Request: Non-destructive unlinking for dynamics

Dorico
1

I’ve been given a score from a composer to clean up, but he has a lot of linked dynamics that are conflicting with one another, some of them linked to locations many bars away.

If I unlink them (which is usually step one for me), I find dynamics can suddenly disappear, sometimes at other places in the score where it’s not immediately obvious. This has bitten me not a few times, and it’s happened on this project already. I’m now unsure of how to proceed, short of exporting a PDF and checking it bar-by-bar to make sure nothing disappears.

Linking has its advantages, but also some severe liabilities. Could you please consider changing the behavior of unlinking to make it non-destructive, so the resulting dynamics are static? Thank you!

1 Like
2

I don’t use linked dynamics, but if they disappear sometimes, isn’t that a bug?

3

It may be, I don’t know. If I’m the one inputting the dynamics from the beginning, I don’t have any problems. The issue comes from things like this in scores given to me:

image
image1237×1012 77.2 KB

Is it user error? Well, sure. But I’d just like to make every dynamic “freeze” in place so I can deal with them one at a time.

1 Like
4

I agree. For me they have been more trouble than they are worth. But this may be due to a lack of understanding on my part.
David

3 Likes
5

My main issue is that they insist on all moving when you try to nudge just one in engrave mode. I’ve given up on them too.

2 Likes
6

I use them a lot, but I too wish they did not all move when one at the ends is moved.

7

Well, that is the intended behavior with linking. If you want that, it can be helpful.

You can select the range of bars and Unlink them (you don’t need to select only dynamics).

8

Also, in case anyone isn’t aware, here’s the pertinent setting to turn off linking:

image
image1641×1899 218 KB

1 Like
9

Dan, if you want to provide an actual example of the specific issue you’re experiencing when you unlink, in an actionable form (i.e. a project and a set of steps to reproduce) we can look into it.

In general of course the intention is that unlinking dynamics should not delete any dynamics, so it certainly sounds like a bug of some description, but pictures don’t allow us to investigate such things.

10

Will do. I’ve corrected the dynamics this morning but will report back when it happens again.