Repeat barlines don't work in mid measure

• Apr 5, 2010 - 19:30
Type
Functional
Severity
S4 - Minor
Status
by design
Regression
No
Workaround
No
Project

Dragging and dropping an end-start repeat ( :||: ) in the middle of a measure does not result in a working mid measure repeat: it is ignored on playback. A visually similar effect can be achieved by placing the :||: at the end of a measure and reducing the number of actual notes in the measures before and after the :||:, which does work correctly on playback. See attached files, which look identical, but are not ... one has a :||: dropped in a measre, the other has a :||: at the end of a measure.


Comments

The irregular measure solution works OK. The issue is that the GUI allows dropping a :||: in the middle of a measure, resulting in something that looks almost exactly like the irregular measure solution, but doesn't work as expected. If repeats are only allowed at measure boundaries, the GUI should enforce that constraint.

The ability to place barlines in the middle of a measure was implemented for dotted bar lines and does not change the semantic of a measure. This should not work at least for repeat bar lines.
I am afraid that splitting a measure by placing a bar line would produce a lot of special cases. The split has to work over all staves and while some special cases like splitting a note into two with a tie can be solved automatic while others like splitting a tuplet is not easy possible.

The workaround is as mentioned above: split the measure into two irregular measures with the appropriate number of beats (right click measure, measure properties), and then put the repeat on the barline between those measures.

Title End-start repeat doesn't work in mid measure Repeat barlines don't work in mid measure

However, I think this still should get fixed. Either by disallowing any barline (at least any repeats barline) to get inserted into the middle of a measure, or (IHMO better) by automatically split the measure at that spot (marking the 2nd part as ''don't count", something the 'split measure' funtion doesn't do).

An easier, appropriate fix for the time being, would be, when the user drops a repeat in the middle of the measure, a warning dialog could appear to notify the user that the playback won't work that way.

The dialog box could also suggest the workaround of creating two irregular measures.

the next versio9n does have a 'spilt measure' feature already, extending it just slightly to get used when a barline gets inserted in the middle shouldn't be too difficult then, I guess.

The ability to insert a graphical barline in the middle of a measure is something quite powerful. It gives freedom to the user to do things we can't think about and provide a way to workaround some limitation. I wouldn't split automatically a measure when inserting a barline. I believe is one of this case where less automation gives more freedom and more power.

I am definitely against having the bar line drop to split measures: to me the power of this feature is to have bar lines at different places in the various staves.

The attached image (too big to insert it in line) shows a use case, made by a complex mix of 'regular', dropped and hidden bar lines.

Now, try to do this if dropping a bar line should split the measures! (And, yes, that score has been made with MuseScore).

Attachment Size
unsync_barlines.png 27.84 KB

there is a workaround with irregular measures to put a repeat mark in middle of measure. But: couldn't do that musescore by itself in background? (drop repeat mark in middle of bar, musescore computes itself how to do the measure before and after and handles the midi ...

It's possible, sure, but see the response just above yours. This isn't always what one would want.

Since you mention irregular measures as the workaround, in guessing you are trying to do or the long slow manual way. Splitting a measure in two is very easy with Edit / Measures / Split Measure.

Status active by design
Regression No
Workaround No

by design. Using Ctrl+drag splits the measure in 3.0 and so makes the playback work

That's why actually splitting the measure at that point instead of using a mid-measure repeat is preferable, as explained above. if you have further questions on how to use this or other features of MuseScorw, please use the Support forum and not this obsolete tracker.