Timp roll tie to release

I want to write a timpani roll over 2 tied whole notes releasing on a quarter note. When I add the tremolo via the popover, the tremolo shoes on the ending quarter note. I would like it to be a release on the quarter note. I can change the tie to the quarter note and replace it with a slur, but the height of the slur is different than the tie. Here is what I get when I do that. If I don’t, then the quarter note stem has the tremolo marking as well.
Timpani roll and release

Create a regular tie, go to Engrave Mode, select the last stem and change its stem property back to a regular stem. :slight_smile:

I am selecting the stem in engrave mode, but don’t see any options.

Select the notehead. Then in Properties > Notes and Rests, choose Single stem tremolo > None.

Yeah, I’m sorry, you have to select the note itself.

Ah, that’s it. Thanks to you both.

I’ve updated the example images on the relevant page in the manual to reflect this use-case (the last note in a tie chain) as it seems to be the more common context in which people go looking for the property.

The previous example, showing how when the first note in a tie chain is shorter than subsequent notes, the subsequent notes get more tremolo strokes, is now on the related general info page.

2 Likes

Thank you. That helps because, even when I take the tremolo marking off of the stem, it still plays as a tremolo. Now I can tell it that that note is not a tremolo.

Is there any way to affect the playback so that the quarter note in the example would be a single hit, ending the timpani roll? Yes graphically, it is correct, but the roll continues through the quarter note.

To make it both look correct and play back with the quarter note played separately and without the roll, one way I have found is:

  1. untie the quarter note from the preceding note, delete it and re-enter it;
  2. go into the Properties panel;
  3. under Notes and Rests, add a Laissez vibrer tie to the quarter note;
  4. in Engrave mode, drag (or use shift-alt-left arrow) the right-hand end of the L.V. tie across to the end of the second whole note.

I have attached a Dorico project with those alterations made.

You will probably need to do some manual positioning and “shaping” of the tie, but you should be able to get it to look exactly how you want it.
If you change the spacing of the notes involved (for example, by inserting system breaks, having more or fewer bars in that system, adding or removing notes in surrounding bars [thus squashing or stretching the distance between notes]), the end point of the L.V. tie will change relative to the whole note. Keep this in mind as something to check in the final version. It is possible that between the score and the part the positioning of the L.V. tie will be different. If that happens, I don’t know an easy solution. You might need to print (or save to PDF) the score first, then adjust the timpani part and then print it.


Timp roll.dorico (545.5 KB)

Edit (after a few more minutes of thought):
An alternative and probably better way for steps 3 and 4 is to add the L.V. tie to the second whole note and move its right-hand end to the right.

2 Likes

You can also get closer by shortening the note’s played duration in the Key Editor (ie dragging the end back to just after the start of the last beat, rather than towards its end).

Thanks for that. I have never had the occasion to use this before. Great.