Enabling swing playback for the drum set

The drum set part has lots of eighth notes (quavers) that could be played swung, as is idiomatic in blues song, but the other parts in this song are played straight. In Dorico, you can enable swing playback only for the drum set without affecting the other parts.

Dorico provides a number of swing ratios, categorized as “rhythmic feels”, by default.

Procedure

  1. In bar 1, select the bar rest on the drum set staff.
  2. Press Shift-T to open the tempo popover.
  3. Enter swing into the popover.

    Tempo popover above the drum set staff with the start of a swing ratio entry

    • Like for the playing techniques popover, a menu with valid rhythmic feels appears when you start entering into the popover.

  4. Press Down Arrow until you have selected 2:1 swing 8ths (fixed).

    2:1 swing ratio selected in the tempo popover menu

  5. Press Alt/Opt-Return to close the popover.

Result

Swing playback with the selected swing ratio is input for only the drum set part. It appears as a signpost above the drum set.

2:1 swing ratio signpost in bar 1 on the drum set staff

Tip

  • Pressing Alt/Opt in addition to Return means the rhythmic feel only applies to the selected staff. PressingReturn on its own enables swing playback for all players. You can also use Alt/Opt-Return to close popovers (or Alt/Opt-click when using the corresponding panel) to input other voice- and staff-specific notations, such as time signatures and key signatures.

  • You can hide/show some or all signposts from the View > Signposts menu.

  • Rhythmic feels input using the tempo popover only affect playback in that flow. If you have Dorico Pro, you can also enable swing playback in the whole project on the Timing page in Play > Playback Options (key command Ctrl/Cmd-Shift-P).