Today I simply started typing some notes on a 4/4 staff:
Do-re-mi-fa-fa (C-D-E-F-F)
Notice that second F is the first note on the next bar.
Now I tie the last two notes.
Now, I know that there is no way that the system allows me to consider those as two separate notes again (change my mind of what is a note), but I am just killing time, I want to learn something just in case I have to import some music from Musescore to benefit of a different sound engine.
Now I dot the big note and it creates another beat as expected in Dorico, other programs would have dotted the last note.
Why? Because it is obvious, I am dotting! There is a dotting tool in the palette, so it is clear I am dotting the note. Did anyone ever in any school of music dotted an entire group of notes tied together, meaning to dot the full bunch? No. However a note appears and the ānoteā is now a three-beat note, like a DAW.
Letās say I instead select the big two-notes ānoteā and add +1/8 to it (it is like a piano roll in my mind now) so I expect a quaver to appear.
The chunk of two notes is shifted forward instead, but I expected that the duration is augmented.
A few days it did so, but I changed some option I do not even remember.
Please can you explain me what is the correct mode to input such simple group of notes and have a minimal editing capability without removing and re-entering many notes? (this was just a simple example, think of tied notes across multiple bars)
These are the basics of any software, it cannot fail them. So as you say itās me, I do not understand because I am a newbie. I need help.
Thanks for the response
Dorico does things āautomaticallyā in response to the settings in Notation Options. I would recommend spending some time in Notation Options examining the various options for note grouping.
In regards to moving a note instead of lengthening itā¦ Iām not totally clear on what you did, or what keystrokes you used. Alt-arrow will move a note left, right, up, or down. To lengthen a selected note, use Shift-Alt-right arrow.
Do you mean tie the F to the G? You canāt, they arenāt the same pitch. You could slur them together using S.
Well, you had a two-beat note, and you dotted it, so now itās a three-beat note.
I understand from your other post that you donāt like how Dorico does this. I donāt know what to say except, āWell, thatās what it does.ā There are in fact huge advantages to this functionality. And once you learn what to expect, it is quite easy to get what you want.
So you have a choice. You can give yourself to the āDorico wayā of doing things, and you will find you acclimate quickly. Or you can fight against the program and wish it behaved differently, and you will get frustrated.
If you wish to know how to use Dorico, you will find plenty of folks here happy to help. I also advise working through the First Steps guide.
If we agree on what āa noteā means according to music theory you are wrong because those are two notes, not a single note. Someone else said in a previous thread that it is single note (as we were dealing with a DAW), but it was just to explain what Dorico āthinksā, I hope.
Yes, of course. Youāll find plenty of highly-educated and experienced musicians on this forum. Itās clear to everyone that there are two notes tied together. Whether itās one note or two is a pointless debate, better suited for a music theory forum. The point is how Dorico handles it, and what you need to do to get your desired results.
OK I want to buy that Doricoās users are happy, who am I to judge their kindness to Steinberg (really, would I have not trusted? OK, now I know) but please it is not about a supposed Dorico way to do things, there is not such a way in 2024 as other programs exist that are very advanced (some are free!).
Just think I have a long note starting about in the middle of a bar, a particular position inside a bar, and the note encompasses multiple bars, then it ends being the first note on a distant bar.
Now we have such a ānoteā as you all say. I cannot calculate the length, I am not supposed to do it, so I certainly will never use the dotting tool again because it can break my music if I am wrong about the durations or the positions.
I have accept as a matter of fact not to be able to edit the single notes (single notes are single notes, no need to explain further or argue about that here)ā¦wait I cannot accept it.
However let me finish my point: I can use, just to learn something weird every day, Shift-Alt-Arrow to change the duration, but this is not acceptable for me, along with the many bugs of the program.
What about if I change my mind, I have to remove the entire note with all the operations I already done to tweak it and I have to perform again, maybe for multiple instruments with slight difference and not aligned, each with different pitch so I cannot lose the pitch, because maybe I do not recall it immediately, I am not supposed to do such editing in my mind, it defeats the purpose of using a costly professional editor, I am dealing with hundreds of notes in my music. I cannot lose the exact start position of the long note. How am I supposed to remove the entire chunk of notes for an edit in the middle (imagine I want a different note in the middle, keeping the others left and right tied together).
This is the simplest function!
Thatās incorrect. Shift-Alt-right arrow lengthens a note, Shift-Alt-Left arrow shortens it. I almost never have to delete and re-enter a note.
I recommended above that you consult the First Steps guide and learn these foundational functions in Dorico. It may not be a good fit for you, but you should learn the program before you claim it doesnāt do something.
Dear am74,
I think that none program will work according to we have Ā« in our mind Ā». A software is a tool, nothing else, and you need to know its logic, which is not necessarily your own.
But maybe Dorico isnāt the right software for you, it doesnāt matter. There are others on the market that may or may not satisfy you.
Just look for itā¦
@ObiwanKenobi
I was just writing this to you:
Please can you explain what @Janus said about untying?
I have a long note that encompasses many measures, it starts in the middle of the starting measure, then I see many notes tied together, until the last note is on the first beat of the last measures. I select the big long ānoteā as you all call it and press U and all notes (now are different notes by the way) are untied.
I want to untie only one note in the middle, can you say me how to do it without having to reconstruct the tying structure left and right of that point after the untying operation is done by pressing U?
You cannot, and I think that in 2024 I am not supposed to perform such a poor editing workflow on my staff after paying money.
Yes you canā¦ place the caret (the music insertion point you use in write mode) wherever you want (i.e. not necessarily at the location of a written notehead in the tied chain), and then press U. Dorico will nicely split the note precisely there, and re-notate the resulting rhythm according to a) your notation preferences, and b) built-in knowledge of best practices in music engraving. If for some reason you want it notated otherwise, there are many ways to accommodate that, which, admittedly, have to be discovered by studying it a little. Dorico is smart, and requires you to use it in a smart way too.
āI donāt quite understand how this worksā is not a bug. Itās just lack of experience.
(Edit: and yes, of course, thereās this indispensible manual, thanks @TonH )
@TonH@PjotrB
Thanks, but please not.
I tried and some quavers appeared with further tyings.
I have to set the grid to a unit to perform soā¦ I let you change the grid for whatever similar operation on different tyings. Unbelievable.
However my example was the simplest, there are other problems with Dorico, some I cannot even explain in words.
Every operation is complicated and needs several (often conflicting) configuration choices because of the unmusical idea of using an underlying DAW engine (now they are even merging in Cubase).
@ asherber
Thanks
I cannot just try now, I will as I regain control of Dorico. It has crashed and it is idle because, I do not why, it started recording what I was playing unaware on my midi keyboard, now it recorded just a few minutes of simple music but this crashed the application.
If you are experiencing crashes in Dorico, please do Help > Create Diagnostic Report and attach the resulting zip file here so I can take a look and see what has happened.
OK I forced the application to be terminated (now the audio engine is broken, I have to reboot I suppose) and restarted.
Your suggestion works, I was so naive to trust the caret position that was exactly on the note. This is a minor issue but I was using arrows and I trusted the position with my eye.
Furthermore when I am wrong with the position strange note scatterings happen for no reason, it depends on the grid step and it does not just untie, but creates notes that cannot be edited further to be notated as I want (yeah I have to do this and that, ok).
So I suppose that forcing yourself in strange ways you can use Dorico for this.
By the way I see that I am struggling with basic logical things like changing the last note of a tie chain as I want, I am not accustomed to having to use Shift+Alt+arrow to accomplish such a simple editing task. It is a DAW in disguise after all.
Regards
