Transposing instruments (Bass Tuba Eb and Bb, Bass Clef)

Dorico
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Setup instruments: Looking for Eb Bass Tuba and Bb Bass Tuba, written in Bass Clef. - A custom layout with transposition overrides doesn’t always do the job, because the ranges / parts are different. So I would like to have different parts in the score.

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Sorry, is the issue that you want to include two instruments in your score, both Eb bass tuba and Bb bass tuba, or that you want to write for only one of those instruments in the score, but then have separate parts for both of those instruments, containing the same music?

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The first

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Thanks for the clarification. Right now, Dorico’s “bass tuba” instrument is simply an alias for the regular tuba instrument. Could we possibly be dealing with a terminology problem here, and the instruments you’re looking for are shown by Dorico as “Bass in B flat” and “Bass in E flat”?

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Yes Indeed! Thank you, and they are listed as Brass!

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I’m sorry but why is this instrument type and transposition stuff so complicated in the first place? How do I write for Trumpet in Eb or D or F? Which is not that uncommon… When I’m writing for Jazz I’m confronted with all the medieval stuff in the symbol palettes, but when writing Baroque, classical i’m stuck with the modern Bb trumpet instrument type. It is not that user friendly at all. As a user I do not want to have to hack my way around in the ScoringEngine/instruments.xml and ScoringEngine/instrumentFamiliesDefinitions.xml

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Well, they’re all there:

Screenshot 2025-02-08 at 15.50.02
Screenshot 2025-02-08 at 15.50.021398×1022 78.7 KB

If I’m copying something, say with trumpet in D, I add the D trumpet and write in Transposition mode – done.

As for the dizzying array of ornaments and playing techniques, I’ll agree with you, that is, until I learn what the pop-over input is.

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Hi ejocvx.
There are several different ways to do the same thing. Some will work better, some not.

  • Write for one type of trumpet: say C-trumpet. Then create different layouts with different transpositions. The selections for this is only available in Dorico Pro.
  • Create the types of instruments you are missing - takes a bit more effort but saves time and effort later. Some transpositions are sort of unusual today which is sort of an explanation, but not necessarily an excuse.
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Thanks!

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