Unwanted double flats.

In scoring for a pair of instruments, such as flutes, playing in unison, if I try to give them both a flat accidental I generally seem to end up with a double flat. Is there anyway of avoiding this or is it just a bug in the software?

Cheers,

John.

... is it just a bug in the software?

Can you elaborate? To which software are you referring?

If you're talking about Finale, that's a common problem. I don't really know how to avoid it, but you can just hide the extra accidental. In speedy entry, that's done with the asterisk (*) I think (although I never use speedy entry), in simple entry you'll have to go special tools/accidental mover/right-click on the accidental/edit, then remove the checkbox at "use standard symbol" and replace the "b" with a single space. It's rather tedious, I know. I wish there was a simpler way in "simple" entry.

P.S. I just noticed your post in the Sibelius related thread, so I guess this is about Sibelius, not Finale. So disregard this.

What I do is save one file as my playback and one for sheet music. The sheet music file you just implement a flat/sharp on one of the notes and it should look normal.

Well, the method I described for hiding just the flat works in all (full) versions of Finale I've used so far. But again: I guess this is about Sibelius, not Finale, so the solution is going to look differently.

Is this a Sibelius problem? If so its a problem when using two voices though its very hard to understand why. Can you post the score file with the messed up part in it?

Many thanks, gentlemen, for your helpful replies. I'm sorry I failed to mention that this is a problem I'm having with Sibelius.

Cheers,

John.

Are you trying to create a courtesy accidental? If say Db is already in the key signature and you want the accidental to appear anyways, adding a flat will naturally make it a double flat - what you have to do is tell that note that you want the courtesy accidental there - I'm not sure how to do that in Sibelius, but it's probably possible. Perhaps this is what you wanted?

Are you trying to create a courtesy accidental? If say Db is already in the key signature and you want the accidental to appear anyways, adding a flat will naturally make it a double flat - what you have to do is tell that note that you want the courtesy accidental there - I'm not sure how to do that in Sibelius, but it's probably possible. Perhaps this is what you wanted?

What happens, James, is that I insert, say, a 1st flute(tail up) note with a flat accidental into the score, using the mouse and then follow it with an identical 2nd flute( tail down) note on top of it where I want the the 2 flutes to play the same flat note in unison. This invariably results in a double flat appearing in the score. It wouldn't matter so much if I got 2 sharps, as we have a distinctive separate symbol for a double sharp.

When I'm working in Noteworthy, I can put the tail up and tail down notes in, one on top of the other and then add a flat to the highlighted pair, which then only shows up as one flat. Its a great pity that this does not work with Sibelius.

I think my best course of action will be to go to the Sibelius web site and report this as a possible bug in their otherwise excellent software.

Cheers,

John.

Just press the flat button two times when inserting the second layer. It maintains the flat for the measure from the other layer and hides the flat on the new layer so that you don't have two flats next to each other. Just tried it myself.

"Just press the flat button two times when inserting the second layer. It maintains the flat for the measure from the other layer and hides the flat on the new layer so that you don't have two flats next to each other. Just tried it myself."

Many thanks for that tip, what a brilliant idea!

Cheers,

John.