Trying to touch up a score imported from the scanner

• Jul 16, 2022 - 01:15

So, I have a horn section chart I imported from a pdf. Everything is corret, staff properties are labelled correctly and in the right key, with the exception of the "playback" instrument which is set to "Voice Oohs".

I'm trying to find a quick and easy way to update the playback instrument, but I must be missing something.

I've seen some earlier threads in the forum, but they were always from the premise that I had entered the score. I've tried various combinations of the Concert Pitch and overriding the transposition settings, but not getting the results I want. Perhaps I need to read the docs more?

Right now, the only reasonable path seems to be to create a new staff with correct settings and copy and paste, then transpose back. Is there some combination of copy & paste and the Concert Pitch button that I'm missing?

Once again, the point of this was to use the scan, and minimize the work (particularly the key entering and mousing) to hear a playback.


Comments

In reply to by bobjp

Thanks. I found it just before I saw your post come in.

I was able to easily set the instruments in the mixer. The problem is the scanner sets every track/staff to concert pitch. So, the notation and key signatures are correct, but it thinks every staff is a concert pitch instrument. (I'm not surprised that the scanner does this).

What I really want is to be able to change the instrument and the transposition settings for staff without it touching or changing the notes or Key Signature.

Yes, I can use a convoluted process to fix this, but that seems more involved than just manually re-entering everything. (And defeats the purpose of using the scan). Then again, maybe I'm missing something.

In reply to by chrisocowan

If you want MuseScore to playback the proper concert pitch of the horn parts, then you must actually transpose the score. That involves only a few clicks. Then you can use the concert pitch button to view which ever transposition you need. Starting from already transposed parts is kind of backwards. But doable.

In reply to by chrisocowan

By importing PDFs the interpreter does not know that the sheet is from a transposing instrument (e.g. F horn), so the result is in concert pitch, even if the key signature seems to be correct. But it will be played wrong.

In this case I suggest you should do these steps after importing:
- choose the correct instrument by right clicking on the staff and select staff/part properties - Change instrument. Choose e.g. the horn. Change also the part name in this window manually to get later a correct name when generating parts.
- now the notes will change their position, e.g. from C to G for a F horn; the key signature will change too.
- select now a key signatur so that it will match with that of the original PDF; in case of a F horn you need to select a key signatur with one b more or one # less.
- select all notes in the staff and use the arrow key so that the notes will match with you PDF. It should be 7 semitones up, so a C will get a G or a G becomes a D. May be you need to change by an octave too.
If you have only several horn voices, you can select the whole sheet using Ctrl-A. Otherwise you need to do it for Es, Bb, F instrument groups seperately. C instruments (e.g. flute, tuba, trombone) need only the change instrument action.
Now you have a score as it should be, especially if you add some more other instruments or change one.

Scanning may be helpful but it needs a lot of additional work afterwards.

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