Setting a style for dynamic range

• May 24, 2019 - 18:23

Is there a way to set 'staff' to be the style instead of 'part' when changing the dynamic range? I've had to use the inspector tool to change the dynamic range of every dynamic.


Comments

It is not the norm for dynamics to apply to one staff only, so you shouldn't generally be doing this unless you are writing very unconventional music. If you are perhaps doing this just as a way of getting the melody to be played a little louder, don't use dynamics for this - use the velocity settings in the Inspector, and you can do this for the entire staff all at once when you are done.

That said, if you are writing some sort of special / expeirmental piece that requires separate dynamics often enough to need to be going to the Inspector often on a case-by-case basis, consider instead creating a custom palette with customized versions of those dynamic markings. See the Handbook for more on custom palettes.

If that doesn't help, please attach your score so we can understand and assist better.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Invisible dynamics set to staff can be far more efficient than using individual note velocities for playback only. Since you can't control staff volumes in the mixer, I don't see a problem with this or a better way to do it. One big advantage is that the velocity type doesn't need to be changed on every note and the dynamic will apply to all notes added under its influence.

In reply to by mike320

I don't see how it's more efficient, quite the contrary. To me the advantages of velocity are a) no element to hide or worry about layout for, and b) it's simply to set all bottom staff velocities to offset -20 or whatever to make all left hand notes quieter than the RH, rather than needing to place specific dynamics at specific places (eg, add an "mp" if the RH if "mf", but add a "p" if the RH is "mp", etc - then continue to have to keep them in sync). The key is using "offset" not "user" as the type, though otherwise then indeed dynamics would have the advantage you state. but it's true that newly added notes won't get this, whereas they would with dynamics.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

It's more efficient because all you have to do is enter the dynamics set to staff and all notes you enter into its realm after that follow the dynamic. It's one and done. No need to make sure you have the correct offset on each note (I realize all existing notes can be selected at once) if you add a note or edit a few notes after you change the offsets of the existing notes.

One other point that I consider minor and usually imperceptible to the average human. An offset of -10 on a p dynamic does not produce a velocity 39, it produces a velocity slightly less. I don't remember the simple math to determine the exact number I just remember the offsets aren't absolute.

In reply to by mike320

OK, I do see your point, I guess it comes down to the order in which you tyically do things. To me, I'd start messing with playback stuff like this only when completely done entering notes, so the literally five seconds it takes to fix the entire staff at once beats having to insert separate dynamics for each staff manually each time the dynamic changes. but if you're worried about the fact that you might change notes later and thus miss something, then indeed entering separate dynamics is safer.

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