Hi, sorry this is rather beginner question, but I’m mostly used to writing smaller chamber works. Today I’m working on a piece which has scaled up to a larger orchestra while writing, and the woodwinds I started with, which are were all originally individual players, I need their parts beefed up in playback.
I went to add additional players, but now I have separated players for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon etc. Because I want them playing in unison, it’s not clear to me what my next step should be. Do I just copy/paste each part to the new players, and then condense in page view? Or is there some faster way of having all players play from the top player staff for each instrument (i.e. all oboes play the top oboe staff unless I write otherwise into divisi)? Just not sure what the workflow is there when wanting to treat the staff as a section in unison. Thanks!
Yes, that’s the right way. Then each player can have a separate part, and Dorico handles the doubling in the score.
So the issue I run into with that is when I’m still writing, and wish to adjust a part, I have to adjust it (or copy/paste) to each player every time I make any change, which can get quite tedious (and error prone). Is the best workflow then to wait until after writing to double into other players? Or is there any way to “hear” them all play from one staff?
I would write in one stave, using multiple voices to represent when players are div., and then Explode the music into the group of players once all the music is in and as many changes as possible are done.
It’s not too hard to copy/paste changes as you go if you want to make changes after exploding. If players are playing the same phrases but with different pitches, you can even input the music in all the staves at once and Dorico will divide the pitches where necessary.
Leave condensing until the very, very end.