Count-in duration (controlling the number of measures/beats)

• Mar 14, 2021 - 03:56

I just began using MuseScore's "Count In" feature and I'm finding it's really helpful for my students.

I'm wondering if it's possible to set the number of full Count-in measures to a value between 0 and x? Generally I'd like to allow students 2 full measures of count-in, or for them to have an easy way to chose the amount of Count-in they prefer.

Regarding pickups, is it also possible to set x full Count-in measures + the number of beats in a pickup measure?

If I'm observing correctly, by default, the Count-in's duration lasts for one full measure. And if the user commences playback at a pickup measure we get a full measure of Count-in clicks plus clicks through the "empty" portion of the pickup (in another words, we get a full measure, plus an additional number of clicks equal to Nominal - Actual; then the pickup note(s) play.

Thanks!

scorster


Comments

And a request:

How about allowing the user the option of customizing the Toolbar to include a horizontal version of the Play Panel's Tempo slider?

Once the following controls in the tool bar:

   • Tempo slider (to my knowledge, NOT presently allowable)
   • Count-in toggle (easily added to the toolbar)
   • Metronome toggle (there by default)
   • The Loop toggle (there by default)
   
... then students studying and practicing with a score would have the "study controls" they'd need, without opening the Play Panel.

scorster

In reply to by scorster

I'm pretty sure that count in was working properly with anacrouse in version 2.
In 3/4 with a 1/4 anacrouse it was "counting" 1 2 3 1 2 go...
In the latest versions it is completely wrong it just counts 1 2 3 and plays the anacrouse.
Changing that is not a suggestion it is a bug to correct.
The number of count in measures on the other hand would be really appreciated but that one is a feature request

In reply to by scorster

@scorster
Confirmed: that your score doesn't count in the anacrusis correctly

@Jojo-Schmitz
Confirmed: that a new score created in MS 3.6.2 does count in the anacrusis correctly (attached)

[EDIT] I think that the cause is this: by instinct I enabled the checkbox "Exclude from bar count" for both anacrusis bars - and that's the difference between the two scores...

Attachment Size
Anacrusis with count-in - bis.mscz 6.02 KB

In reply to by DanielR

Yep, that's exactly it. We look at that setting to try to guess what is intended. It's impossible to know for sure when we set an incomplete measure if those are meant to indicate the first or last beats, but in most of the real-world use cases (pickup/anacrusis, also bars split across a system break or on either side of a mid-measure repeat)), it would happen to be the case that bars that should be treated as containing the last beats would be excluded from the measure count. So that's what we key off. Probably we should treat the very first measure as last beats regardless of this setting, but, enabling it is the right thing to do anyhow.

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

True, but I would also guess that a significant numbers of users who don't add the anacrusis when creating score probably forget to check that box. Meaning there are quite a few real world scores out there that have anacruses of this form. Proabbyl a much higher number of these than the number of scores that actually happen to start with irregular measures for other reasons. Except, non-metered music. But in those cases, it's probably longer than the nominal duration. And the next measure would probably be irregular too. So a possible heuristic would be, if a measure is irregular and it's the first measure and the duration is less than actual and the next measure is not irregular. I would bet if that were implemented there would be no complaints.

In reply to by scorster

Useful discussion everybody. In these waters one things leads to the next.

Back to the points raised in the initials posts:

• Is currently possible to set x full Count-in measures. If not, please consider this a request as longer count-ins will surely useful for people practicing with MuseScore.

• How about allowing the user the option of customizing the Toolbar to include a horizontal version of the Play Panel's Tempo slider? There's an explanation of the inherent usefulness for students in the second post.

scorster

In reply to by scorster

"... customizing the Toolbar to include a horizontal version of the Play Panel's Tempo slider?"

That point will get lost in this thread, because its topic differs from the title of your post here. But it's an interesting idea, worth raising separately in the Feature request forum.

And in addition you can then post your proposal in the Issue tracker (with Severity = S5 Suggestion), after taking account of any discussion points and extra ideas which occur in the Feature request thread.

Once again I'd like to know if anyone has input on my opening question in this post:

  scorster wrote > I'm wondering if it's possible to set the number of full Count-in measures to a value between 0 and x?

If there's a consensus that this is not currently possible I'll raise the issue as a request in the Issue Tracker.

Thanks, scorster

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