Hello,
I would like to make glissando from defined pitch to undefined, but with defined rythm, like that:
I don’t want to have ledger lines visible. How can I do it?
Put the middle note on the top stave, and shift-x a line (capital I) for the remainder of the stem.
Move the gliss in Engrave.
Thank you, it works.
But I have to also change size of shift-X line and also move the slur. And if I will change the size of score, I will have to do it again.
This is extremly time consuming, especially, if I have a lot of this kind of effects.
“But I have to also change size of shift-X line and also move the slur. And if I will change the size of score, I will have to do it again.
This is extremly time consuming, especially, if I have a lot of this kind of effects.”
Yes, yes and yes… The other thing I’ve done in the past (not with Dorico) is to use white boxes to carefully cover the ledger lines on both sides.
In my previous scoring software I’m clicking at the note and choosing “remove ledger lines” command. It’s taking me about 2-3 seconds.
But you know Dorico is not your previous program; it is structured differently, so it works differently.
Even if Dorico is structured very differently from Finale (which I’m guessing is the application that the OP is referring to), it should definitely be able to do this kind of thing. I venture to guess that it’s already on the list for future implementation, but since Dorico tends to be semantically based, the team may be planning a specific ‘undefined note’ feature, which makes all necessarily adjustments automatically, rather than simply relying on the ability to hide ledger lines and noteheads, essentially involving multiple non-contextual steps.
Finale relies very heavily on such non-contextual steps to make things look a certain way. As a result it is relatively difficult to use, but flexible to the point of madness, and very accommodative to workarounds. With Dorico’s approach, OTOH, the functionality is potentially (and in many ways already) much more powerful, intuitive and musical, but unfortunately, leaves the user much more at the mercy of the developers, since workarounds are generally more difficult, or sometimes even impossible.
There are so many varieties of notation for ‘undefined’ notes (and scrapes, plinks, shouts, sighs…) that I can’t see Dorico dealing with these semantically. I’m sure the thing is to have a broad set of tools to hide/alter elements, plus ability to define at least some of these for playback. For Dorico, this is no different than the current ability to change something like stem length, without Dorico having to understand why.
There are ledger line controls in the properties panel in engrave mode. Those are easy to use and I find that setting 0 for left and -1 1/8 for right gives great results. Here I have changed the invisible notehead to an x because I personally find it clearer, but it can just as easily be set to colour 0 to make it disappear.It’s generally better for the invisible note to be on a space rather than a line, but the whole thing is quick and copy/pastable.
Wow, Claude, you’re right! Have these always been there? These settings are very powerful.
Yep! They were there from the start. I knew from a ways back because there was a bug which at times created the ledger lines to long and I had one score where I had to adjust. The bug was fixed long ago.
I wasn’t thinking of anything other than allowing the user to choose a dedicated option to make a note undefined, i.e., hiding the notehead, ledger lines and adjust any attached elements automatically in one go. That’s why I suggested an ‘undefined note’ feature, rather than an ‘undefined glissando’ feature.
I haven’t noticed those either, so thanks for the tip.
That just leaves adding a show/hide button, which should be easy enough to implement (even though Daniel hates that kind of thing 
).
Thank you, Claude, this is the solution I was looking for:)
Although it’s not perfect.
First: it still more steps to achive the result.
Second – see the example:
There is no possibility to have 0 lenght of ledger lines and if the beam is in opposite direction, the result is not perfect.
“There is no possibility to have 0 lenght of ledger lines and if the beam is in opposite direction, the result is not perfect.”
This is true, however in an example such as the one shown, the beams should probably be down and will cover them. But it’s not a perfect workaround in certain contexts, yet gets you close.
A very eloquent assessment of the status quo Finale vs Dorico!
Frank, I noticed a change in your signature!!!
Thank you, Frank!
Might the 0 length ledger line be in the cards in the future…? (or else the ability to attach the end of a glissando line to an empty without an engrave mode drag)
Removing leger lines is now an option on the properties panel and has been for many months now. It might only be in Engrave mode. I don’t quite remember… but it would need to be propagated.
Ah! You are completely right - didn’t even see it there! That’s good news