I admit it — I’m basically just venting here. But it’s a real issue, so…
I am a total Dorico fan; I use it 100% of the time, and I look forward to watching it mature. But having said that, I am very frustrated by how much time I waste going back and reformatting parts.
I write mostly large ensemble music (concert band, etc.), and I am amazed at how much Dorico does for me—in the score. But the parts are a whole different story.
The context is that I’m formatting my music for publication, so it has to look really good, or my publisher just sends it back.
Gradual and immediate tempo changes jump around instead of staying lined up where I put them, rehearsal marks cause all kinds of mayhem to nearby objects, and staff spacing bounces around in unpredictable ways (to me, at least.) Sometimes I can’t even keep parts stable long enough to get them into pdf form; I end up formatting and then reformatting them before I can export them.
I don’t experience nearly the same frustration with scores. As I said above, I’m really blown away by the scores and Dorico’s handling of them. But I’m spending the kind of time on parts I used to in the “bad old days” of the early versions of both Finale and Sibelius.
I really hope that stabilizing the staff spacings, rehearsal marks, tempo marks, etc. in parts are a high priority, because I waste more time on that one issue than on any other.
Just for my own piece of mind, is anyone else experiencing this same kind of frustration with parts not remaining stable once they’re formatted?
Thanks.
