I’m not exactly sure why Dorico is doing this, but it is very obviously not correct, or at least very confusing:
At the very least, if I were writing on paper, I would not have notated the above example in that way. In this case it would make a great deal more sense to me to have the position of the quarter and sixteenth in the first tie chain swapped, so that the beats are always clear. At the moment, the quarter extends from the second sixteenth subdivision of the second beat of the measure to the second sixteenth subdivision of the third beat of the measure. If the sixteenth and quarter were swapped in the tie chain, the quarter would instead be from beat to beat, which (to me) makes this much easier to read. Is there a way to get this result without forcing duration?
By default, a 5/4 time signature in Dorico is treated as a single dotted minim/dotted half beat followed by a single minim/half beat. I agree that it’s rarely what you want.
What’s wrong with the example, though, is not the 3+2 subdivision. It is that Dorico doesn’t cope well with (ie fails at) keeping a crotchet (quarter-note) division within them. Which should be the default outcome.
It is, I think, a problem with asymmetrical time sigs, and acknowledged as needing improvement. I would use force duration.
In this case I altered @pianoleo 's solution a bit by holding down ALT before pressing enter so that it only affected that one stave. Otherwise, the measures that I have with dotted half notes tied to half notes end up changing to a whole note tied to a quarter, which does not accurately show the overall 3+2 subdivision of the measure.
Let me clarify:
three crotchet/quarter beats grouped together for the sake of rests and long notes, followed by two crotchet/quarter beats grouped for the same purposes, is absolutely standard (or at least as standard as 2+3).
What’s non-standard is that Dorico treats each of these two beats as a single unit, with no rules for how notes shorter than a crotchet/quarter should be grouped. It’s this second part that I’m disagreeing with: semiquavers/16ths should be grouped in crotchets/quarters.
I am having a similar issue with 5/4 but with rests (see beat 5 of this measure):
To solve the issue Ms. Harris suggested I Force Position and Duration, which works:
I tried pianoleo’s solution for this measure (at the beginning of the measure, press shift + m, type [1+1+1+1+1]/4) but Dorico inserted a meter change notification (inserting 5/4 at the beginning of this measure) even though no change to the meter occurred.
Is there a way to set beam groups for a meter throughout the dorico file? My piece has multiple meter changes between 5/4 and 4/4, so it would be useful to set beam groups at the Notation level, not for a specific measure.
If you use [1+1+1+1+1]/4 in the Shift+M popover you should get the right long-short rest grouping, like this:
You will need to copy and paste the existing 5/4 time signatures to replicate this metrical structure to other meter changes, or always type [1+1+1+1+1]/4 in the popover each time.
If a time signature is selected, you can option-click in a new bar to copy it. This works much faster than copy/paste, and also can be used for notes, dynamics, text, etc. etc.
