Would it be feasible to have a setting to automatically create a bar repeat if the program detects one or more consecutive bars of similar music?
Also, a feature request: have Dorico create bar repeat regions for each selected staff at once (similar to how it adds dynamics for each selected staff now).
We considered making the detection of repeated music automatic, but decided against it since we thought that it would be impossible for the software to determine which repeated passages you would want to show as bar repeats and which you would not, so if you had to mark up the places where you either wanted to have bar repeats or not have bar repeats, that would be as much work as simply telling Dorico where you want bar repeats to appear. Having said that, we know that there are remaining needs for showing bar repeats differently in the full score and in part layouts, so this is something we expect to return to in future.
In general we expect that it will become possible to create items on multiple staves in one step in a future version.
It would also be handy if Dorico would remove or hide the existing music when applying a repeated bar region. Perhaps I’m missing something, but when I define a repeated section of bars, all the music in those bars remains visible and I have to select the region, filter for notes and then delete them.
Vaughan, the expectation is that you won’t bother to enter music into bars that will contain Repeat Bar Regions. On the other hand, there are situations where it’s really helpful to be able to enter notes above repeat signs (such as hits in Drum parts).
But if you import MusicXML or MIDI, you are likely to have all the notes anyway, whether you want them or not.