Hello!
I need an eights followed by a quarter followed by two sixteenths in 4/4 measure. But it gives me an eight, two tied eights and two sixteenths. I tried everything in Setup-Note grouping and even in Setup-Beaming but to no avail. Please see the attached screenshot. Am I doing something wrong? Thanks!
Dorico operates under a different premise… not so much an 8th note, or a 16th note. But rather a note that is “an 8th note long” or “A quarter note long”. As such, Dorico will often times rewrite music into ‘other rhythms’ that it feels it can do.
To prevent this from happening, you need to first initiate the “Force Duration” tool (left hand panel looks like a C Clamp - shortcut O). Then type the rhythms you want. You cannot apply the Force Duration after the music has been entered and Dorico does what it does. It has to be from the start of the part in question.
Robby
Also, there is an option under “Note Grouping” in Notation options that might be the thing you need use.
Robby
“Note starting in the middle of the beat” did not work. I was hitting “apply” on every option that was there. But “Force Duration” worked. Thanks, Robby!
I know this is way too late to pipe up, but I’m new to Dorico…
“You cannot apply the Force Duration after the music has been entered and Dorico does what it does. It has to be from the start of the part in question.”
Yes you can, actually. As long as you’re not in insert mode, you can take (for example) two tied notes, click Force Duration, shorten the note, then lengthen it again. That’s what I was doing just 10 minutes ago…
In January 2018 you could not apply force duration retrospectively - that functionality wasn’t added until Dorico 2.2, in late November 2018.
You could waste an awful lot of time digging up threads that contain information that is no longer correct - I honestly wouldn’t bother…
I suspect Derek wasn’t digging up old threads purely with the intent of correcting them, but rather because he came across the thread when searching for a solution to his problem. I applaud him for taking the time to add a note to the thread to say that things have changed, in case anybody else in the future might stumble upon it. It would be lovely if we could handle this more scalably, of course.
“You could waste an awful lot of time digging up threads that contain information that is no longer correct - I honestly wouldn’t bother…”
Well yes. Except that this thread came up first when I first searched for the answer to my problem.
I could also say, mischievously, perhaps, as a Dorico 3.5 user that “you could waste an awful lot of time reading Dorico V2 help files because they seem to come up first when you google a question”. Google has a lot to answer for…
I appreciate your (genuinely well-intentioned) comment, but it remains that I ended up in this dead-end thread precisely because it came up first when I googled my question and I thought I might be doing others a service by ensuring a happy ending to anyone who ended up in the cul-de-sac that I did…
I didn’t do any “digging” - this came up top in the google search I did. And that, to be honest, is the problem…
I hope you can understand what it feels like when google takes you straight to out-of-date information, and I hope you’ll forgive my attempt to clean up what was a misleading search result… 
Thanks for checking by what I posted - I already know that you help tons of people!
I crossed with Daniel, whose succinct and brief reply far surpasses my ramble!
Sorry - I didn’t give that comment sufficient thought.
It’s an unfortunate consequence of the way that Dorico has developed, and the way that Google works, that much information out there is no longer relevant in Dorico 3.5. I have no doubt that Dorico 4, 5 and 6 will also render currently accurate threads inaccurate.
Of course I view all of this from a different perspective: I bought Dorico 1.0 on (or near) its release date, have lived and worked with it since, and have a good enough working knowledge of it that I rarely find myself Googling for answers to questions.
Apologies again.
Pianoleo - you have such a good heart - many of us are on the escalator of “getting good at Dorico” at a myriad different levels. I come from Cubase where I could knock the Score module into doing most anything I wanted (if it didn’t crash on me!) I tried Sibelius and failed to make it fast and even slightly satisfying to use, and I’ve now moved to Dorico which really makes so much drudgery so very easy.
But I still make the most awful elementary mistakes despite knowing exactly what I want. I forever google ways to unlock what I know will be easy when I can see the way in…
As you can see, I forever blunder into dark tunnels that google thinks I need to explore (and you know are culs-de-sac).
I welcome your insight and experience - things are easy when you see the right route and your kindness in replying to so many threads goes a long way to making the journey fun and rewarding…
I appreciate the time you spend, I really do!
