# Dorico note input



## eboats (Sep 17, 2018)

Am getting up to speed on Dorico and wondering about the fastest way to input notes, whether I should use a Midi keyboard to enter pitch values or just use the computer keyboard for everything. Am curious about what people are using for fast workflow.

In Sibelius, I'd just use the computer keyboard for everything (left hand to enter pitch values and right hand on num keypad for duration etc.).


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## Woodie1972 (Oct 6, 2018)

Several people say they can enter notes with the computer keyboard very, very fast, but I have no experience with it. I also think you have to be a good typist to perform this well and I'm not that fast with typing.
For me it's piano and numpad, which can go pretty fast too in my case.


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## MrCambiata (Oct 6, 2018)

I find note input and other editing still much faster in Sibelius than in Dorico. However, when it comes to preparing the score and parts for the musicians, Dorico saves a lot of time. For my last project in Sibelius I saved the score and parts in the end as two separate files, to many things disappeared from the parts when changing the number of bars in a page in the score.


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## Woodie1972 (Oct 6, 2018)

That's weird, as score and parts are linked to each other, so changes in score should be in the parts and the other way around.


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## MrCambiata (Oct 6, 2018)

Well, for example the indication divisi disappeared from the 2nd violin and apeared two times in the 1st violin. Also happened with dynamics and other symbols.


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## ptram (Oct 6, 2018)

Basically, you enter notes with pitches on the left hand, and durations on the right one. In Dorico, you can also avoid entering rests, because the input caret can be freely displaced on a rhythmic grid.

Paolo


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## Me No Sum (Jan 18, 2019)

MrCambiata said:


> Well, for example the indication divisi disappeared from the 2nd violin and apeared two times in the 1st violin. Also happened with dynamics and other symbols.


yes! this happens because when you're working on the main score and place a dynamic marking for ex. intended for one of the parts, the object attaches incorrectly to one of the other parts. You can check this and correct it on the main score clicking on the object and noticing the dotted lines attaching to the wrong parts. This happens more often when the scores are tightly packed together of course because it's more difficult to separate. This is a bit of a bummer because you can only really notice that it's wrongly placed until you print a part or click the object and notice the dotted lines... The other option is to always make sure that you click a note in the part before inserting any object.


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## bryla (Jan 18, 2019)

MrCambiata said:


> Well, for example the indication divisi disappeared from the 2nd violin and apeared two times in the 1st violin. Also happened with dynamics and other symbols.


This only happens when you input the text information in the wrong place or move it to an adjacent bar or staff. Popularly known as a PMAC. 

I'm still learning Dorico input but it's much nicer to work in than Finale and Sibelius although I'm really slow at Dorico.

I prefer typing everything in and the articulations and accidental keys are still not natural to me. Also I'm learning to predict when Dorico is putting the next note up or down from previous.


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## Me No Sum (Jan 18, 2019)

bryla said:


> Popularly known as a PMAC.


Thank you for supporting my answer. Never hear of the term PMAC though. Can you point to a resource were that is explained? The only time I hear of PMAC was linked to cryptography..


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