Working with Percussion in Dorico

I read somewhere that Dorico was capable of showing a single percussion staff in the full score where all percussion instruments would be notated, in one staff, but when the percussion part was selected, it would show a percussion staff for each instrument (or multiple staves) and each staff would have an individual part. In the full score, those parts would appear compressed. How would that be achievable in Dorico?

Here’s the manual: https://steinberg.help/dorico/v1/en/Dorico_1_Operation_Manual_en.pdf
Start at page 770.

in setup view, add the percussion instruments you want this play to have access to; then when you go to view-gallery view and all of the instruments are here (pitched and non-pitched). place your music in the respective part at the respective time; then, when you go back to page view dorico will automatically display the proper music for the proper instrument on the percussion line. it should also say “to the respective instrument” as an edit and mark it when it gets there.

I’m resurrecting this thread, because I have a possibly related (or opposite?) challenge (or question? Or request?) I think I need some help to wrap my mind around this. As usual the solution probably is readily available for everybody else.

In a score for a large ensemble, the percussion instrumentarium comprises seventeen instruments. At the moment, each instrument is designated to a separate player in Setup mode.

There are three percussionists in the ensemble. I will provide them with a percussion score – easy of course, creating a custom score.

Alas, I know however that they appreciate that the composer makes an attempt at creating a part for each player. I agree with this request, it shows that the composer makes an effort to write his music for the real world, helping players find solutions for quick instrument changes.

Through the duration of the piece, the players share instruments – at one point, player 1 will play the bass drum; after a while, player 2 will play this instrument. This goes for many instruments.

In the full score, I would like the instruments to show on their respective staves. The conductor does not need to know what I propose percussionists 1, 2 or 3 play at any point.

But in the parts for the players, I would like the instruments played by more than one player, to not show when that instrument is played by someone else. In other words: a single stave in all parts (except, of course, when the instrument is double-staff or they play several instruments simultaneously).

Sorry for the long post as usual. Maybe what I write is hardly comprehensible. Sigh! Advice appreciated.

Unfortunately a single instrument can’t move from one player to another over time. So you will have to have more than one bass drum instrument and assign each of them to the players if you want to produce this appearance in the parts. Depending on how you choose to assign the instruments to your three players rather than having 17 separate players will affect what this actually means.

There’s nothing to stop you from producing a percussion score with the music of three players rather than 17 players, so I would suggest that if you’re going to also try to produce three workable percussion parts, you start by assigning those 17 instruments to your three actual percussionists, and then go from there.