Hello,
Since I started using Dorico I’ve been experimenting a nuissance. Dorico links dynamics in a way I don’t understand. Sometimes, I change a dynamic in the clarinet and then it’s also changed in another instrument, especially if the voice had been copied (however, it can happen in the same measure even if you’re not copied the part).
This is annoying because if you’re copying dynamics (let’s say a diminuendo) and then you have to put different symbols, the program changes them in other measures that the one you’re working in. So you have to do modifications until Dorico let you continue.
Say you want to delete a dynamic indication in the clarinet. You have to review all the voices in order to check if that dynamic indication has been removed in other instruments. It slows down the workflow of composing a lot, as you’re tweaking things a lot, and these kind of nuissances are something you don’t want to deal with. Maybe I don’t understand how this linked dynamics work.
On the other hand, inserting a “niente” is such an adventure. You have to open the lower window, allow the hairpin to go “Niente” and then choose the niente symbol. I mean, why not letting you put in the popover >n in the first place, without anything else (I tried, it doesn’t work. However, when you do the three steps, it’s the indication you get if you open the hairpin in the popover).
Dynamics are automatically linked (vertically) when you copy/paste dynamics at the exact same rhythmic position. This might be alongside other material, like notes, or it might be just copying the dynamics. The benefit of this is if you’ve given the same dynamics to an entire section (e.g. all the woodwind parts), but decide actually you want them to crescendo to ff rather than just f, so you only need to change the dynamic for one and all are updated. The downside, as you’ve described, is that if you’ve forgotten or can’t see which dynamics are linked, you can miss other changes.
Rob, I’m using Spanish keyboard. It didn’t worked until I click in the lower zone and allow the dynamic to be niente. Then I can use the >n.
Lillie, it doesn’t work all the times as expected. In any case, I don’t like how Dorico manages this aspect, I think the Sibelius solution is in this case simpler, faster and more reliable (the dynamics are not linked, but you can edit several at once if you select them). Besides, in the Dorico system you have to write thinking in how Dorico is going to handle dynamics. This is not optimal.
Due to this little things, for me now it’s faster to write the music in Sibelius and then import to Dorico to the final engraving. Of course, I’d rather use only Dorico (because of their superior final output), but it slows me down and breaks my “composing flow” constantly due to this kind of things, and others that I’ve post in the past
Have you seen the Tantacrul video? I think he says several things you should take in consideration for version 4.
Of course, every time you update Dorico I can see a big step in development, so I’m sure you will get “there” soon!
Thanks for your hard work (and thanks for answering me)!
Sorry to hear that, but you can change your preference so slurs and dynamics are never linked automatically. This setting applies to all future projects, so you only have to set it once. If you want to input the same dynamics across a bunch of staves, you can extend the caret to those staves and input dynamics as you would normally; they get added to all the staves the caret extends across.
. That’s efficiency!