Tuplets in Marching Percussion with Dorico VDL Template

Dorico
#1

Hi everyone. I am working with the Dorico Virtual Drumline template and trying and get more accustomed to writing marching percussion music with it. I am working to replicate the music in the first screenshot on marching tenors.

Screenshot 1 - Goal.png
Screenshot 1 - Goal.png1623×219 13.2 KB

However, whenever I try and create a triplet that moves across the drums, any note in the tuplet that is not on the same space as where the tuplet began moves into a different voice.
Screenshot 2 - Issue.png
Furthermore, I am not able to input any notes in the tuplet unless they are on the same space that it was originally created on. Is there a way to keep the voices together and just have Dorico move the notes in the tuplet similar to how it would if this was notated on a pitched instrument, for example?

Thanks!

#2

A drum kit is actually several independent instruments combined onto a five-line staff “layout.” You can see the individual instruments if you choose that configuration in Layout Options.

This poses difficulties particularly for tuplets that have not yet been solved, at least not in a way that makes notating them easy, if possible at all. Your best bet is to see if you can notate the notes on one line and then move them to separate lines using M and N shortcuts. Not sure whether that works or not.

#3

Hey Derrek, thanks for your reply. I don’t think I was able to make your suggestion work. The only way I was able to remotely get close was by going into the grid view and adding tuplets on each line. But I had to add them separately which does not look very good.
Screenshot 3.png
Here’s hoping there’s another solution. Thank you for your help!

#4

Presumably you could hide the number and bracket for all but one tuplet. The rests and beaming are IIRC not adjustable yet.

#5

Got it. I guess I’ll wait for a solution that addresses the beaming problem as well. Thank you!

#6

Provided you input all of the notes onto the correct staff positions/instruments when you’re inputting them, you should find that Dorico both correctly displays a single tuplet and beams the notes together. The problem comes when you move notes up and down after inputting them with Alt+up/down arrow, and this is something we’re working on resolving.

#7

Ah, so I had it backwards. I must have misread or mis-recalled earlier posts. Glad Daniel could straighten that (and me) out.

#8

Thanks for the help Daniel, this does indeed work when I use the midi keyboard. I’m so used to just using the keyboard to input notes that I just end up typing out my rhythms and then adjusting drum placement with the arrow keys after. This new method will take some getting used to but I will give it a try. Thanks again!

#9

My colleague John, who put together the VDL template, really designed it for efficient use from the MIDI keyboard, so I think it’s worth giving that a try. I think once you have it under your fingers you’ll find it much quicker than using alphabetic input.