Workflow for parts

Dorico
1

I’m looking for some conceptual help here. I am sure I’m going about this the wrong way…
I’m laying out parts - so I’m looking at a single part in engrave mode. I decide I need to add a cue:

  • switch to score with W
  • score is in engrave mode/page view
  • switch to write mode (incidentally 90% of the time Dorico 4 crashes here - but I assume that is an edge case!)
  • write mode is now also in page view
  • switch to galley view (wait for recalculation)
  • add cue (love the way this is implemented btw!)
  • switch everything back

gets a little tedious over the course of an orchestral piece.

It seems I’m using a conceptual model from other software - so I’m curious how you folks do it.

Thanks!

2

Hey mate,

If I was looking at a part in engrave mode and decided I’d like a cue, I’d:

  • Double click the stave (or whatever) to automatically go to write mode.
  • Activate caret
  • Shift-U to add a cue wherever you want (from any player in the same flow).

You don’t necessarily need to be in Full Score to add cues.

Hopefully I didn’t miss something! haha

3

That’s right, items exist and can be input in any relevant layout, and in both galley and page view, but you do need to be in Write mode to add new notes or notations. You can also input items in the middle of multi-bar rests by positioning the caret where needed.

4

Thanks for the reply, I appreciate it!
Full score is for me - otherwise I don’t know what I want to cue. I’m just the engraver and generally only know the pieces well after I’ve done all the work!

5

You could think about using Dorico’s “suggest cues” feature, and add most of your cues in one go in the score that way, while of course being on the lookout for more whilst part formatting.

“Suggest cues” lets you set a resting duration (ie how long a player hasn’t played themselves) after which you’d want to give a player a cue, and Dorico then highlights the 2-3 bars before their next entry after a gap of that duration or longer.

6

Thanks! I wasn’t even really aware of that. Or else I just assumed it would be as useless as similar offerings in other notation programs. I will check it out. And it probably makes sense to get used to doing a pass of all cues at once rather than part-by-part (except as needed).
I appreciate it.

7

When it comes to Dorico, I personally wouldn’t recommend doing this :wink:

2 Likes
8

good point! (even if you might be slightly biased :grinning:)

9

For the record, that’s what I do. I take the whole score in galley view and enter cues as I scroll from beginning to end. If I see a cue missing when formatting parts, I often just add it right in the part (putting the caret inside a multirest even) if I remember what the best cue option is. It is considerably faster this way. The only drawback, as I’ve often said before, is that the cue feature in Dorico is so easy to use that I have had to learn to reduce the number of cues in parts!