[Suggestion] Fast note input workflow (video demo)

Dorico
1

Here’s a video of me inputting some notes, in real time without video acceleration, in a way I think it couldn’t be done faster and easier : - YouTube (wait especially for the dotted rythms in the penultimate bar)

I was thinking about a way to input notes that would allow to adjust length AFTER entering the note, which would in some cases be much more natural than dealing with ties and dots. I only used a macro that does 2 actions at once : lengthen the previous note by the grid value, then moving forward the caret. I use a MIDI keyboard with right hand and the macro shortcut (ctrl+shift+alt+R) with left hand. I think Dorico’s new rhythm paradigm (auto-calculated subdivision display) deserves this kind of note input. By the way, this kind of input really comes naturally, it’s almost “rhythmic”, since there’s one action to do per 16th note (in my example). When attacking a note, you usually don’t think in advance the moment you will release that note (which makes sometimes unnatural to input the total note length BEFORE the note) ; this kind of input takes that behavior into account.

2

Alex,
Quite impressive !
Not familiar with «macro»
Could you please give a little about the «how to» to achieve such automatic fonction ?

Macro looks as both very interesting and helpful tool !

Thanks

3

Enter in input mode (caret on), play a first note, Menu Script>Start Recording Macro, then perform both actions (alt+shift+right arrow, then right arrow), then Stop Recording Macro. You can then recall the macro with ctrl+shift+alt+R.
However, my point wasn’t the use of a macro, I just wanted to make suggestions on how I think note input workflow could be improved by adding new functions.

4

Thanks for the suggestion. Since you also talked about that here Rhythmic editing of tied notes - #16 by StefanFuhrmann - Dorico - Steinberg Forums, I think we should consider whether the caret should move automatically when you change the duration of notes. Not sure if/when we can implement that, but I took note of it.

5

Thanks for taking this into consideration! To be more precise, auto-moving the caret won’t be enough: the lengthening function actually is a 2 hands shortcut, which would basically kill the workflow. It should be a 1 hand shortcut, even better a one key shortcut (since I hope it would become a very basic function).
I would suggest a better and more flexible way of achieving this, allowing to lengthen the previous note by any wanted value: while holding pressed the MIDI keyboard key after inputting a note, pressing the wanted rhythm number would lengthen the note by that value. An alternative (for those who don’t have a MIDI keyboard, or after having accidentally released the MIDI key) would be ctrl+number (or something similar).

6

Just one more video to test that concept, comparing normal input to my customized input. I tried many times until I was fast enough with normal input and don’t make mistakes! (By the way big freeze in the middle of the vid, each time I tried.)

Results:

  • normal input: 38 sec
  • custom input: 20 sec

I hope you’ll think about implementing this kind of note input! Especially entering dotted rhythms with one hand is a pain (the key is too far from the number bar).

7

That’s really impressive, AlexM! That is a substantial decrease in input time. Well done!