The swell dynamic <> in Dorico is very useful - it is a good time saver, especially when transcribing late 19th early 20th century romantic music .
I would like to suggest that the swell / double hairpin could be even better if its functionality was extended so that it can be used with a specified top dynamic as per attached:
I created that swell to f and diminuendo by splitting the semibreve (whole note) into two minims (half notes) applying the crescendo hairpin, forte marking and diminuendo hairpin and then tie-ing the notes together. Being able to drop in a <☐> symbol with the ability to put a f where the box is would be appreciated.
Ewald Quintet swell.pdf (10.4 KB)
Hi Stephen, you don’t need to split notes/ties in order to input dynamics within them, see here.
You can already specify e.g. “< f > p” (without the spaces) in the dynamics popover, although if you want to have fine-grain control over where the immediate dynamics go if you don’t have noteheads at those positions to which you can drag them, inputting them in sequence using the caret is probably the easiest/clearest method.
Thank you so much - getting to know all the possibilities in Dorico seems to a challenge I struggle with - your help is greatly appreciated. I had not thought of trying the pop-over; I had just relied on the dynamics menu in the right side bar. Thanks for your prompt and helpful update.
I’ve been struggling with this sort of notation as well.
How do I move, for example, the f in the above example, over 1 beat?
Things I’ve tried have moved the whole swell/dynamic grouping, but not JUST the dynamic.
And I can’t seem to move the dynamic with the mouse, dragging it, since there’s no note there.
I know that in WRITE mode you can drag a dynamic marking to other notes (tied or not - with the hairpins adjusting automatically) but I don’t think you can do it “within” a longer notevalue…
When it’s part of a group, you’ve got a bit less flexibility but when it’s a standalone dynamic you can indeed move it along the rhythmic grid rather than to noteheads.
hmmm. I just tried that after doing UNGROUP dynamics and it didn’t work… is there a bug related to ungroup dynamics…? [EDIT: the dynamic moves allright, but the the hairpins won’t follow suit…]
Yes, once ungrouped you’d need to move or lengthen/shorten other dynamics manually. (The automatic lengthening/shortening of surrounding gradual dynamics is one of the key features of grouped dynamics.)
