Help engraving grace note slurs

[David Ward]

Why do ties in Dorico look much bolder than slurs?  Is it a default?  Also having the tip about 3 times larger.

This is the Dorico default when no grace notes are involved.

[John Ruggero]

OCTO, the original Dorico slur defaults were not good, but corrected for the better later, and highly correctable depending on personal taste, much as in Finale.

David, that example looks very strange to me, and not at all like Dorico. What font are you using?

[OCTO]

What font are you using?

It looks like Engraver, can it be used in Dorico?

[David Ward]

What font are you using?

It looks like Engraver, can it be used in Dorico?

Yes to both.

This is from my first project in Dorico. I can't explain why I used Engraver, other than that I suspect I tried it (all my Finale scores used it) on a whim, and when it seemed to work I kept going. I'll use the Dorico default font, Bravura, next time. At the time I was struggling with other Dorico problems (or problems for me, at least). Apart from some rather extravagant vertical spacing, the fifty pages of score will pass.

Clearly I need a proof reader in my dotage. Yesterday I posted some printed and bound scores of this project in which the copyright notice at the bottom of the first page of music had ‘…all rights resserved’ (double ‘s’) albeit in rather small print.

[sugarfree]

It looks like the anchors for noteheads and flags are misaligned in your file. For noteheads, you can fix it in Library/Notehead Sets/Default noteheads/[select notehead]/[click the pencil icon]/Stem. For flags, it’s tricky, you would need to edit the Engraver .JSON file.

[John Ruggero]

David, I have found that Dorico works most smoothly using Bravura, so if you find you are happy with the result, it would probably make things easier.

I have replaced the Bravura note heads, dynamics and finger numbers (Maestro time signature font) with their Maestro equivalents, since I like them better.

OCTO, Dorico is quite flexible and one can replace any of the symbols with those from other fonts. And the music symbol editor allows one to create combinations of symbols. However, Dorico plays most nicely with Bravura.

[David Ward]

It looks like the anchors for noteheads and flags are misaligned in your file. For noteheads, you can fix it in Library/Notehead Sets/Default noteheads/[select notehead]/[click the pencil icon]/Stem. For flags, it’s tricky, you would need to edit the Engraver .JSON file.

Assuming you are referring to my example shortly above, rather than to the original subject of this thread, I think it may perhaps have been something to do with the way my earlier screenshot uploaded to this website. Does my new much magnified screenshot from the same PDF look better?

I'm no expert on the subject of fonts, and I am amazed and impressed by the depth of the knowledge of some members of this forum on the subject.

[sugarfree]

Interesting. This new screenshot looks perfect.

[OCTO]

It looks like the anchors for noteheads and flags are misaligned in your file. For noteheads, you can fix it in Library/Notehead Sets/Default noteheads/[select notehead]/[click the pencil icon]/Stem. For flags, it’s tricky, you would need to edit the Engraver .JSON file.

Assuming you are referring to my example shortly above, rather than to the original subject of this thread, I think it may perhaps have been something to do with the way my earlier screenshot uploaded to this website. Does my new much magnified screenshot from the same PDF look better?

I'm no expert on the subject of fonts, and I am amazed and impressed by the depth of the knowledge of some members of this forum on the subject.

I would suggest making the staff lines and curves slightly bolder.  Engraver is a relatively heavy typeface, and the contrast with the very thin staff lines, stems, etc. makes it visually unbalanced.

[David Ward]

I would suggest making the staff lines and curves slightly bolder.  Engraver is a relatively heavy typeface, and the contrast with the very thin staff lines, stems, etc. makes it visually unbalanced.

Yes, I can see that now. Thank you.

I don't know whether it's my 85 year old eyes or merely habit and training, but I find it much easier to assess these things on a printed copy than on a computer screen. However, in these days when many musicians are reading from iPads, I should probably try to learn to assess just as effectively from a screen.

In late 2000 my publisher supplied me a with a Mac computer (plus accessories) and the then latest version of Finale. I was due to be 60 in February 2001, but had never used a computer and could barely use a typewriter. For several months I struggled, spent hours on the telephone to the publisher complaining and/or seeking advice, cursing and threatening to throw it all through the window &c. Part of my problem was that I was trying to make Finale do exactly what I did in manuscript. Only when I relented from this did things begin to work.

What I certainly hadn't prepared myself for was the idea that I'd have to learn new music typesetting software twenty five years later. However, it IS a very much easier task (so far) this time.

The first score that I engraved in Finale was an unassuming twenty minute piece for cello and piano. So poor was my Finale work that for the first performance in earlyish 2001, the late great cellist Rohan de Saram and his pianist brother Druvi de Saram chose to play from my less than fair copy manuscript, rather than from the Finale typeset score and part. However, eventually I became confident and fluent in Finale.

I don't know how fluent I'll become in Dorico, given my age, but I certainly aim to try.

And as an addendum to all this waffle, here are two pages from the last substantial score I did in manuscript only. I'm probably more glad than regretful that I no longer need to do this. My rough sketches – the actual composing, as it were – are still usually in manuscript.