Metronome count in

• Mar 4, 2009 - 02:59

Would it be possible to have an option to have a metronome click on the beat for a measure or two before playback begins. This would be useful for people who would like to play their real instruments accompanied by MIDI.


Comments

That would work for now I suppose. But most of the stuff I work on is chamber music. Very little drums, so adding the part would mess up the look of the printed score. What I'm doing now is Oboe and Cello or Bassoon, with the oboe part played by me. I mute the oboe part and play the music from the screen along with the computer part. May sound silly, but there's no page turns to contend with that way. It would seem that this would be pretty easy to plug in to the program as I know that I am not the only one who uses it this way. (see comment "Thank you" by Bassonius under General Discussion forum).

In reply to by xavierjazz

Yeah, that's what I've done a few times so far, it just seems so inellegant to have to write out the count in, not to mention that it messes up any printed scores. I'm just saying that it would be nicer for the users who use MuseScore as I do to have an option, maybe in the F11 Play window to have a click for a measure or two before playback actually begins.
OR
Maybe a way to hide the staff that contains the count-in so that it takes up no space in the score. That would seem to be a much more flexible way to do it. I've suggested these ghost staffs before, but in relation to the playback of ornaments, cadenzas and such. Just another example where it is useful to have one thing (or in this case nothing) displayed and another played back.

In reply to by MDMilford

MDMilford,

It is actually possible to hide the measures already. The score attached has an invisible two-bar count-in.

To hide the measures right-click on an empty part of the measure, choose Measure Properties, and remove the check marks next to "visible". To remove the space left by the invisible measures select them and choose Style > Add Less Stretch several times until it take up no space.

If you need this often you could set up your own template that included a count-in already.

Attachment Size
inv4.msc 71.55 KB

In reply to by David Bolton

Thanks. That should be pretty close to what I wanted. Unfortunately I'm unable to download the .msc file to look, but should be able to do it from your description. I've read on other posts that .msc is an extension used by windows and it would be better to use the .mscz extension. Maybe that's why I can't view it, because clicking on the link just gives me text.
Thanks again

In reply to by David Bolton

I tried making the measures invisible as you suggested and all seemed to go well; however, I like for the first line of each movement to be indented using a horizontal frame. When I make invisible measures after a horizontal frame, it seems to ignore the frame and push the lines all the way to the left, but brackets stay where they are. see screen shot.

Attachment Size
screenshot.doc 332.5 KB

In reply to by David Bolton

I did as David Bolton suggested in "Submitted by David Bolton on Wed, 03/11/2009 - 16:23". This is a great suggestion.

How can I make hidden this hidden measure visible so that I can edit the count-in bar?

I used the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-Left to select the hidden measure, but if I right-click to go to Measure Properties, the measure selected is the one beneath the mouse pointer, not the hidden measure.

I also tried using the Inspector and checking on the Visible box for the hidden measure (it was already on), but this did not seem to have the desired action.

Hello David,
Thank you for your reply. I have attached two files: one with the count-in measure before setting invisible, and the other with the count-in measure set invisible and "Less Stretch" applied.

I was able to force the count-in measure wide enough to click on by using Layout->Reset Stretch; however, this affects all measures in the entire score effectively undoing all the "neatening up".

Attachment Size
Count_in_visible.mscz 2.23 KB
Count_in_hidden.mscz 2.51 KB

The problem with setting the first measure (or two) as invisible for the count-in is that the key signature gets hidden as well. What to do?

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