Articulation style settings

• Oct 16, 2014 - 22:45

Let me know if there's something I don't understand, but I think there are bugs with articulation style settings (if so, I'll open an issue):

  • Open this score created with MuseScore 753d232 on Xubuntu 14.10:

    http://musescore.org/sites/musescore.org/files/articulations-ornaments…

  • Go to Style > General... > Articulations, Ornaments.
  • The default value for Note head distance is 1.00sp. Change it to 2.00sp.

    Result: nothing. I would expect that articulations with anchor Chord Automatic would be affected.

  • The default value for Staff distance is 1.80sp. Change it to 2.80sp.

    Result: nothing. I would expect that articulations with anchor Above Staff would be affected.

  • The default value for Articulation distance is 1.00sp. Change it to 2.00sp.

    Result: almost all elements moved, except these ones: sforzato, staccato, tenuto and marcato.

Comments

• Oct 21, 2014 - 21:18

Not sure about the spacings (not tried that).
But changing the setting for sforzato from Chord Auto to Above Staff
(which I like default, to not be confused with diminuendo),
results in the sforzato's being projected in the upper staff.
(having Articulation distance set (unchanged) at 1.00sp)

(Ref: 1efc609 at Win Vista)

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• Oct 22, 2014 - 13:57

Let's try:

Open attached score.
Lookup some sforzato's,
current positions are done manually
by dragging them to the right spot.

Go to menu: Style | General...
Go to Articulations, Ornaments
The settings are for me:
Note head distance: 1.00sp
Stave distance: 0.50sp
Articulation distance: 1.00sp
Articulation size: 100%

sforzato is set to: Chord Automatic.
Now change this to Above Stave.
See the effect: measure 36: sforzato is projected just below 28.
Meause 137: sforzato is now right below 133.

Now I try this to make this steps, the effect is not as dramatic
as last week. But it is still there.
I think I changed the stave-distance also, maybe it is connected to that.
(smaller stave-distance results in sforzato projected in the upper stave,
with current settings just below).

Attachment Size
Symphonie_Poétique_4_o2_guisto.mscz 16.21 KB

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• Oct 22, 2014 - 14:57

Well, that's just because you manually positioned those markings to be high above their default position (you moved them from below to above the staff). When you change the defaults, MuseScore still applies the same manual adjustment you had, so now they are positioned high above the *new* default. Simply reset their positions (select, Ctrl+R), either before or after changing the default position.

BTW, it really is standard to place these markings on the notehead side; it's not really wise to alter that, as musicians are not accustomed to seeing markings in non-standard places.

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• Oct 23, 2014 - 09:09

First point: I think that may be the point indeed.

Second point: True, I will think about it. For now those scores are for own use ;)

>> 1) Well, that's just because you manually positioned those markings to be high above their default position
>> 2) BTW, it really is standard to place these markings on the notehead side; it's not really wise to alter that, as musicians are not accustomed to seeing markings in non-standard places.

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• Oct 22, 2014 - 16:36

Possibly. There is a fair amount of special handling with respect to certain articulations - places where placement is fine tuned above and beyond generic style defaults. I'm not really sure how these settings are supposed to work. Feel free to check out the code in Chord::layoutArticulations for yourself to see what's going on and if you see an opportunity to improve things without breaking the current automatic placement, either try implementing it or at least making a proposal.

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• Oct 23, 2014 - 06:22

About Style > General... > Articulations, Ornaments > Note head distance (score()->styleS(StyleIdx::propertyDistanceHead)), it's only used in ChordRest::layoutArticulations, not in Chord::layoutArticulations. The value will apply only when there are at least two articulations. Example (Note head distance value: 3.00sp):

  • One articulation:

    one-articulation-nhd.png

  • Two articulations:

    two-articulations-ndh.png

Maybe the label Note head distance could be renamed to be less misleading.

-----

Same for Style > General... > Articulations, Ornaments > Staff distance (score()->styleS(StyleIdx::propertyDistanceStem)). It's only used in ChordRest::layoutArticulations. It seems that it only affects articulations with anchor staff top or staff bottom. Example when I set sforzato and staccatissimo to anchor Above staff (Staff distance value: 3.00sp):

two-articulations-sd.png

Again, it seems to me that the label may be renamed to be more clearer.

-----

About staccato and tenuto not affected by Style > General... > Articulations, Ornaments > Articulation distance (score()->styleS(StyleIdx::propertyDistance)) in my sample score, it seems deliberate because there are explicit exceptions in the source code when the anchor is not related to staff. If I change the anchor to Above Staff, the value of Articulation distance is used.

About sforzato and marcato, it seems that they're never affected by any values, but I don't know why:

switch(st) {
    case ArticulationType::Marcato: dist = 1.0 * _spStaff; break;
    case ArticulationType::Sforzatoaccent: dist = 1.5 * _spStaff; break;
    default: dist = score()->styleS(StyleIdx::propertyDistance).val() * _spStaff;
    }

Like you wrote: There is a fair amount of special handling with respect to certain articulations - places where placement is fine tuned above and beyond generic style defaults. I'm not really sure how these settings are supposed to work. :-)

Attachment Size
one-articulation-nhd.png 1.04 KB
two-articulations-ndh.png 1.4 KB
two-articulations-sd.png 1.29 KB

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