Spacing in Tuplets

• May 6, 2013 - 03:46

I've noticed that sometimes the spacing in tuplets (triplets in what I'm working on now) is sometimes even, and sometimes not. In some instances the triplets look like "fourplets" with a missing second note. How can this be fixed? Is there a way to nudge the middle note into the correct position?

Thanks.

--Rich


Comments

All notes can be nudged, just like most other elements - double click and arrow key. But triplets should not be irregularly spaced without good reason (accidentals, notes in other voices or staves, etc), and nudgng notes without equally good reason to override the defaults might be a bad idea. You should post a score you have issues with, so we can see if the spacing is actually incorrect or not.

In reply to by [DELETED] 5

Ah, so it's a known issue? And next version is 2.0? Or is a 1.4 expected?

Also, concerning uploading the piece, how does one do it here? Or does one upload to the .com rather than the .org and then place a link? Does the .org ID work at .com, or is a second ID needed? Will everything eventually be merged, or will there always be two sites?

I know, oodles of questions.

--Rich

In reply to by Cynewulf

Again, it's impossible to say without seeing your score if there actually is an issue, or whether it is something you are doing wrong or misunderstanding. Triplets *are* normally evenly spaced in MuseScore. But there are stuations where notes in other staves or voices can make the spacing uneven in order to get the notes to line up correctly. That's not a bug - that's just how literally correct spacing works. The feature lasconic mentions woild allow a triplet to still be even in these cases, although that may mean the notes in the triplet won't align correctly with the notes in other voices. That is, MuseScore would choose technically incorrect but better looking spacing. I believe this would happen only if you specifically ask for it - the default would presumably still be correct - which is to say, uneven - spacing.

So we'd need to see your score to say if you are seeing one of these cases where the irregular spacing is caused by notes in other voices and is therefore correct and normal (but could be overriden using this new 2.0 feature), or if you are seeing an actual bug where you are seeing uneven spacing that is actually incorrect, or if something else is going on.

To post a score, simply hit the Attachments link right here below where you type a post and follow the instructions there. If it's already uploaded to musescore.com, then including a link to it here would be simpler.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Whoa. I didn't see that file attachment link there. I must have been really sleepy last night.

Anyway, as you can see, some of the triplets are even, and some are not. The uneven ones were that way before I added the ties, slurs, and lyrics. I hoped they'd straighten themselves out (as sometimes deletes don't seem to work, but saving, closing, and opening takes care of the issue).

Thanks for any help.

Cheers!

--Rich

Attachment Size
Angel Band.mscz 4.15 KB

In reply to by Cynewulf

The note spacing changes if a word is on one of the triple notes. In all your other cases where the spacing was correct the word started on a previous note and was only extended across the triplet notes which doesn't affect the spacing.

You are correct, though. All beamed or grouped notes (like all tuplets), regardless of lyrics, should be evenly spaced and not staggered like they are right now. Lyrics is still one of the weaker points of MS. You learn to live with the limitations of MS, file the bug reports, and wait until things are fixed. Meanwhile, enjoy the good things in a program that continues to evolve and improve daily!

In reply to by schepers

regardless of lyrics, should be evenly spaced and not staggered like they are right now
Can you describe this more in details and maybe do a proper bug report with example? Where the lyrics should go if it's too large? I tried other software like sibelius and they behave the same. The only issue I can see is if the lyric is only on the first note and there is a melisma on the other notes of the group. This is solved for next version, see attached PDF.

Lyrics is still one of the weaker points of MS
It's funny because it's also regarded as one of the strongest point :) The fact that MuseScore spaced out the music along with the lyrics is very useful in many cases. Except for copy pasting, why lyric is one of the weaker points of MuseScore for you?

You learn to live with the limitations of MS, file the bug reports, and wait until things are fixed
It would be better to take actions instead... File bug reports, and complete them. If you can try to solve the bug yourself and submit pull requests, do it. If you cannot, talk to your developer friends, donate to MuseScore or even, why not pay a developer! Things doesn't happen by themself!

Attachment Size
Angel Band.pdf 70.82 KB

In reply to by [DELETED] 5

Fwiw, I would agree that while lyrics already work quite well in the basic use cases, and that 2.0 address some of the issues one might have with 1.X.

But I find #14129: Lyrics Above Staff a significant enough limitation that it would cause many people to basically not want to use MuseScore for multi-part vocal arrangements. I still don't understand to what extent the new text style facility will address this. And even though it's fairly minor and has at least a partial workaround, #3961: Melisma line over system break does get in the way of producing publisher-ready scores even for simple lead sheets or piano-vocal-guitar sheet music.

The lack of facilities for controlling copy / paste or other bulk editing of lyrics is sometimes an issue as well, but not actually one that bothers me as much, personally.

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