Playback speed

• Aug 14, 2019 - 06:01

I only want playback as a checking function; I want to hear the mistakes I made with accidentals etc. So I really don't want tempo variations, and prefer to specify some speed (like quaver=90) throughout. However, it seems that MS is being terribly clever, and when I write "stringendo" the playback speed changes. Is there any way I can have a simple checking playback that operates at fixed tempo (and also, separate issue, at fixed volume)? Or how can I understand exactly what is supposed to affect playback speed? And the same goes for volume.


Comments

Everybody asks and hopes exactly the opposite, that playback is as real as possible.
So what you asks here would be a completely different playback mode.

Read the Handbook section on Tempo to learn how to control the tempo in your tempo markings. For your special purpose, probably best to specify the BPM in each tempo marking explicitly (eg, make them all 90). Then you can scale everything globally using the play panel.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

(I'm using version 2 currently; if anything has been completely changed or mended, just say.)
Thanks for the responses...

It's not that I really don't want playback to be "real" (whatever that means); just that the playback behaves erratically. I really can't understand your first sentence, I'm afraid - I could only find reference to the things in the "Tempo palette", which appears to consist entirely of metronome markings.

But anyway, someone said "inspector", and I found the problem, which is that textual tempo indications (in this case "Molto rit.") include hidden metronome settings (in this case double the speed), which cause the problem. Actually, Inspector now shows a "120 bpm" greyed out, and a box "Follow text" is ticked (but I have no idea what "Follow text" means). And the 120 no longer seems to have any effect: I discovered the problem, fiddled with things like adding a 60 metronome mark, and now the problem has gone away, until the next time.

There is a more basic question about how to add "Tempo and Expression Marks", to quote the title of Chapter 16 of Gardner Read's book, but I will do that separately.

In reply to by Imaginatorium

Definitely much better to update, thousands of bugs have been fixed since MuseScore 2, as well as other major improvements. But the basics of how tempo works hasn't changed. As explain, follow text means the tempo will follow the text, so if you edit the text to read "q = 144", the tempo changes, which is why the number is greyed out in the Inspector.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Thanks. I still don't actually know just what text would be interpreted as a metronome setting: is it just text fragments of the form [X] = [number], where X could be 'q' for quaver, or 'q' for crotchet, or various others. I think the recurring problem I had was simply not realising that there could be a metronome setting hidden in a text tempo direction like "Meno mosso". Is it really regarded as helpful functionality to be able to have a metronome marking appearing as "♪=100" but having the effect of ♪=32?

In reply to by Imaginatorium

This isn't the purpose of the follow text and bpm option in the inspector. The BPM is intended to allow the user to set a BPM when the tempo is text like "Meno mosso." You are free to abuse the purpose and set the tempo at quarter note = 92 and BPM = 60, but it's not advisable.

In reply to by Imaginatorium

Yes, it's only text of the form "duration = number" that are currently understood. Did the Handbook not explain that? Feel free to edit it to be more clear. Btw I wrote "q" only because I was too lazy to find the actual quarter note character.

As for whetherni is helpful to have the option of writing one tempo but actually having playback be something we, isn't that exactly what you just asked for a minute ago? So, apparently, yes :-)

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Also note that when you look at the tempo text in the inspector, the greyed out BPM refers to the number of crotchet beats per minute. So if you have specified something like dotted crotchet = 60, the inspector will display the tempo as 90 BPM wich is a little confusing. A similar situation exists with the tempo indication in the play panel - see Improve tempo indication in Play Panel to reflect time signature

Use menu item: File -> Save a copy... in which you select and delete all tempo markings.
View both the copy and original side-by-side (or stacked). Play the copy, fix the other.

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