I’m learning that in Dorico anything’s possible, so rather than asking if something is possible, I’ll ask how it’s done.
Notice the wavy lines in the attached image. (These are flute and clarinet lines.) Some of the scribbles you see are guides for performance. I used this exact pencil score to conduct a performance nearly 60 years ago. I might add something like them to this edition of the score.
The main thing to note is that while what’s going on in other instruments is meticulously precise, there are places where gliding up and down around approximate pitches is approximate.
I’m guessing that it’s possible to create graphics that can be dropped in. However, later editing could cause the space for them to grow or shrink. It would be ideal to be able to draw a wavy line with a mouse or stylus between rhythm points and see that line stretch or compress depending on how much space is needed.
I hope this is all possible because I have a much bigger piece I want to set later that has a lot more of it.
While I’m asking, would someone tell me how to write a half-flat, i.e. a quarter tone between G and F#. I didn’t really know much about mircotones in those days, but I wrote a few.
Hi @Lynn_Newton, you could try using multi-segment slurs:
Dorico file example:
wavy lines with multi segment slurs.dorico (1.3 MB)
The Manual:
You need to insert a 24-EDO key signature, so that the needed accidental will appear in the panel:
Multiple-segment slurs in engrave mode look very promising based on what I see in the example. I briefly tried this and see I’m going to have to read the manual carefully to get the hang of it, but I anticipate that it will yield a solution.
I see from the example you supply that the “slur” can actually pass through a notehead. I need to practice in a scratch file. Meanwhile I can put in stubs and move on.
Regarding the quarter tone notation, I did find 24-EDO (two variants — I chose Gould arrows, which is probably more standard, right) under Tonality System but had to fiddle with it a bit to realize I had to essentially register a C major key change to get it to kick in so that I could select notes and see the quarter-tone variant accidentals offered as choices in the palette.
But I did that, and now it’s fine. This is not something I ever used much before nor will I again in the near future. (Though I’m interested in recent experiments in 32-tone systems!)
So that leaves only the first part of my question needing to be resolved.
I’ll leave this post declared not yet solved until I have had time to experiment with it because I will probably have problems with it.
Thanks very much. This is a major help to me.
You need to input a key signature to fix the tonality system in place, but that key signature can be “atonal”; it doesn’t have to be C major or A minor.
Yes, the multi-segment slures are very flexible but need much manual work in a case like this, to be freely positioned.
Just notice that in engrave mode each segment has its own control points, once selected. Have fun experimenting.
Ah yes, I’d forgotten that “atonal” is accepted as input from the popover. I wonder if that makes a difference in how it interprets sharps and flats. Do you know? I’m finding I have to respell a lot of things I input to their harmonic equivalents. (I had the key defined as C major until just now, when I changed it to atonal.)
Thanks for that tip.
It does indeed affect the spelling of accidentals in some cases, but perhaps most importantly, it means that transposing instruments don’t show key signatures in their parts.
I’ve left this thread unresolved for some time because I haven’t had time to try it out. I’m getting close to actually needing it, so today I played with this. I’m impressed. Multi-segment slurs should work quite nicely for what I’m doing. I like that I can define the number of segments and it connects them all, following which I can twist and turn each component as much as I like. For all the precision there is in other parts of what I’m working on, gliding between pitches is a lot more approximate.
The only thing I regret is that I don’t have a tool that can can flex pitch on playback —unless there’s something I haven’t looked at yet in the jazz articulations. I did use a falloff on a clarinet at one point, and this was reflected in the playback. It seems it should be possible to combine some of those along the lines of the multi-segment slurs.
When I started this thread I said that playback is not a primary component. Since then I’ve bought NotePerformer. Suddenly I want my score to sound good when I play it back.
You could try drawing a free line that imitates the movement of the multi segment slur, in the pitch-bend lane of key editor.
I’m glad I asked about this.
I’ve never seen this pitch-bend editor. May I assume that this will work if I’m using NotePerformer to play the score? (Which I am.) Is this something associated with Play Mode and the mini DAW that’s shown there?
Here is a demonstration using the MIDI Pitch Bend editor in Dorico to cause the pitch of the NotePerformer clarinet to vary roughly from C up to E, then down to A and back to C:
The second note has its playback suppressed, and the first note has its played duration extended by three and one-half beats. NotePerformer is capable of bending the pitch of a note up or down by as much as one octave, which is 12 semitones. The range of values in the MIDI Pitch Bend editor is -100 to 100 percent. The first and last points in the editor are set to zero percent. The interval between C and E is up 4 semitones, so the second point in the editor is set to 4/12 ≈ 33 percent. The interval between C and A is down 3 semitones, so the third point in the editor is set to -3/12 = -25 percent.
Here is the Dorico project:
Wavy line playback.dorico (1.3 MB)
Nice demo @johnkprice. Apparently I can do what I want to do with this. I’m fairly familiar with Logic (not an expert but have produced a number of satisfying works with it), so I’m inclined to draw comparisons. In Logic you display automation and in that context can freely vary several things. How do I get to this in Dorico’s Play interface (which I don’t know the name of, though I understand it’s a simplified version of Cubase).
Another question has to do with notation, which I’ve been unable to resolve on my own. In your example you have a 4/4 bar with only an eighth note at the beginning and the end and a wavy line in the middle. This is good and like what I want to do, but I don’t know how to accomplish that without Dorico insisting on inserting rests and the like. I note that it’s possible to insert those notes then delete the rests. Is that how it’s done?
I’m greatly encouraged by this response. Thanks for taking the trouble.
You can open the Key Editor in write mode or play mode by opening the lower zone and clicking on the button shown in the red rectangle:
If the MIDI Pitch Bend editor is not visible, click on the Add Editor button shown in the green rectangle and select MIDI Pitch Bend in the popup menu. You can change the height of the Key Editor by clicking and dragging on the top edge of the lower zone. You can change the height of an individual editor by clicking and dragging on its splitter shown in the blue rectangle.
To eliminate rests between notes, you can select the rests and execute Edit > Remove Rests, but this can sometimes cause the horizontal space that the rests used to occupy to shrink. You can prevent this from happening when hiding the rests by selecting them and changing their Color property, setting the Alpha channel on Windows or Opacity on macOS to zero.
@johnkprice this is an area of Dorico I haven’t gotten into at all yet and was totally unaware of since I’ve only been using it a month ago. Your instructions were clear enough that I managed to bring up the Key Editor with the Pitch Bend editor. It took a minute or two to figure out how to get it to kick in, but to my delight I discovered how to do the straight lines as shown and also that there is a method of writing in lines by hand by dragging the mouse. This is exactly what I was hoping to accomplish. It may take a little work to get it right, but now I know it’s possible and what the path to that end is.
At this stage I’m just looking to make respectable electronic versions of some old material that has been sitting in my archives for years. At this point I’m not deeply concerned about parts and page turns and the more sophisticated aspects of formatting, which can all be added as I learn about it once the music is right.
I never expected I’d be able to get something that imitates wavy lines and actually plays on top of it. Very encouraging.
I’ve got several days of implementing red-pen edits into my current project to accomplish. I’ll be back if I have more questions about this Pitch Bend editor. Thanks so much!