Guidance on dynamics placement

[thorrild]

Every so often, a post on this forum mentions that dynamics are sometimes unrecognized in playback, and solutions always include entering the dynamic on the opposite side of the staff.

Is there some description of how dynamics are programmed that might help us understand why they are sometimes unresponsive? I am currently working on a piano score with plenty of upstem/downstem music, and I am enduring a lot of extra editing (adding dynamics and hairpins where they don't belong and then hiding them from view), both apparently because of the upstem/downstem occurrences (but not always), and also because a single dynamic between the upper and lower staff doesn't always govern both. Over the past 18 months, I've tried again and again to find out what causes this occasional blindness to dynamics, so far with no luck.

Can Notion provide us with some insights? At we'd know what to watch out for.

Best wishes,
Thorrild

[David Smith]

The problem is this. If you even once place a dynamic above the staff, then all subsequent dynamics added below the staff will not work. You must remove the "above" item to get it to work. (Otherwise you have to keep placing them above the staff, then moving/hiding).

For multi-part scores, view the individual part to make it easier to find, as it may look like it's on another staff. For this reason, I also never drag the dynamics upward (even if it would look better), because then I couldn't tell if it was really a 'below' insertion later on.