# Breath/Phrase playback effect in Dorico 3.5?



## DennyB (Dec 31, 2021)

Over the last year I have fallen in love with Staffpad, but I thought I would also give Dorico a go since then I could use all my cool VST libraries.

One of the things I have found very useful in staffpad is the breath mark for indicating - and hearing - phrasing so it doesn't sound like a shotgun blast of 100 eighth notes in a row.

I see in Dorico that I can add a breath mark, but it doesn't affect the note playback length or any other performance characteristic that I can tell. Is there a way to indicate this in Dorico 1) without playing controller games and 2) in a manner that will carry through into the engraving in some standard and useful way?

thanks!
-denny-

p.s. for example...


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## Woodie1972 (Jan 1, 2022)

You can change the length in the playback window by dragging the end of the note a bit to the left. You can do this on multiple notes together by pressing Ctrl while selecting the desired notes. 
Be sure to have the wave symbol selected and not the note symbol in the menu to the left, so it will affect only playback and not the notation.


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## DennyB (Jan 1, 2022)

Perfect, thanks!


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## Bollen (Jan 1, 2022)

I also draw a little trough on the tempo line just before the next bar at around 3 or 4 bpm, just to give it more of a pause feel.


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