might be studying or or adding another song to a collection of songs from a particular songwriter - having it all together opens it all up and amplifies it in a way that keeping it separate never achieves. For me it’s one of Dorico’s best features.
Depends on how many drafts I discard.
I just did my first Dorico project and used 10 flows, one for the piece and 9 for musical examples in footnotes. Since my projects tend to use a lot of footnotes and short examples, the reports about stability are welcome news.