TUTORIALS
Tip: Change the Tonality System
- Open the Key Signatures, Tonality Systems and Accidentals panel in Write mode.
- Select a tonality system by clicking the menu button and choosing one from the list. Dorico ships with two equal temperament tonality systems; one for 12-EDO (which is the default), and one for 24-EDO. It is possible to define your own by pressing the New Tonality System button, after which it will appear in the list.
- Input a key signature in the score at the point where you would like the tonality system to take effect from.
- The Accidentals panel will update to show the available accidentals for the selected tonality system.
- You can add as many tonality system changes to your flow as you like. Simply repeat the process at any point in the flow.
Tip: Combine Percussion Instruments to Form a Kit
- Right-click a player card in Setup mode and choose Combine Instruments into Kit. The Percussion Kit Editor opens automatically.
- Drag the instruments to the positions you would like them to appear on a 5-line staff. You can set the stem direction and voice for each instrument.
- Use the Add Existing Instrument From Player button in the editor action bar to add to the kit other unpitched percussion instruments currently held by other players.
- The Remove Instrument From Kit button removes the instrument from the percussion kit so that it is a regular instrument held by that player. You can then drag the instrument to another player as desired.
Tip: Print and export multiple layouts with one click
- Switch to Print mode.
- Set your desired print options, such as page size.
- You can set different options for different layouts. For example, choose how many copies of each layout you would like to print. Or perhaps you need to send the Full Score to an A3 printer, and all instrumental parts to an A4 printer.
- You can even choose for some layouts to be exported as graphics. Perhaps you need to email a PDF part to some of your musicians.
- Select all the relevant layouts and click Print and Export. All of the selected layouts will be sent to the chosen printer, or exported as a graphic, depending on your settings — all from one click.
Tip: Retain existing music behind slash regions
- When you create a slash region in Dorico, any existing music currently on the staves will be preserved.
- To create a slash region, make a selection then open the Notations panel in Write mode, choose the Repeats panels and expand the Rhythm Slashes section. Click the Create Slash Region button.
- You can drag the handles for the slash region in Write mode to change the start and end positions of the region. Doing this when you have existing music under the slash region will reveal the music.
- Music beneath the slash region will continue to play back. This is very useful when creating a score that includes a solo section, that will be improvised during performance, because you can include music that will be indicative of what might be played in a live context.
- You can still see the music beneath slash regions in Play mode, and all editing functions still apply to the music.
Tip: Justify music so that it always fills the entire page
- Sometimes you may find some pages of your music are not being vertically justified to fill the entire page. The reason for this will be due to a Layout Option, that controls when to justify the music across the height of a music frame. Dorico looks at the amount of music in each frame to see what percentage is filled. It then compares that to a threshold set in Layout Options, and if the filled area is greater than the threshold, Dorico spreads the staves across the whole frame. It is important to have this setting, otherwise you could find that solo instrumental music with two systems would position one stave at the top of the page and the other at the bottom of the page.
- Have a look at the pages in your layout that are not justified, and estimate how full these pages are.
- Open Layout Options, by selecting the relevant layout in Setup mode and clicking the Layout Options button in the action bar at the bottom of the Layouts panel. You can also use the key command Ctrl (Cmd on Mac)+Shift+L from anywhere in the program.
- Select the Vertical Spacing page from the side bar on the left, and navigate to the Vertical Justification options.
- The default threshold is set to 60%, meaning that only when the music frame is at least 60% full will Dorico justify the staves and systems across the height of the frame.
- Reduce this number to a value appropriate to the estimate you made in Step 2 and press Apply and Close.
- Because this is a Layout Option, you can set this threshold independently for each layout if required.