MuseScore 3.3 Beta Release

• Aug 31, 2019 - 10:44

Today we are pleased to announce the Beta release of a significant update, MuseScore 3.3.

Download MuseScore 3.3 Beta Release

See MuseScore 3.3 Release Candidate announcement.

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Highlights

Complete redesign of the Palettes panel

Palettes panel is one of the most commonly used UI elements in the editor. By the way, there are a lot of reports from users who don’t understand how to customize palette cells, how to add custom elements and rearrange existing palettes.

In a collaboration with @Tantacrul, we focused on simplifying the interaction with the palette elements and ease of customization. We made the interactions more intuitive and integrated the semantic of Master Palette to the palette panel.

Check out Beta version and let us know what you think can be improved!

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Chord Symbol Formatting

Past releases of MuseScore have supported superscripting and within chord symbols, but only when using the Jazz style and the corresponding MuseJazz font, and only the fixed amount built into the font. With MuseScore 3.3, you can now set superscripting options within Format / Style / Chord Symbols, whether using the Jazz style or not. There are separate controls for the size and position of extensions and modifiers (the "7" and "b9" respectively in "C7b9").

Roman Numeral Analysis

MuseScore 3.3 adds native support for Roman numeral analysis (RNA) through a new command, font, and style settings. To add RNA to your score, select a note or rest and use Add / Text / Roman Numeral Analysis (or define a shortcut for this command). You can then type your analysis using ordinary characters, like "IV64", and it will be rendered with appropriate formatting using the new Campania font and the Roman Numeral Analysis text style settings. You can then use Space or any of the other shortcuts used when entering chord symbols to enter additional analysis on other notes.

Nashville Number System

MuseScore 3.3 adds native support for Nashville notation through a new command and style settings. To add Nashville notation to your score, select a note or rest and use Add / Text / Nashville Number (or define a shortcut for this command). You can then type your notation using ordinary characters, like "4m7/6", and it will be rendered using formatting similar to that used for chord symbols and the Nashville Number text style settings. You can then use Space or any of the other shortcuts used when entering chord symbols to enter additional notation on other notes.

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Other Improvements and Fixes

New

  • Add support for Roman numeral analysis & Nashville notation

Improvements

  • Implement adding symbols to barlines
  • Play Panel layout
  • In Edit mode, keyboard arrows now change leading space rather than horizontal offset
  • Multiple accessibility improvements
  • Multiple improvements to the Plugin API
  • Make use of the existing accordion palette

Fixes

  • Various fixes for the playback of tied notes, muted voices and notes being edited in parts
  • Sticking was not linked between score and parts
  • Note symbols were truncated in Tab Preview
  • Some Buttons looked grayed-out in dark mode
  • The presence of fretboard diagrams prevented input of chord symbols in other staves
  • Removing a custom workspace caused a crash
  • Multiple fixes for MusicXML Export/Import
  • Letter score in landscape orientation exported as A4 in score+parts PDF

For a complete list of changes, see the MuseScore 3.3 Beta release notes.

Important notes

  • New kinds of chord notation won’t be rendered correctly in previous versions of MuseScore

