By that I mean, the power button in the upper left corner of the window. I can press it, it doesn’t switch off, and so I can’t tell what that means? This feels like a super-stupid question, but I have not seen anything about it…
Anyone?
Best
DonMusc
Not sure if this helps –
Re: Moving music between projects
Unread postby Daniel at Steinberg » Mon Jul 25, 2016 6:33 pm
Yes, you can have multiple projects open, but only one project will be active for playback at any time; you can manually activate another project by clicking the appropriate button in one of the document windows belonging to the project you now want to activate for playback (which will trigger the loading of the necessary virtual instruments etc.).
Thanks Bob
At the moment, Dorico automatically activates each project as you switch to one of its windows, but in due course we will change this so that Dorico works more like Cubase: just as now, only one project can be active at once, but you will be able to choose when to make another one of your projects active explicitly.
Is it still the case that you can’t deactivate project with the activate project button?
It seems that that was never the idea. Sometimes I have to switch often between different projects. i. e. in oder to paste and copy parts. Each time I switch I it is loading the playback plugins, wich takes an annoying amount of time. Is there a way to prevent this?
Hi. That button still is unusable — though I think Daniel has stated somewhere that it would probably change… The solution nowadays is to use Silent playback template to switch seemlessly between projects, I’m afraid.
Paul has been working on this recently, and we anticipate that support for opening a second project as inactive will, all being well, be included in the next major version of Dorico later this year.
Being a completely new user, I too was very surprised that the “activate” button doesn’t also “deactivate” – especially since Steinberg’s Cubase uses a similar button that does deactivate.
There are a few different functional uses of such a deactivate button – for me, a very simple one is to be able to turn off all vst instruments in an open project so that I can use my midi keyboard for other tasks (eg, reading thru a student’s work/ analysing a score / giving myself a break by improvising at the keyboard).
One might be able to create a script/macro that opens Playback Template and changes to/from Silent playback, but there’s another way that I stumbled upon: In Write mode, if no event is selected on any staff, Alt+S will solo the “Dorico Beep” (metronome sound). If one isn’t using the metronome (or has assigned a different sound to it than the DB?), soloing the Dorico Beep effectively mutes all staves. (Shift+Alt+S removes the solo and unmutes everone.)
Still, if I’m still using Dorico by then, I will definitely applaud the code that makes that Activate button toggle with Deactivate. When it comes to workarounds, what would be “just another damn workaround (sigh. . .)” in Finale stands out far more in Dorico, simply because Dorico is otherwise a gorgeously elegant program.
If it helps, I always leave Preferences/MIDI Thru off. I have a standalone piano VST running outside of Dorico and a software MIDI router that routes the MIDI signal to multiple programs at once. Anytime I ever hit my MIDI keyboard I get a piano sound, not whatever sound is currently selected for that staff in Dorico. I can go from inputting into Dorico, to composing, reading through a student assignment, etc., all without having to switch anything on or off, and I always have the piano sound that my standalone VST provides. Just thought you might find this type of setup useful.
Hi, Fred – thank-you for this!
Altho’ I’ve been using Cubase and Finale for decades, I’m still partly in the dark re. some things.
My midi keyboard is connected to my computer via USB, and to an ancient Roland SC88 midi module by Midi Out (from keyboard) to Midi In (SC88). I use the SC88 for non-production tasks, because it’s very handy, but I occasionally also try to use other VSTs within my computer.
Would I be able to do what you do without using a Midi router (software or otherwise)?
Thanks again for the tip!
The reason I need a software MIDI router is so the incoming MIDI signal can be sent to both Dorico and my standalone VST simultaneously. I want Dorico to have the focus, but still need the VST player to playback even when it’s in the background. I’m on PC, but I created multiple virtual MIDI ports using loopMIDI, then route the MIDI signal using an ancient program called MIDI-OX. Dorico then uses the “Dorico MIDI Port” I created, my VST uses the “VST MIDI Port,” and both programs receive the MIDI signal simultaneously. I hear the piano sound loaded in my VST player, but can still input into Dorico without hearing whatever playback sound I may have loaded for that staff.
Thanks for this, FredGUnn – I appreciate it!
I vaguely remember Midi-Ox, from years ago – tho’ I’ve never yet used it.
Altho’ I’m still not ready to use a midi router, I’ll bookmark your reply for future reference.
Thanks again!