Instruments

In Dorico Elements, instruments are held by players. Section players can only hold a single instrument but solo players can hold multiple instruments, which allows you easily to instrument changes, such as when an oboist doubles the cor anglais.

When you have input notes onto multiple instrument staves held by the same player, by default Dorico Elements automatically shows instrument change labels as long as the notes do not overlap. You can see staves for all instruments in galley view, and you can allow/disallow instrument changes in each layout independently.

Before you can assign instruments, you must add players or ensembles, which may in turn also be assigned to groups if needed. If you add ensembles, it is by default not necessary to add any instruments, since these are already included when you select the type of ensemble. However, you can add further instruments to solo players in ensembles.

Instruments in Dorico Elements do not have limited ranges; it is possible to notate any pitch in any register on every instrument. However, in the piano roll editor in Play mode, only pitches that fall in the MIDI note range 0-127 can be represented. Similarly, if you input a pitch beyond the range of samples in the assigned VST instrument, the pitch does not sound in playback.

You can change instruments at any time, add/delete them from players, and move them between players.