I am a Finale user and I just purchased Dorico and I am slowly but surely learning how to use it. I just made my first lead sheet of a Cole Porter song that I think it looks very good.
My problem is with transposition. I need to be able to transpose my scores in the event that a vocalist wants to sing it in a different key. My lead sheet is in the key of A Flat. The song modulates through a number of different keys before finally resolving back into A Flat. I show those modulations in my score with key signature changes: I like doing it this way because I think it is much easier to read rather than having a lot of accidentals and also because it shows the harmonic movement of the piece of music more accurately.
Finale offered an easy way to do transposition. For example if I transpose my score from A Flat to C, you can decide if the notes are to be transposed up or down. The chords will also get transposed as well as ALL the key signatures which includes the ones imbedded in the score for the parts that modulate through various different keys. There are also options for enharmonic spelling of notes and chords and for which parts of the score you want to transpose. These are all very important features and I cannot find out how to do this in Dorico.
Does Dorico provide a compatible feature? If not I feel this is very important and I would like to request that your developers provide that function.
Also how do I determine if my product is up to date? Do you have an option that checks my version and then connects to the Dorico website and determines if there are outstanding fixes/enhancements that are available? I did not see a facility like that. I feel this too is very important.
Please advise on these issues. Sincerely, Mark Capon
All Dorico updates are announced on this forum. There is also an update checker under Help>Check for updates.
Or you could run Steinberg Download Assistant (SDA) where updates relevant to any Steinberg product that you own will be in (not surprisingly) the updates section.
Hi Mark, and welcome to the forum. Transposing in Dorico is generally easy. The essential difference is that Finale stores all notes relative to a key signature, while in Dorico key sigs and notes are independent of each other, and can be changed together or separately.
One caveat: If your song modulates to keys that are distant from each other, you may have to transpose it in sections. See my recent example, and this thread for a feature request I made about transposing.
Additionally Dorico Pro has a specific feature where you can transpose a specific layout instead of the full score. It is mainly aimed at creating alternative layouts for, say, a C trumpet and a Bb Trumpet but can be used to keep several transpositions around for other usages. It transposes both notes and chord symbols.
Short help:
In setup mode, create a new layout (score or instrument part layout)
Select the new layout (right panel), give it a nice name. If instrument part layout check the player (left panel).
Press the small ā¦ (right bottom of screen), Clef and transposition overlays.
Layouts are smart things (if you ask me).
You now have one more layout with different transposition which you can elect to print. Note that as usual you have to select transposed pitch (bottom left) to actually see the transposition.
Thanks Janus! Actually what I was thinking of is a feature that I have seen in other software products. Every time you initiate the Software and assuming you are connected to the internet, Dorico will check the level of the software and see if there are any updates on the Steinberg website and if there are updates that have not yet been installed then flash a screen prompt to the user with instructions to update the software. I would like the Dorico developers to consider this if they think it is a good idea.
Thanks for your response! I found a method which worked for me! I use the āWriteā pulldown, select āTransposeā, and then use the āCalculate Intervalā feature. I made a video of this but I do not think this blog takes video uploads which I think would be a nice feature to better illustrate questions/responses. So far so good! Of course I will have to see how it works with more complex pieces of music but as of now I found out how to accomplish what I wanted and the method appears to be very easy!
Thanks! Please see my response to one of the other Dorico team members who answered my inquiry where I explain how I used the āCalculate Interval Functionā. So far so good!
Thanks! Please see my response to one of the other Dorico team members who answered my inquiry where I explain how I used the āCalculate Interval Functionā. So far so good!
Hi again ā FYI, all your responses appear in a row on the forum website. And we are all just other users. (You can tell Steinberg employees by a small Steinberg circle logo overlaid on their avatar picture.) The forum will accept videos in some formats, but as a new user you have to earn a ātrust levelā first.
I understand. My apologies! I thought these were responses from Dorico support personnel. But no matter, I am very happy to get recommendations, advice, etc. from my fellow users out there in the Dorico community!