Time signatures for one staff

Dorico
1

Hi! In a 4/4 global orchestral section I placed a 12/8 time signature (SHIFT+M, 12/8, OPT+ENTER) on one single staff, but I’d need to align bar lines, because I have 3+3+3+3 /8= 4/4. How can I align everything?
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Thanks!
Andrea Amici

3

Enter the 12/8 as shift-m 12/8,8 (ie as a pickup bar with 8 quavers). Then in the next bar revert to 4/4 (and hide it in properties). Enter all your notes in a 12:8 tuplet…
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2 Likes
4

There’s a classic and highly useful tutorial from Scoring Notes, here:

2 Likes
5

Many thanks to everyone!
I thought there was a system that would allow you to automatically insert (and playback) the whole thing. So, even with an Interchangeable time signature it is still necessary to mask the triplets.
Hope this in the future!
Thanks to everyone!

6

Thank you for sharing that “historic” post, @Lillie_Harris! As someone who only discovered Scoring Notes in 2021 and using Dorico seriously in 2022, it’s great to have my attention drawn to those older tutorials.

7

I normally do not have a horse in this particular race, but I do need to get something of my chest here: For software with the quality, concept and ambition of Dorico, there’s way too many of these kinds of workarounds!

I’d love this workflow:

  1. Select the barline before the meter change.
  2. Add a local rhythmic equation like “q = q.”
  3. Add local meter change to 12/8
  4. At the end of the 12/8 passage, enter the reverse equation, and continue in 4/4.
  5. Dorico automatically keeps all bars at the same width, since we told it that they are to be played in the same span of time…

Here’s to hoping! :clinking_glasses:
Have a great evening, sincerely,
Benji

8

IIRC the reason this is not possible is that there can only be one ‘clock’. But I may be totally wrong!

9

Indeed, at the moment there’s no way to define what the metric modulation is between different time signatures; it is always quarter = quarter. We do certainly plan to address this in future, but it’s no small matter to do it.

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Yes, but let’s not forget that you guys are world-class! You can do it! :smiling_face: :+1:

Thanks for chiming in!
B.