Small note spacing problem

Dorico
1

I start with this, which seems to have ample space despite the 99.8%:

Before
Before1210×292 85.2 KB

I add one grace note and get this:

After
After1210×292 88.6 KB

The Note Spacing Change values are 4 and 1 3/5.

I can’t find any Note Spacing Change values that will restore the original spacing. The small notes continue to be crushed up against the other notes. Is there anything I can do besides respace every note individually?

1 Like
2

Fix the grace note first, and you might find that - particularly if that gets you back under 100% - everything else pops back into place.

1 Like
3

Thanks for the great advice, @pianoleo The problem actually seems to be the spacing at the 2 circled areas:

Before
Before1210×292 91.2 KB

When I make the spacing more normal in those areas by using the note spacing handles, it snaps back as you predicted, and I get much below 100% and have little problem later in the system:

Corrected
Corrected1210×292 88.2 KB

The question is why the spacing is so abnormal in the two circled areas. Do I have a bad setting for grace notes?

4

I’m afraid the only way I can reproduce the really bad results above is by setting Layout Options > Note Spacing > Advanced Options > Use Actual Widths, and then I struggle to get the good results you’re getting without a lot of manual fiddling.

The long and short of it is that to give you more specific help you’d need to send the actual project to someone (I could take a look, or I’m sure someone from the development team would be interested in taking a look).

I think the bad results in 36 are explained by the unfortunate presence of the ledger line on the A, second 16th/semiquaver. You could play around with Engraving Options > Notes > Grace notes > Minimum distance between rightmost grace note and rhythmic item, but of course this is a global setting so it may cause you to have to rethink much of the spacing elsewhere in this project.

5

Thanks for looking into this, @pianoleo. I do have Use Actual Widths active because the other setting doesn’t give me good spacing results. Since this was a rare issue, and I am generally happy with the spacing, and because your yo suggestion get the percentage down below 100% can by achieved by adjusting a few areas only, I don’t think that I need additional help at this time.