User manual

Notes can be moved in Play mode by dragging them to the rhythmic position you want. However,
like other instruments, you cannot move notes between percussion instruments, even if they are
in the same percussion kit.
NOTE
You cannot change the duration of unpitched percussion notes within Play mode. This is planned
for future versions.
RELATED LINKS
Percussion maps on page 340
Drum editor on page 290
Inputting notes in the event display on page 291
Moving notes in the event display on page 292
Unpitched percussion imported from MIDI les
When importing MIDI les, Dorico Elements optionally interprets music for tracks set to use
channel 10 as drum sets if Interpret channel 10 as General MIDI percussion is activated in the
MIDI Import Options dialog.
NOTE
The MIDI Import Options dialog opens automatically when you open MIDI les in Dorico
Elements.
This is the only condition under which Dorico Elements interprets any music in MIDI les as
percussion.
Unpitched percussion imported from MusicXML les
Unpitched percussion music can be expressed in a number of ways in MusicXML, and all scoring
applications take different approaches to what data is exported, and how it is encoded.
Therefore, the results of importing MusicXML into Dorico Elements varies considerably.
Dorico Elements identies each instrument in kits explicitly, and then combines them
dynamically onto ve-line staves. Other scoring applications and MusicXML have a different
approach to how unpitched percussion music is represented. For example, a drum set may be
effectively notated as pitched notes on a ve-line staff, and annotated with additional
information to help identify which instrument corresponds to each staff position.
Because of these different approaches, mapping information between the MusicXML
representation and the Dorico Elements representation can be challenging, so Dorico Elements
employs heuristics to improve the quality of results.
Typically, drum set instruments in MusicXML les exported from both Sibelius and Finale are
imported quite cleanly into Dorico Elements.
Results are particularly good, and more likely to be imported correctly, if the voicing of the drum
set is consistent, such as consistently notating the snare drum in a down-stem voice. If the
voicing changes from bar to bar, it is possible that some notes are not identied correctly, or not
imported at all.
Other kinds of percussion that are notated on ve-line staves produce more variable results. In
most cases, Finale includes information about which percussion instrument maps onto each staff
position, but Sibelius does not. As a result, you might nd that Dorico Elements chooses different
instruments than you expected, but you can change instruments using the Edit Percussion Kit
dialog.
Unpitched percussion
Unpitched percussion in Play mode
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