I am a Finale user and I use Speedy Entry quite a bit for note entry. I’ve forced myself to use Dorico’s way of note entry since its launch but I’m not getting any faster at note entry. I even re-mapped the number keys to match Finale’s in an attempt to speed things up. That did help a bit, but I’m still struggling to match my speed using speedy entry. A small chart that would take me about an hour to enter in Finale, using speedy entry, takes me almost 2 hours in Dorico.
I’ve read in a couple of threads that a Speedy Entry-esque feature is not planned for Dorico. I would like to request that the addition of this type of feature be re-evaluated.
I would love it too… I don’t think it will happen.
If you use a MIDI keyboard for Speedy Entry in Finale, you can do the same with Dorico, you just have to get used to the duration-before-pitch config (which I hope they give an option to change someday).
I don’t mind them either way round for midi input, but I do find arrows and then click duration very fast if I have to work on just the laptop.
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If you use a MIDI keyboard
Well, I don’t…
I also have my troubles with using note names for input. By using arrows in Finale, it gives me a more “relative” note approach: 1 up, 1 up, 2 down, 3 down. No matter what the starting point was.
In Dorico I have to spell out the individual notes, which gives me a headache.
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Another thing I really like about speedy entry is sequence of events.
- arrow to pitch
- add duration
- add anything else you want to the note (#, b, . , tie, cautionary accidental) even though the shadow cursor has moved on to the next note position.
It just feels backwards to me in Dorico. In Finale I can enter a C+#, in that order. In Dorico I have to enter a #+C.
My brain may just work differently than most. It makes sense to me to:
Select a pitch, decide what to do with that pitch i.e. make it a quartet note, add accidental, add a “.”, tie to the next note, move on.
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I understand your point: indeed, I am quite comfortable with Finale’s Speedy Entry (although I use a MIDI keyboard). I particularly like Finale’s pitch-before-duration. At the same time I recall writing the sharp before writing the note without any problem when I was entering/copying music by hand. Habits that have been learned can be re-learned even though it is initially uncomfortable.
Besides the above mentioned you guys forget about the biggest of all advantages of pitch-before-rhythm: When I use pitch-before-rhythm I can pound on the Midi-keyboard to “compose”, find the right note, the right chord, whatever. Whenever I decide it’s time to write, I simply hold down whatever pitch or chords I need and press a rhythmic value. Done.
When I have rhythm-before-pitch I need to tell the software that I am NOW ready to notate by either pressing kind of a write-enable key or mouse-click. Otherwise the software would notate every key I’de press on the keyboard continously. At the end of my notation, when I go back to trying something on the keyboard, I’d have to use some sort of write-disable command, again.
So if I am simply copying music, rhythm-before-pitch might be OK (because there is no “thinking” and trying involved), but for actual composing, it needs so many more inputs. Also it interrupts your train of thought because you always need to remember to enable or disable write mode.
I’ve written a large orchestral work in Sibelius 7.5 las year and tried rhythm-before-pitch,man,it is myriads slower than vice versa. Anyone who needs ergonomical, fast and natural input will prefer pitch-before-rhythm after a while - for me, it’s not even a question.
Hold on, yes, if you enter a Haydn piece into the computer with rows and rows of arpeggiated chords in 16th, rhythm-before-pitch might be faster. Good luck with actual composing, though.
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Different people “compose” in different ways. I’ve never composed anything by “pounding a keyboard till I found the right note”. But then I started about 50 years ago, when the only keyboards were pianos, and they weren’t as portable as manuscript paper and a pencil!
Most of the time, I don’t even have “play notes as you enter them” switched on when composing - the computer generated sounds are just a distraction from thinking.
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Still, the option to configure Dorico either way–pitch first or duration first–would be nice to have down the road.
For me the same. I’ve used Finale to arrange my pieces. Not only to notate. Now I have to play all the notes and chords first on another keyboard to hear what I want (I’m not a best piano player) or arrange in a DAW and then bring it into Dorico (lot of time!). This was also the reason I’ve never switched to Sibelius in 2010.
I try to learn the pitch-duration way for now, but I’m really missing the way I could arrange my pieces with Finale. And sorry, I won’t be back to Finale.
I would certainly not rule out implementing something along the lines of Finale’s Speedy Entry tool in Dorico in the future, but it’s not something we will be adding imminently.
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I have always used duration before pitch in Sibelius, and have got used to it over the years.
But it does strike me as an unmusical order. When you play music you choose which note to play (pitch), start playing it, then decide when to stop (duration). So pitch before duration seems like it would be more natural.
But I’ve got so used to duration before pitch that it doesn’t bother me any more.
Surely Dorico can do both duration-before-pitch and pitch-before-duration.
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As a Finale user, I must say that both methods have their respective merits.
Personally, I switched almost completely to the duration before pitch method when the functions to add articulations and expressions on the fly was added.Speedwise, it is IMO only in structures with ONE pitch/chord and changing rhythm that the pitch before duration method wins (think One note samba). But a big chord where I have to play with both hands is impossible.
Concerning the need to switch between freely playing on the MIDI keyboard and notating, maybe it could be possible to program something like pedal down = esc, pedal up = enter. To experiment on the keyboard, hold pedal down, to notate, release it. Not perfect, but maybe better than hitting the keys manually.
What a great idea! This would be a wonderfully useful feature.
And if your MIDI keyboard doesn’t have a pedal?
I’ve suggest this earlier to make a functionality to ‘escape’ the direct input. I understand that you can leave the caret and play some notes, but it might be useful to stay in the caret mode and then play or try some notes or chords.
I too quite like this concept. Although I will say, that in the meantime, it is very easy to hit escape, and then hit enter and start right where you left off.
Thanks, Romanos. I had missed this ability in Dorico but just tried it out and will find it very useful in the future.