Report on large score (Dorico 1.0.30)

I have been working on an opera vocal score I had previously copied in Sibelius (150 pages, 18 flows, 10 players). What happened to be quite long is the addition of players — in order to create a consistency between the different flows (each one a new xml import). I have to manually rewrite the tempo markings and the fermatas, but globally, apart from the Setup mode operations, I found everything was smooth for such a big file!

What I mean, dear David, is that there might be some stuff that slows Dorico down… Let’s wait for Daniel’s advice on that matter :wink:

If I recall correctly, there is a known issue of certain types of MIDI interfaces that send Dorico MIDI data even when nothing is happening… thus causing Dorico to slow down. I could have parts of that incorrect, and I am sure someone will be able to speak more to this. But out of curiosity, what is your MIDI setup? Do you have something that sends continuous MIDI data to Dorico even though nothing is happening?

Robby

All I use is a keyboard, note input, no sounds. It goes USB directly to the Mac USB input. That can’t be the problem. But, as I said, with the tab button deselcted, it is already much better.

Go to Setup mode and call up Layout Options.
Select part layouts from left hand panel.
Select Players from Category: pull down menu.
Scroll down and untick Show multi-bar rests.

David,

Craig’s information about multi rests is correct, however I’d like to point out that you can still enter music just fine with multi rests showing! It just seems a little strange at first. (Try it - it works!)

If you are entering music near the end of the flow, David, then it could be casting off that is causing the slow-down. Casting off works a bit differently for the final systems of a flow in order to try to distribute the music more evenly throughout the final systems in order to avoid ending up with a final system with only one or two bars on it. The number of systems in this range varies according to the number of instruments in the project: with one instrument, it affects (I think) half a dozen systems or so; with an orchestral score, it affects only the last two systems. If you add (say) 100 empty bars at the end of your flow, then you should always be comfortably outside this range, and casting off will be a lot faster, hence you should experience less of a slow-down. You can remove the empty bars again using Write > Trim Flow.

Naturally we are trying to come up with ways to improve this situation, and I expect we will have some improvements in the future, but this advice should work for the time being.

Well, I tried adding 100 empty measures, and it didn’t help – the program is slowing down again, now more and more. The primary slow down involves adding notes. The other bits are much faster. It can be about 1-2 seconds per each note add. I can put in a measure or so that buffers and adds, usually accurately, even if there are duration switches including tuplets. But it is getting painfully slow to add pitches. I’m now working in the 280-300 measure range (one flow/movement, and now above 40 pages, two systems per page). The work is fl, cl, vn, vc, vibe/marimba, pno. The marimba chosen is one of the single-staff ones.

I wondered if the extra measures would help, as I don’t have “justify final system” selected. But I tried it anyway.
I haven’t tried working just in parts, as that would make the work more difficult.

Any further ideas would be great. Or I can zip the score and send it to you.

I suspect, based on experience with Finale, that I’m suffering from the fact that this was begun in Dorico’s first version, then continued a bit as each of the updates came along. Most of the work (about 2/3) has been since the most recent release.

I’m getting fairly close to the end (another 40-50 measures or so). So no emergency. But any help or further ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
David

David, are you inputting in Page View or Galley View? Whichever you’re using, is note entry quicker if you use the other?

A word of warning re. entering notes directly into parts: of you respell any accidentals yourself, they’ll ONLY respell in the parts regardless of whether it’s a transposing instrument or not.

You may well find that inputting the music in galley view is faster, but only if Dorico is not keeping a page view up-to-date in the background. The only way to ensure that Dorico is only keeping galley view up-to-date is to have only a single tab/view open, for that to be in galley view, and to then save, close and reopen the project. If you’ve had a page view of the full score open at any point during the current editing session, then Dorico will still be keeping that up-to-date in the background (to make it quicker to switch back to the page view when you choose to), but this does mean that it’s doing work for something you can’t currently see.

I would definitely be interested in having the project so I can pass it on to my colleagues and check that there isn’t another performance issue we’re not currently aware of that is causing the problem: if you could zip it up and email it to me (d dot spreadbury at steinberg dot de) we will take a look next week.

Hi Daniel,
Thanks so much for the help. I tried setting Galley view, then quitting/reopening, and that did speed things up a bit. Of course, when I switch to Engrave for some fine-tuning, then back to Galley, everything slows down again. I’ll zip the file and email it later today, when I’m at a logical stopping point.
Thanks again,
David