Scoring Express for Dorico updated for version 6

At NYC Music Services, we’re pleased to announce updates to the Scoring Express suites for Dorico, the collection of professional templates based on the same ones we use regularly. Some of these are specific to the Jazz or Theatre & Studio collections, but others are applicable across the Scoring Express line.

These updates are created in Dorico Pro 6.0 and take advantage of some of the new features and improvements introduced in that version of Dorico. Notably, there are updates to the way Paragraph Styles, chord symbols, and system-attached items are handled, compared to earlier versions of Scoring Express for Dorico. In addition, when possible, we have made efforts to align the templates more closely with their Finale and Sibelius counterparts, for users of those products.

This version of Scoring Express retains all of the updates from before, as well — notably the annotated example file in the “Rock band + strings landscape” example file that comes with the Theatre & Studio collection, and the playlist of approximately a dozen short videos, with more to be added in time. Each video playlist begins with a general guide to usage and features, followed by about a dozen short videos drilling down to specific topics corresponding to specific items from the example file.

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What’s new

Officially this version is Scoring Express for Dorico 1.8. Here’s what’s new in this version, compared to 1.7.

Text

• A Numerical Divisions Paragraph Style has been added, allowing you to easily show divisions at irregular time signatures. Use Shift-Alt-X to invoke the System Text popover, set the Paragraph Style dropdown to Numerical Divisions and type the division. On hitting Esc or clicking away you should see that it positions closer (both vertically and horizontally) to the time signature than the Default Text style.
• The Expression Paragraph Style has been rolled out to all templates, and now defaults to 2.5 spaces below the staff. This Paragraph Style may be quicker to use for expressive text than adding a dynamic with Hide Intensity Marking set. Nevertheless:
  • Dynamics with Hide Intensity Marking set now automatically left-align to noteheads.
• The Page Turn Indication Paragraph Styles now default to 3.5 spaces below the staff.
• The Instrument names (Cues) Paragraph Style now defaults to 1.5 spaces above the staff (Theatre & Studio only).
• Dorico 6 handles tempo markings differently to previous versions, meaning that older versions of these templates render the note value (which now has its own Character Style) too small. This Scoring Express version (v1.8) fixes this.
• The boxed Song Number (Theatre & Studio only) has been overhauled: previously the (fixed width) Text Frame provided the border, but this caused headaches where longer song numbers were needed. Now the Text Frame is wider but the Song Number Paragraph Style is bordered, meaning the border will grow to match the text.
• The Layout Name Paragraph Styles automatically presents layout names as uppercase, meaning that it is no longer necessary for the underlying names of layouts to be typed as upper-case letters (Theatre & Studio only).

Bar numbers

• Bar numbers in part layouts at the starts of systems are centered aligned on barlines (Jazz and Theatre & Studio only)

Multibar rests

• Multibar rests now use a wide, fixed-width H bar, more closely matching the Scoring Express templates for Finale (Jazz and Theatre & Studio only)

Chord symbols (Jazz and Theatre & Studio only)

• Previously only the Sans and Academico templates used Angled Slash Chords for chord symbols with altered bass notes. Now all Jazz/Theatre & Studio templates use Angled Slash Chords.
• Kerning of characters primarily within Angled Slash Chords has been improved across all three combinations of fonts (Academichords with Bravura Text, Gothichords with Bravura Text and Petachords with PetaText).
• 6/9 chords now appear as a 6 above a 9 with no vinculum (line!)
• chords now appear as alt. (with a lower case a)
• Stacked alterations in Sans templates are now scaled to 76% rather than 65% in order to circumvent a problem with unsuitable accidental glyphs at smaller sizes.
• Multiline chord symbols now align better with single line chord symbols, and are aligned across the width of each system.

Time signatures (Theatre & Studio only)

• Better positioning and frequency of large time signatures.

System-attached items (Jazz and Theatre & Studio only)

• In the larger ensembles (e.g. big band, expanded rock band, pit orchestra) Tempo marks and repeat lines (e.g. first and second endings) are additionally shown lower down the ensemble, in line with Scoring Express Finale and Sibelius templates.

Compatibility

In addition to the aforementioned help resources, new features, and fixes, we’ve updated the files to be compatible with the latest file formats of the software. For Dorico, that’s 6.0. Dorico files can be opened in previous versions, so if you’re not running the latest Dorico version, the Scoring Express templates should be just fine, although you may find that some features don’t work as intended.

Get the update

You can obtain these updates by logging into your Notation Central account and downloading the latest versions from the Downloads area. They are free for existing users.

If you don’t have Scoring Express for Dorico yet, well, what are you waiting for? In all seriousness, we think we’ll find them very useful. Pricing is as follows:

• Scoring Express for Dorico – Chamber: $69.99
• Scoring Express for Dorico – Jazz: $69.99
• Scoring Express for Dorico – Theatre & Studio: $79.99
• Scoring Express for Dorico – Bundle (all of the above): $159.99

And, keep in mind, we have similar Scoring Express collections for Sibelius and Finale.

We hope you enjoy these updates!