OK, but I would strongly prefer that all input behaves like adding measures to the end of the flow, regardless of where and how it’s entered. Note values and rest values are equally important to a musician. At all times.
frateveno +1
Maybe we could grow a toggle in write mode between “presentation” and “entry”? Where “entry” mode would be much more explicit and favor clarity over engraving “correctness”.
Let’s say I’m entering quarter notes at the beginning of a new 4/4 bar, I press space (and for arguments sake let’s assume that Dorico displays rests immediately) and now I have a quarter rest, followed by another quarter rest and a half rest. This is incorrect, but we’ll go with it for now, because hey, it’s what I wanted. Now I enter a G on beat two.
But what if I don’t enter a new note, and instead go and make myself a cup of tea and never touch that bar again? That bar will forever be wrong. And herein lies the problem: Dorico can’t predict what you’re going to do next, so it therefore must choose between always displaying your music correctly, and following your every command. The former option is, as I understand it, the entire foundation of the software.
Here’s a thought/suggestion: what if Dorico displayed an opaque/grayed-out rest temporarily until a note was entered? So for example, in 4/4 an empty measure would start with a whole note and you want a quarter note rest followed by a quarter note on beat two. You hit space to advance the caret and a light gray quarter note appears while the original whole note rest remains in place. Then after entering the note on beat two, the whole note rest goes away and the quarter note rest on beat one is displayed. Seems like it would be the best of both worlds.
I’m afraid, people, that we have no plans to make it such that, by default, Dorico creates rests when you hit Space.
If you want to force Dorico to input rests as you go along in metered music, then switch on Force Durations (shortcut O) and switch on rest input (shortcut ,) and type A-G instead of hitting Space.
The way I understand it, that is what the rhythmic ruler (orange ticks are for). As you hit space bar, it moves the note value in rests. You know where the note will fall in relation to the measure based on the ruler.
I actually like this. It was odd at first and took time to get used to, but I think it makes a lot of sense.
Robby
But it already does…? Just a bit inconsistently imho.
Ah, so you can actually do it? That’s great. That covers all the bases, and if the option is there, then it’s cool for them not displaying to be the default as far as I’m concerned. Chances are I’d get used to it, but a lot of what I write is quite ‘rest-intensive’ (if that’s a thing).
Thanks.
No, it doesn’t. When you’re in open metered music and you hit Space, Dorico simply extends the length of the flow. There are no actual rests involved, but of course the way that you show that the flow has got longer is by showing some rests. By default an open meter uses a beat grouping of one quarter, which repeats over and over, and it consolidates rests into the largest ones it can make (which is a longa rest, the equivalent of 16 quarter beats). It looks like it’s creating rests when you hit Space, but in fact it’s not, just as when you hit Space in metered music and another bar is created at the end of the flow, no actual bar rest is created.
In the end, none of that really matters: what matters is that Dorico makes note input a lot faster than other programs because you don’t need to input any rests. Rests will be created for you when you create a note, if there is a gap between the note you have just entered and the previous note in that voice.
How is hitting space any faster than hitting R?
I don’t understand this supposed speed advantage.