The attached image is a screenshot from a flute part in my current project. It was tricky to type in because of the added second voice in the 9/4 bar, where the player sings the diamond-shaped notes into the instrument. I cut and pasted the mostly correct final result from an external scratch file. (Note too, if you’re curious, that the trill is downward from an Eb to a D.) I’ll restore the option to extend the wavy trill line (~~~) over tied notes later. I wish I could include a little downward arrow next to the tr.
The problem here, as you’ll notice, is that the noteheads are colored. I noticed that after I inserted this bit there were a lot of colored notes in that part in the score. When I looked closer I realized that all notes in the flute part lower than Bb5 (middle treble line) are colored as seen and none above are.
This has nothing to do with out of range. I suspect something having to do with multiple voices is involved. It’s not often that you see multiple voices in a solo flute part, but I do have some instances of them in this piece. (Some are singing, some are multi-pitch chords caused by overblowing with designated fingerings.) And it shouldn’t matter what instrument it’s on. Multiple voices are multiple voices.
Anybody got a clue why this happened and how I can clear it?
Do you want to just turn it off, or find out why it’s happening…?
I’d check that the instrument is actually a Flute – sometimes imported XML instruments don’t have the same characteristics. Also, you should get proofreading flags for range issues.
See what the status bar says for the note’s pitch and voice.
But yes – as said, you’ll need to upload a sample document for detailed scrutiny.
Uploading would be a last-ditch desperation measure.
Yes, I want to find out why it’s happening, but I may have a clue. See below. But first this:
Yes, it’s a flute. Has been a flute with no problem except out-of-range problems on the upper end. I redefined the range and those flags went away.
The problem appeared as soon as I cut and pasted in the fragment seen in the image.
I created the fix in an external scratch file, which happens to be set up for piano. (I used just the treble clef, of course.) When I noticed the colored notes, I first asked one of the AI LLMs. It replied with something I found surprising. (I don’t remember which, and I can’t find it again.)
I’ve been calling middle C C4. The octave numbers change on A. I told the AI that all the notes from Bb5 and lower, i.e. Bb on the middle treble staff line down to the low B (extension required for this piece) are colored, but not the B-natural on the middle line and above. AI said something that I didn’t know or else is outright false. It claims that standard flute nomenclature in calling notes by pitch + octave (e.g. C4) is an octave different for flute. So C4 is not middle C but — what, C3? And so on. Oh really??
The point is that this might provide a clue as to why, when I pasted some notes from a scratch file for piano into a flute part everything in the lowest octave is colored purple and is considered too low.
Furthermore, when I did this, all the rest of the flute part in this piece was similarly marked. The basic notes and rhythms and dynamics and articulations are all typed in for this 28-page score and I’m in the editing and revising phase. The moment I pasted in those notes from a piano scratch file, all the notes in the lower octave in the entire flute part, not just the ones I pasted in, are now a purplish color.
As I sit typing this, I’m becoming more sure that some kind of bogus octave displacement is the source of the problem. But I don’t know how to fix it.
Thanks for your patience in reading all this.
Uploading a Dorico file, or a cut-down version of it which demonstrates the issue, is very common here on the forum and is generally the quickest way to diagnose something like this.
This all sounds like hallucinations. Based on what users have reported here, it seems that LLMs don’t understand much about music or Dorico.
OK then, I’ve attached a fragment of the piece. It’s a quartet for flute, clarinet, harp, and tuba.
The first measure shown is one measure before the part I revised in an external file and pasted in. The 9/4 bar that follows is a long-held shimmering sound before continuing. For contrast I added a couple more bars from about 100 measures later that show clearly the colored vs black notes in a fluent passage that shows a mixture of black and purple notes in the flute part, including a B-natural, showing it to be the pivot point. BTW, note that the high Db at the end is not marked out-of-range because I set the range capabilities of each instrument according to what’s in the score, knowing that a good player can play the high notes.
I hope this uploaded correctly. I briefly saw a pop-up that said it doesn’t have a proper extension, but it ends in .dorico, I can open it here, and the thing below indicates it’s been uploaded. Fragment.dorico (1.4 MB)
In Setup mode, expand the player card for the Flute, then click on the 3-dot menu and choose Edit Instrument Definition. Scroll down to the Range section, and you’ll see that the Standard range has been set to B4-D7 (the factory default is C4-A6). B4 is the middle line of the treble staff, so all the notes below that have been marked as out of range.
I suspect you may have meant to set the bottom of the range to B3 (right below middle C). If you make this change, then the flute notes will all show as in range.
Edit: Looking back at your earlier post, I think this is the crux of the issue:
Yay! This fixed it. What a relief. But I also learned something.
The octave numbers change on C. Really??
I’ve had it locked in my brain that it changes on A for decades. Where did I get that? I used to tune my own piano frequently with the aid of a strobe-type tuner, and the little card they supplied me with to calculate stretch factors. I just dug it out and checked it. Sure enough, it verifies what you said.
So my own ignorance is the source of my problem. I’m glad I’ve got that piece of misinformation straightened out now.
Thanks as always. This forum is a priceless information source.
Yes, I read that Roland instruments standardized around a different number. I have a 4-octave Roland keyboard in my home office, but a full 88-key Casio in my music studio (in the basement). But when I bought the Roland (less than a year ago) I think I read that there’s a switch you can set to determine what standard you want to use. I must have set it.
I mentioned tuning pianos in previous days. That was before the time of MIDI, or rather when MIDI was in its infancy. I worked as a software engineer for Motorola at the time but the only computer I had at home at the time was a Commodore 64. The only thing I knew about MIDI at the time was how to spell it.
So I was wondering if anyone would bring that up. But somehow I had it in mind that the octave numbers changed on A. I’m so glad to have that straightened out.
I prefer whatever standard calls middle C C4. International, huh? I should check that.