Comments

About New Palettes

  • The unity of these palettes with the software is broken.
  • The palette element's backgrounds doesn't read the background-color property from preferences.
  • The palette titles take up more (maybe 3x) space vertically.
  • Palettes don't cover the full area, there are uneven gaps to the left and right sides.
  • When a palette was opened and selected, it was like a patchwork bundle with the bluish background color around it, and the pale gray colors of the other elements. It's like glued with copy + paste from somewhere else.
    • for Open: You click on the title of the palette, it opens.
    • for Select: On already opened palette, click on the outer empty area. (What does this do?)
      • The first time you click there, the background color is bluish, and the second time you click it, the background color turned to a light gray color. (what does this really mean?)
  • In the Basic and Advanced workspaces, you can delete an element without receiving any warnings from a palette.
    • When user clicked on a palette element (eg: G-clef), is the main purpose of the software to encounter the trash-bin symbol first? (a Separate "Edit" mode would be nice.)
    • And in case of any change, some new workspaces are automatically created (such as Basic_edited, Advanced_edited). Is this an easy-to-use feature?
      • If so, and if user wants to delete these new workspaces, that were created without asking you, user must have to discover to where is the workspace-edit menu is and delete them from there. (It would have been easier with the right-click menu)
      • Is it useful to add a new workspace with a plus button in the part where you add/create, but not to have a minus or delete-button in the same part (not even a right-click menu)?
  • When you want to reach the end or top of the palette quickly with mouse-wheel (pgDn, pgUp, Home and End keys doesn't work here), you get the bouncy jumping effect and you have to wait for our eyes to get used to it. Really? Is that what we want?
  • And did you see the one-element-bar that was formed at the under the note-input-bar. (I wish you hadn't) and whose sole purpose was to show/select of the workspaces?

I know that, one of the goals of redesigning pallets is to provide access for visually impaired people and keyboard access.
But is there any need to disturb regular users in doing so?

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In reply to by Ziya Mete Demircan

I would say when there are specific standalone bugs, they should be submitted individually, but I agree general discussion about how to improve the palettes belongs n the forum. Probably better, though, in ne of the threads specifically dedicated to the palettes, and not here in the release announcement.

In reply to by Ziya Mete Demircan

I agree there is work to be done on the visual appearance. But to me, the behavior is mostly good. In particular, I find it a gigantic win that users don't have to magically discover they need to create a new workspace just to customize their palettes. I can't think of any other program that makes me do anything like that. I suspect this will dramatically increase the number of users who now will experiment with customization. Most users will not care or need to know that a new workspace was created for them. But even if you do decide to delete one of these workspaces, the option to do so is right where it always has been, so I don't see how that aspect inconveniences existing users.

I think the main goal wasn't so much about accessibility (although that is a huge side benefit) but about ease of customization for new users.

BTW, if you delete a palette item, it just moves to "More" so it's easy enough to get back. A message to that effect the first time you do it (eg, via a "Tour") seems like it would be in order.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

I for one very much feel that this is a step in the right direction. I never customized the pallet. I opened up musescore to write, not fiddle with the UI. Maybe I'll need something, Maybe I won't. I definitely don't want to hunting around for something I accidentally removed. But this makes it so easy to do while I'm working. And so easy to recover from a deleted item. Ziya Mete Demircan mentions the extra vertical space as if this is a bad thing. To me it just makes everything easier to read and use. Especially for something I'm using constantly. And of course better for my touch screen, but this is a side benefit..

One thing I think could improve it. Dummy that I am, at first glance I didn't realize the "Add more pallets" was a separate button. I thought it was text labeling the search function.

Also how do I close the search so I can press "Add more pallets button" once it is covered up?

Aside from that, great job

In reply to by Joshua Pettus

Once you press search icon, you need to press "esc" key on your keyboard to turn it off.
Sometimes it doesn't close *1. Workaround: Click on the search field and press "esc" key.

*1 : Click on the search icon, type something in the search field (for example: clef), click any clef icon in the Clefs palette. Now, you cannot close the search box with the "esc" key. So, use the Workaround above.

In Edit mode, keyboard arrows now change leading space rather than horizontal offset

This is backwards. Prior to this release leading space was changed in edit mode, it now changes the horizontal offset.

Merci pour cet impecable travail.
Est~ce qu'il y a pas moyen d'exporter une partition video dans le musescore ?

Merci.

Je suis BAHATI Wellars au Rwanda

In reply to by ndy

There is a known bug that can cause this. If you go to the Download page (see menu at top of this page) and scroll down to where the nightly builds are listed, you can download a build that fixes this. Or wait for the next beta update which should be coming soon.

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