Tempo entered in Create New Score wizard always uses quarter note

• Apr 13, 2016 - 02:09
Type
Functional
Frequency
Few
Severity
S4 - Minor
Status
closed
Regression
No
Workaround
No
Project
MuseScore

Example of expected behavior: When adding a tempo in an existing score via [Alt]+[T] or Add > Text > Tempo, the tempo automatically uses the correct note value for the current time signature—e.g., a quarter note in 3/4, a dotted quarter in 9/8, an eighth in 7/8.

Problem behavior: When creating a new score, there is an option to check a box to include a tempo, and a field to enter BPM. But no matter what time signature is chosen in the next step, the score will begin with a quarter note tempo.

Fixing this might also be a good opportunity to move the tempo option to the next screen with the time signature, rather than with the key signature.

Comments

• Apr 13, 2016 - 03:10

Interesting. I have actually never noticed that check-box before, but you're right. The denominator of the time sig should tell the program the basic pulse of the piece, and then the parameter next to that check-box should be quantified in relation to that class of note in the tempo text. Mathematically, 4=120 is the same as 2=60...but musically there's a difference that MuseScore should take into account.

Either that check-box should be moved to the 'time signature' dialogue, or the order of the Create New Score Wizard dialogues should be modified.

Reply

• Apr 13, 2016 - 11:16

the wizard would simply need to call MuseScore::addTempo(), I guess?
That function might need to get extended for this though, so we can (but don't have to) pass a BPM argument (keeping the default of 80 in that function, and passing the default or 100 from the wizzard).

Tempo is much closer related to time signature than key signature, so really should move to that dialog

Reply

• Apr 13, 2016 - 12:38

This has never bothered me (it was there in MS1 as well) until MS2 became available. Now I think it would be nice if the pulse were measured as given in the palette entries that you can now use for tempo texts such as 1/4 = 80, 1/2 = 80, dotted half = 80 etc.
I do guess that the developers are aware of this and I have been expecting a fix. But the arithmetic required to deal with this is truly easy and the playback isn't any different anyway regardless of formal counting unit (that sort of subtlety is better provided by human performers). So I did not write a post about it. No urgency as far as I am concerned.
BTW even if you had the correct counting unit and playback would subtly stress the first beat of a 3/4 you would still miss a lot of rhythmic subtleties. If you have syncopation or hemiolas everything shifts anyway. Not to mention the things a good jazz musician would do.

Reply

• Apr 13, 2016 - 16:14

I wonder why the default tempo value in the New Score wizard is 100; the default value in tempos from the menu or palette is 80; and the default if no tempo text is present at all is 120?

Reply

• May 17, 2020 - 06:01
Status closed ⇒ needs info

In 3.5 Alpha, the fix does not work the way I would expect. If the user creates a score with a time signature of 6/8, and a tempo of 100 BPM, then rather than "dotted quarter = 100," the tempo marking is "dotted quarter = 66.6667." Is this the desired behavior?

Reply

• May 17, 2020 - 08:23
Status needs info ⇒ closed

That indeed is the desired behavoir, BPM still meaning quarter notes per minute, the MIDI definition.
Although I guess some rounding might be in order here

Reply

• May 17, 2020 - 18:02

Clearly we are asking for the wrong value if the number displayed on the score is not the same as the number given by the user. Either that or we are going by the wrong definition of BPM. What would make the most sense is to allow the user to select the note value upon which to base the tempo.

Reply

Fix version
3.5.0