Hi gang,
I’m an arranger and my screen normally consists of Dorico stretched across my Ultrawide monitor in Galley View, with a small space below for QuickTime to be spread across with any reference tracks.
It’s getting a little annoying moving through the two programs. I frequently need to switch to QuickTime and relisten to parts by scrolling, which I have to do with my mouse (click the spot to go from). This is the annoying bit.
I had the idea of loading the audio to my iPhone and AirPlaying to my Mac. It’s easy to navigate and start/stop, and it’s separate to Dorico: I don’t even need to switch apps. Alas, my MacBook Pro is too old for this feature.
Does anyone else have any suggestions for this? Is there a really simple hardware device that could control QuickTime as I would like? Is there a similar program that anyone can recommend that is easier to navigate?
QuickTime Player should respond to the media keys on your keyboard (F7, F8 and F9 for me) even when it’s not in front.
You can switch between apps with ⌘-Tab, without having to click a window.
I know about the Cmd-tab (which works fine) but the only function key that works for me is the Play one. I will fiddle a bit more. Thanks for the reply.
PS
My Kensington trackball can scroll, however, when I reverse the scroll (in its app) for QuickTime, it doesn’t reverse. This would be a perfect fix…
You have to hold the 
key down a bit to rewind.
(Tapping it works in e.g. iTunes to go to the start of the track or the previous track.)
Oh yeah, I forgot about scrolling the playhead. That works with 2 fingers on my trackpad (even in the background).
I have this in clamshell so I wish I had that! I love that the play function key will trigger playback with no switching programs.
I use Transcribe! for playback all the time while using Dorico. One of its great features is that you can custom program MIDI shortcuts for it. I’ve programmed my MIDI foot pedals to be able to rewind, stop, and play, so most of the time I don’t even have Transcribe visible on screen, and can write directly into Dorico, while controlling the Transcribe playback with my feet.
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I had forgotten the Transcribe even has a section on their site discussing the use of foot pedals for controlling playback, and even mention using it in conjunction with notation software.
“Transcribe! can be controlled (start and stop playback, etc) by various kinds of pedals, which can be convenient if you have an instrument in your hands while you transcribe, or pencil and paper. Pedals are also useful for controlling Transcribe! while a different application is in the foreground - perhaps a music notation package.”
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This software looks fantastic! Almost exactly what I need except I have to switch programs in order to play (unlike QuickTime where I can just press F8 to play while still in Dorico). Oh well, it’s better than QuickTime so it will do for now!
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I’m on PC so not sure how it works on a Mac, but as long as both programs can receive a MIDI signal simultaneously, you shouldn’t have to switch programs to play. I almost always leave Transcribe in the background while I’m working in Dorico, and simply control the Transcribe playback with my MIDI foot pedals. Obviously you can’t really use a sustain pedal for sustain working this way, as I have it programmed to start/stop playback in Transcribe. The only time I actually bring Transcribe to the foreground is if there’s a passage I need to slow down more, EQ differently, etc.
You can program any MIDI command to control the playback though, it doesn’t have to be foot pedals. You can have A0 on a MIDI keyboard be “PlayReviewStart” (scrubbing rewind) and then when you release it have the release be “PlayResume.” B0 could be “PlayPauseToggle,” etc. Or if you have any other sort of MIDI control pads you could program them too. It’s really flexible with setting up MIDI shortcuts, and then 95% of the time I just leave it in the background and don’t have to bother switching between programs. Windows doesn’t let multiple programs receive a MIDI signal simultaneously so I use a software MIDI router to facilitate this, but I thought Mac supported that natively.
I’ve figured it out! I remember I have TouchOSC and so I’ve done up a small template that sends MIDI signals to Transcribe! - works perfectly. Thanks for the tips!
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