Problem with ties

I did find a workaround (tie to a minim and then tie on another crotchet and let Dorico figure out that it’s a dotted minim).

That will do for now, but maybe there is a more intuitive way.

I believe this is a known issue when you have note input set to specify accidentals, rhythm dots, and articulations after the note instead of before. One workaround is to enter the two notes separately and then add the tie.

@asherber that takes quite a bit longer than doing a tie to a minim and then another tie to crotchet which (with my settings) equals a dotted minim.

The key objective for me is to try and keep my hands in one place when working. It’s the rest ‘input’ which is slowing me down. I know Dorico doesn’t ‘input’ notes like Finale, but what I need is a precise way to advance the carat. At the moment I can only advance the same as the current selected rhythm (not always what I want) or by the cursor keys - again, only by one carat division and this also requires my hand to move.

I really hope Dorico can address this and understand that Finale’s speedy entry is speedy because you don’t have to move your hands from the computer keyboard or the midi keyboard. It really is objectively quicker and Dorico is painfully close to allowing it.

I’m very open to trying out new ways, but didn’t find it yet.

Having a separate number pad does help (to bring the cursor keys closer to the numbers), but this is one extra peripheral laptop device I’d rather not bring unless I have to.

Thanks for all the help so far - I’m really starting to get the hang of it.

Unless I didn’t understand you correctly, you can explicit enter rests, so if you press 4 (1/16) - comma -Y , the caret moves 1/16th of a note. You can stop entering rests by pressing the comma again.

OK, now I’m really confused.

Earlier today, everything was working just fine. I wanted a quaver at the end of a 4/4 bar to tie to a dotted crotchet (I know I could just enter a minim, but the ex-Finale user in me was delighted to enter what I see rather than have to do a quick theory calculation).

I would hit my MIDI keyboard, then hit the number keys. This morning, after applying the tie, the te button would deactivate (perfect!)

Now, it stays on. The other curious thing is that when I hit . to dot the crotchet, it turns into a quaver - what’s going on?

If anyone can solve this for me, I will be very grateful.

I didn’t change anything in the settings from this morning.

Am I going mad?

It seems like it’s ‘undotting’ the quaver tied to a crotchet (making it a quaver tied to a quaver).

As I indicated above, dotting a tied note when you have input options set to specify rhythm dots after inputting notes can lead to unexpected results. This is because Dorico sees the quaver tied to a crotchet as a single “note” of 1.5 beats. When you add the dot at the end, Dorico thinks it needs to add half the total value, or an additional 0.75 beats. Why it ends up shortening the tied note (rather than adding a dotted quaver, for example), I’m not entirely sure.

This has been discussed elsewhere on the forum, for example in this post.

For my money, the most predictable and consistent results in Dorico are obtained with both and accidentals/rhythm dots/articulations before pitch. This is not how I was used to working in Finale, and it took a little time to re-train myself, but I’ve been happy with the results.

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