Preference for Dynamics appearing below a vocal part?

Dorico
1

Is there a preference to make Dynamics appear below a vocal part? I’ve been looking and I can’t find anything close to this.

2

No, I’m afraid not. Dorico will always show dynamics above a vocal staff to avoid interfering with lyrics. You could potentially use a renamed non-vocal instrument instead?

3

Hmmmm, but wouldn’t that take away my ability to add lyrics? Although this makes complete sense, it seems weird to me that this is the case. Personally, I would love to atleast have an option for this. I’d give three options for this: above staff, under staff above lyrics (when present) and under staff below lyrics (when present). I’m not saying it’s absolutely needed but I am saying it would be used if it was there.

4

You can add lyrics to any instrument, not only vocal staves. The reason it’s this way is based on a long-standing convention to avoid collisions between dynamics and lyrics.

5

Okay, good to know and I understand.

6

Be careful. Jane Manning once told me if performance instructions appear beneath the stave, she’ll sing them.

3 Likes
7

You can of course just select the first dynamic, then “Select More”, to select all the dynamics, and then change the Property to “Below”. You’ll need to do it for each staff, though.

But as said, it’s not the expected convention.

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8

For playback reasons, I often choose Flute, Oboe, Clarinet and Bassoon as replacements for S A T B.
It would be nice to have a ‘general default position’ for dynamics, so that you could choose like: (always) below or (always) above the staff - even if you don’t use ‘voices’ but ‘instruments’ when writing choral music.

9

If it’s for playback, then you could create a Playback Template that uses instrumental samples for the Soprano, Alto, etc Players.

Besides the normal expected standard default usual position of dynamics above the staff, there are other established conventions that differ between vocal and instrumental staves, such as not joining barlines between staves, etc.

10

ah yes, of course…I use S A T B and assign them to other PlugIns - so easy. Never thought about that :smile: Thanx