Setting the actual range of instruments family in Dorico5

Dorico
1

I received a detailed pdf document about a family of local instruments that have an actual range and a suggested range each.
I have an ensemble of such instruments on the score but I want to have them sound in the correct octaves, with in-range notes in black, and out-of-range notes in color.
It has to reflect the real instruments range. It also has to reflect the fact that the notation is not with octava numbers, but just as transposing instruments. Some clefs are treble, and one is bass. Dorico seems to have just a generic instrument and not the single family members. However these are special local instruments so I would have to change the range anyway even if there was a family (I did so in Musescore because of different instrument types).
Where do I set the instrument range for each part? I mean like in Musescore.
I cannot find the dialog in Dorico5. Some online documentation is not useful, I could find instructions.
Thanks

2

Library->Instruments…

Jesper

3

I do not find the “Instruments” entry in the Library menu. Is it different from yours?

4

Maybe you don’t have Dorico 5 Pro?

Jesper

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5

In fact, I have the Elements version, I thought just advanced functions were not available.

6

Well, having the ability to define your own instruments, including configuring their exact range, would probably be seen as “advanced” by quite some people :wink:

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7

@Estigy
When purchasing, this was not clear at all, because I remember checking the differences in comparison page for the two versions and indeed I read that the main difference was the divisi feature or similar level of pro feature.
Setting the instrument range is not advanced IMHO because in my thought it is encompassed in the normal notation, before the “advanced features” kick in.
When minor but still important differences are going to show up in the middle of the use of the application it should be clear.

8

IMHO having the ability to define your own instruments at all is a Pro feature as Dorico comes with a list of I-don’t-even-know-how-many built in. But I can totally understand why you may see that differently.

  1. Maybe you could describe what instruments you are missing so they could be added in the future? What kind of “local” instruments are we talking about? :slight_smile:
  2. @dspreadbury Might be a good idea to include this feature and where it is available in the version comparison list?
9

Dorico’s instrument range merely highlights notes outside the playable range on screen as a courtesy to the user. You can simply turn it off, if it doesn’t agree with your ideas about the instrument. It doesn’t affect the notation that you can write; and it doesn’t affect the printed page.

But yes, some indication of what range you want to change on what instrument would be useful.

10

@Estigy
@benwiggy
I do not need to define a custom instrument but just to set different ranges for instruments belonging to a family (ocarinas), because they are transposing in C,G or F.
For example there is not just an alto, but two altos, one in F, and the other in G.
I see that there are common clefs, but the ones I need are missing, so I think also this is an advanced feature.

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