tied note selection

Going back to the start of this thread:

Yes, you are missing something. You are not clicking in the right place. You can double click at the rhythmic position of a tied note to get the cursor, and then enter what you want, without selecting the note and getting the wrong position (the start of the chain of tied notes).

Aim for the rhythmic position in the bar, but not at the note which is already there. Click above or below the note head, for example.

In “traditional” music notation, there are plenty of things like dynamic marks in the middle of tied notes. I don’t see how what your want to write is really different from something like this, and the ties don’t make any difference to how fast you can enter all the dynamic marks.

Things do seem to be different in unmetered music, though, Rob. It’s much less easy to double-click where you want to place a lyric or whatever—when I tried it, I always ended up at the start of the tie chain, which I think is what Sami was talking about.

Indeed, you are correct. I did not know too far in advance where the ties are going to be, as I was composing the music as I was engraving it. At the moment, I don’t think that composing this in Dorico is feasible, so I’m working it out by hand. Add to that that if Dorico is meant to be a program in which it is feasible to compose in, I need to be able to make these tweaks at a whim and get beck to composing the rest of the piece asap.

Very good point also about rhythmic positions in unmetered music. The spacing is rather inconsistent (not a bad thing in and of itself but), it makes it harder to select a specific rhythmic duration on the grid. It’s definitely not like if the piece is in 3/4. It’s counter-intuitive.

Easy enough to adjust the position of the caret, though. Especially if you set the grid to something like quarter notes.

Are you just here to contradict everything I say?

I really think he’s trying to help :wink:
Make sure you have a “nice way” to change the grid resolution (I chose 1 and 2 for that because the default was useless on my french keyboard layout) if you have not already. If you already have and are very comfortable with grid resolution changes, ignore this. But, believe it or not, we’re trying to help!

I doubt Dan is trying to contradict you. What he says is perfectly correct. Perhaps if we saw an image (handwritten, if you like) of the sort of thing you are trying to notate (more than just two notes on one staff) we could be more specific in our suggested solutions. Dorico, although not yet fully developed in every aspect, is already a very capable program. At the same time, one needs some experience with the program to take advantage of its many features.

1 and 2 are excellent shortcuts for changing grid resolution. Having these right under your fingers speeds up everything.

I lately finished a piece where I composed inside of Dorico in open meter.
For me, double-clicking the rhythmic position worked.

It was actually the first time I directly composed into a notation software (meaning that I didn’t have any sketches at all before).
I would be happy to help, as well as all the other members here. I am sure about that, because they helped me a lot, too :wink:

Yes, you can definitely double-click a blank part of the staff to show the caret at any rhythmic position in open metered music. The meter makes no difference to Dorico in this regard.

Yes, double clicking the rhythmic does work. I sometimes miss the right spot and get nothing. It’s also slower than just clicking and selecting the appropriate poppover.

It’s also slower than moving the cursor with keyboard short cuts … :slight_smile:

I’ve found this as well, which made me think that double-clicking in an unmetered measure works differently than a metered measure. Is there something we’re doing wrong?

I think that unmetered music, at least in my case (because I have moments with crammed 16th notes and others with whole notes or longer) just makes the spacing uneven in the score, and that might be a factor. I’m definitely note a programmer though…

I like to switch to proportional note spacing in unmeasured pieces. It’s also nicer on the players eyes often.

How do you do that in Dorico? Had no idea this was an option, I am very pleasantly surprised! As far as I know there is only the option of setting minimum distances for notes, but I’m not sure that’s a good workaround in this case for me.

Layout Options, note spacing. Set Custom Spacing Ratio to 2. I think it’s 1.41 by default.

Yep, as dan describes it.
Obviously, any value works other than 2, too to be proportional, but 2 is nice to work with :wink:

Hmm, I wonder if we mean different things. If you choose a value other than 2, the relative spacing would be “proportional” in one sense, I suppose, but not linearly so.

A value of 2 means that a half note gets double the space of a quarter note, 4 times the space of an eighth note, etc. To me, that’s “proportional.”

Or maybe I’m misusing the term, since I don’t work with contemporary or unmetered music usually.

I am thinking mathematically here.
Proportional is everything, where the relations between the items are the same.
So if the relation of half to whole is 1.7, and the relation of quarter to half is 1.7 as well, the proportions are the same, thus it‘s proportional.
The option of activating the option and having different options at hand seems to support this, I think.

Also, in Dorico, proportions only go down so far in the note value chain. (I think it stops at 8ths?)