I’m using a Tonality System for 22 equal divisions of the octave. In the notation, the white-note scale ABCDEFG is specified as 4144144, and the delta of sharps and flats is 3 steps. Arrows indicate one step (a slightly wide quarter-tone). So C-sharp is enharmonically equivalent to D-down-arrow. Dorico handles this correctly, including the playback when the accidentals are input from the palette. But if the C-sharp is input by changing the enharmonic spelling of a D-down-arrow with the Option-minus key command, Dorico writes the correct spelling, C#, but tunes the note wrong (slightly flat). In the enclosed example file the the first two pairs of notes are correctly tuned to one step of 22-equal (quartertone) but the last pair is slightly narrower than that. The C# marked with an asterisk was the result of re-spelling Dv with Opt-.
Mistuning.dorico (551.1 KB)
The MIDI tuning values in the Status Bar also show mistunings. The microtuning is expressed in a weird way, as a fraction (why? That doesn’t tell the tuning to anyone!) but when the value of that ratio is calculated and expressed as a decimal number, it turns out to be in the familiar midicents, ie. MIDI note number plus cent value. In the same Tonality System as above, for two enharmonically equivalent notes, F^ and Gb, the status bar shows two different tunings, 721/11 and 719/11. The former is correct and that should be the tuning of both notes, 65.545 (midi note 65 plus 54.5 cents). The latter is 65.36, ie. midi note 65 plus 36 cents which is wrong and quite a bit flat. -However, in this case, the playback seems to be identical for both notes, it’s only the display that gives the wrong value. But when respelling (Alt-) is used, mistunings occur, as explained above.
I have worked with other tuning systems in Dorico in the past, and I am examining your file, and I hear what you describe … and I am eager to understand what is going on … but so far I have no clue!
The only thing I have been able to glean is that the status bar is displaying the equivalent midi note in rational, rather than decimal, form.
All of my microtonal projects from Dorico 3.5 and 4 now display with wrong symbols in the accidentals I defined, and play back with incorrect tuning.
I’ve asked a colleague who knows this area of the software better than I do to look into this. I’ll report back when I can.
We believe we now understand this problem, and will work to provide a fix in a future update.
Just to add to what Daniel’s said, if you are using a tuning system such as 22-EDO then the values in the status bar are only part of what determines the final sounding pitch, so I would be careful of taking them at face value. The status bar will be correct for any tuning system in which the position of the notes without accidentals “lines up” with the position of the notes in 12-EDO. However, for tuning systems where, for example, the gap between C and D isn’t twice the gap between B and C, then Dorico makes some additional tuning adjustments during playback that are not reflected in what’s shown in the status bar.
Mark, that sounds like a different problem to what’s described on the rest of this thread. Can you post an example file that demonstrates the issue?
Excellent, glad to hear the problem has been detected and will be sorted out. As to the status bar, it makes sense now - so the values are correct for EDOs where the white notes are in 12-EDO (ie. 24, 36, 48, 72 etc). I was baffled by that: the value for F^, 65.545 seemed correct, one step in 22EDO being 0.545 cents, but the F (midi note # 65) would itself also have to be microtonally tuned, so I wasn’t sure how that worked. - A status bar value for all tunings in, say, cents from A, would be welcome!
Another wish, if I can make it here, is this; When notes are copypasted from one Tonality System to another (typically in my work, from a microtonal TS to 12EDO), the microtonal accidentals disappear, of course, as they should, but there will still be remnants of the microtonal tunings in the playback of the notes. Every note has to be naturalized. Even the MIDI notes may turn out different from the notated ones. I wish a “clean” copypaste were possible between Tonality Systems.