If I select an accidental in Engrave mode, and then select a Custom Scale value, the Note itself changes size, even though it is not selected.
Is it possible to scale an accidental by itself? (I also notice the Offset doesn’t actually move it either.)
Smaller accidentals are very useful as indicators of editorial intervention. Currently, I use accidentals above the note as Text objects, with a hidden ‘real’ accidental for playback.
This has been discussed; I remember being one of a handful of members who would be delighted to be able to natively place accidentals above the note, as if musica ficta, for editorial purposes. Enclosed in brackets as well as parenthesis would be lovely as well. For now, you will have to continue doing what you already do.
You do have a separate Property for accidental offset, by the way, but only on the X axis.
We do intend to make it possible to change the scale factor of individual accidentals in due course, but it will require the introduction of a dedicated property in the Notes and Rests group to allow it; as you’ve found, the ‘Scale’ property in Common applies to the whole collection of bits and bobs that makes up the note, not just one fragment of it.
I’m curious as to the current status of this situation. I’m trying to editorialize certain accidentals by shrinking them to cue size, and I’m finding that the Scale property still shrinks all the stuff associated with the note and not just the accidental I’ve selected. I thought I had come upon a potential solution in special noteheads scaled up to 135%, which when set to Cue scale appear at regular (what Dorico calls “Larger”) size. But redoing the stem attachments in the Notehead Editor is very tricky, and in any event the flags and stems still appear at Cue scale.
Is there a good workaround for this at present? Could I, say, jigger a playing technique to appear within the staff to the left of a notehead? Or maybe change, say, the triple flat glyph to read as a shrunken flat? That would mess up playback but that’s not a problem in my case.
You could create a new tonality system that had two sets of accidentals, one normal size, one small. Note that if you transpose, Dorico would lost the distinction between the two.
The only existing symbols that sit beside a note are the Jazz plops and doits, which you could repurpose.
Otherwise, I’m afraid Dorico doesn’t really accommodate small accidentals, and your alternatives are Playing Techniques above the note, or square brackets.
Ooo, brilliant! The tonality system is an especially fascinating idea. But I think I’m going to have to repurpose the jazz ornaments, for the sake of simplicity and future flexibility. Many thanks!
Update—gotta try the custom tonality system, there are only two jazz ornaments total that sit to the left of the notehead, and I need symbols for sharp, natural, and flat…