Question about voices

• Aug 7, 2022 - 07:11

Assume there is a staff with two voices, one and two. Is there a way to select all the notes of a single voice for copying, pasting, etc., without affecting the other voice?
Thanks.
--Rich


Comments

The Select / More method works for some kind of operations (eg, deleting, changing properties via Inspector), but because it creates a "list" instead of "range" selection, it won't work for copy/paste. Instead, use View / Selection Filter to exclude a given voice from the selection. Also look at Tools / Explode if the goal is to simply convert two voices on one staff into one voice on two staves.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

You are correct, Select / More does not work for copy/paste even though the Handbook in the link Sammik supplied suggests it should.
View / Selection Filter worked brilliantly for voice 1 (granted, it didn't copy over lines and barlines, but maybe a future version will). I was able to paste it to another sheet. However, doing the same for voice 2 did NOT work. Keeping only voice 2 and selecting all did not highlight voice 2 as it had done with voice 1. In pasting to a separate sheet, voice 1 was again pasted. Do I need to somehow empty the clipboard for it to work? Am I missing some step?
I've attached the file I've been working from.

Attachment Size
Gary Owen's Jig Harmony 2.mscz 18.35 KB

In reply to by Cynewulf

"View / Selection Filter worked brilliantly for voice 1 (granted, it didn't copy over lines and barlines, but maybe a future version will)."

The Selection Filter already works over barlines, system breaks and page breaks.

"However, doing the same for voice 2 did NOT work. Keeping only voice 2 and selecting all did not highlight voice 2 as it had done with voice 1."

Not so. The Selection Filter works fine for Voice 2 as well as Voice 1, and always has done. But be aware that "Voice 1" or "Voice 2" alone in the selection filter only selects the notes for that Voice - and not any lyrics, dynamics or staff text. Here is a screenshot of a Voice 2 selection over two pages:
Selection Filter - Voice 2.png

Perhaps the Handbook pages on Selection modes might help you here?
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/selection-modes

There is a section headed 2. Shift selection which is really informative:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/selection-modes#shift-selection

In reply to by Cynewulf

If You want to Copy-Paste Voice 2, you need to paste it into Voice 2.
(So You need to create rest in voice2 first)

But I would prefer to use Tools - Voices - Exchange Voice 1 - 2 in original score, so voice 2 will became voice 1 and You can work with it.

Or (as Mar suggested) use Tools - Expolode. But You need to create new empty staff first. (press "i" and add new instrument)

I attached result

Attachment Size
Gary Owen's Jig Harmony 2 EXPLODED.mscz 23.12 KB

I realize I was somewhat unclear by what I said. When I stated "not copying barlines and lines" I meant not copying repeats and 1st and 2nd endings (which are located in the barlines and lines category).

Selecting ONLY voice 2 in the filter still DOES NOT WORK for me in that file I attached. HOWEVER, by selecting voice 1 and 2, doing a select all, then unchecking voice 1 DID what I expected to see when I selected voice 2 by itself.

Exploding also worked for me. It took me a while to figure out how to do it, since I had never used that function.

So thank you, everyone. I now have two ways of copying and pasting individual voices and putting them on a separate sheet. I still need to add the repeats (barlines) and endings (lines) manually, but that's the least of my worries.

--Rich

In reply to by Cynewulf

I’m guessing you neglected to hit Ctrl+C after making your filter choice. The filter
doesn’t operate on what is already copied to
the clipboard - it operates on the selection before copying the clipboard. So, first set up the filter, then Ctrl+C. If there is anything in voice 2 when you do this, it definitely gets copied.

Or, maybe you are thinking the voice 2 button in the filter will move the contents of voice 1 into voice 2, but that’s not what it does at all. It simply controls whether or not the contents of voice 2 n your selection get copied to the clipboard upon pressing Ctrl+C. If you see those notes highlighted in green when you hit Ctrl+C, east assured, that worked.

If you continue to have trouble, please give your precise steps - tell us which measures you are selecting, what you filter looks like at the moment at you hit Ctrl+C, where you are pasting the results, and what happens instead of what should happen (voice 2 from the source measures copied to voice 2 of the destination).

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Actually, I remembered to hit Ctrl-C. I understand "select all" doesn't affect what's in the clipboard (nor should it.)

What I observed is that if I filter on voice 1, then do a select all, all the notes of voice 1 turn blue. That tells me they are now in the clipboard. Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V to another location works as expected.

Unfiltering voice 1, then filtering on voice 2, then doing a select all, does nothing. I would expect all the notes of voice 2 to turn green, showing that they've been selected. They remain black. Obviously, the Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V doesn't work, only only the voice 1 previously in the clipboard gets pasted.

Filtering on voice 1 and voice 2, then doing a select all, the notes in voice 1 turn blue, the notes in voice 2 turn green. I would expect that. Then unfiltering voice 1, the voice 1 notes turn black, the voice 2 notes remain green. This works fine. Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V to another location placed voice 2 in that location.

When I filter on only voice 2, and do a select all, I would have expected voice 2 to turn green, while voice 1 stays black. This did not happen. This may be a glitch. It may be because my computer is over five years old. It may be because I brought the file over from Musescore 2 and something got lost in the conversion. I don't really know. The important thing is I now have two work-arounds to do what I need.

Again, thanks to everyone.

--Rich

In reply to by Cynewulf

I think I know why you are having - it's due to a quirk in how the selection process works when doing things in the order you just described, which is the opposite of what I'd have recommended.

If I load the file you attached towards the beginning of the thread, and do exactly this:

1) Ctrl+A to select all
2) View / Selection Filter
3) uncheck voices 1, 3, 4

I am left with exactly what I expect: voice 2 is selected, as evidenced by the fact that the notes are green:

Screenshot 2022-08-08 9.51.43 PM.png

I think maybe what went wrong is you tried doing this in the opposite order - Ctrl+A after unchecking voices 1, 3, and 4. That won't work indeed, not for any particularly good reason. The not-good reason is that the very first (pickup) measure doesn't have anything at all in voice 2 to select, so the process kind of aborts. But if you do the selection first, then filter, it works.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

However, it does not work as one would expect.
If I first create a second stave as a target for the copied voice two, then do your proposal 1) ... 3) and then I'm not able to select a measure of this second stave to paste voice two into it.
First I need to switch back to 'All' in the selection filter to be allowed to select the target and paste. You don't expect that way.
[Edit]
I believe the reason is that voice 1 is still deselected and the newly created second stave is per default voice 1. A measure itself cannot be selected without the notes or rests in it. On the other hand, a single note or rest can be selected ...
Nevertheless, it would be nice to be able to select a measure to use it as paste target independently of the selection filter settings.

In reply to by Cynewulf

Yes, it is a quirk but only if there is no second voice in measure 1!
You can do:
- Add an rest for the second voice in the first bar and then use the selection filter to disable voice 1. Then Ctrl-A works as expected.
Clipboarder.2022.08.09.png
Or:
- Disable voice1 in selection filter, select measure 2 then press shift and click on the last measure (or begin at the last measure and shift click on the very first). In both cases voice 2 is selected as expected.

There is a problem (minor SW bug) when the first measure does only contain voices which are disabled in the selection filter. Then Ctrl-A does apparently not find a starting point for the selection.

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