Prettier and Easier to Read: a Short Wish List.
This is for version 1.2 on Mac (this last is probably not essential for the points below).
Typesetting some scores for IMSLP I have run into two presentation issues that I think might be improved in some future version and therefor like to list here:
1. Grace notes: when grace notes are added to a score the program creates a gap to create space for the grace notes. If there are several staffs the gap stretches through the entire score and becomes an optical and readability problem in the voices that do not have the grace notes (see example 1 in the attached little file). It would be preferable to have the grace notes set in the trailing space of the preceding note so that no optical illusion is created of everybody stopping the music for the grace notes. I am aware however that this becomes impossible with long chains of grace notes or if the preceding note is short, say a 16th or 8th note. In this case some extra space will HAVE to be allowed. So this problem may unfortunately be quite complicated. In the mean time one can do an adequate job by hand:
Example 2 was manipulated to look like it ought to by moving notes and adding negative trailing distances to some notes.
2. Scaling in small staffs. In scores for piano and other instruments it is common practice to print the other instruments on small staffs: the pianist does not have to be able to read every detail there; he just has to see enough to follow the other players. When selecting the small staff many elements are scaled down: notes, accidentals, clefs etc. Some elements however do not scale down and have to be scaled down by hand:
- Dynamic markings: standard abbreviated markings (f, p, mf, sfz...) scale down, but not words (crescendo,dolce, etc.). I have to scale these down by hand when "beautifying" the score for final printing.
- Hair pins do not scale down and I have found no way to make them smaller by hand. The vertical distance between the open ends of the hair pin ought to be smaller in small staffs.
For completeness's sake (there is already a thread out there about this) I will add here that certain markings (mostly trills and fingerings in small staffs) move away (maybe 2 spaces) from the notes they are attached to every time a file is saved, closed and re-opened. This means in a score with small staffs before printing or saving pdfs a careful review and correction session is necessary.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| examples.mscz | 2.45 KB |
Comments
For the grace notes after a note (as opposed to the "normal" grace notes before a note) I create them as a second voice. Thus for your example I would have the first violin voice crotchet, crotchet, crotchet. Then I would create a second voice with crotchet rest, crotchet rest, four semiquavers. Finally I would delete the rests, This - IMHO - makes it easier to make things look neat on all staves.
You often see grace notes like this in 18th century trumpet music at the end of trills. Note that using two voices makes it look and print OK but further fiddling with note duration is required if you want it to play back accurately.
I can't remember if I have suggested this to you specifically, but you might want to tryout a nightly build (for the eventually-upcoming 2.0 release) to see what extent things have already been improved. I suspect the scaling issues are probably gone, at least with regards to text. Not sure about hairpins.
In reply to I can't remember if I have by Marc Sabatella
As a matter of fact you have suggested the nightly builds to me. I have not acted on it because I am not much of a computer person. The web site uses rather cautionary language in the section about nightly builds and I didn't dare taking the risks (they are not very well specified) neither do I know how exactly to do that. Do I uninstall my working version of Musescore prior to the download or what? (on a Mac).
I will try the second voice option for grace notes following trills next chance I get, let you know the result. They are common in eighteenth and early nineteenth century music (my example is George Onslow) of all sorts.
In reply to Thanks Marc and underquark! by azumbrunn
You don't need to uninstall your current version (1.2) of MuseScore - you can have 1.2 and 2.0 (nightly) installed at the same time. The nightly builds are very unlikely to cause any problems, other than potentially some odd behaviour in any scores you work on with the nightly builds. So it is perfectly possible to continue to use 1.2 for work which matters, and to try out the nightly builds as well, preferably on scores which are not too important to you.
The nightlies are likely to contain more bugs, and may have features disabled temporarily (for example plugin support); they are more likely to crash than 1.2; and there may be compatibility issues between 1.2 and nightly versions. As version 2.0 gets closer to release, the nightly builds should become much more stable. They are not considered ready for serious notation work at present - so if you use them for work which is important to you, you are taking a risk.
In reply to Thanks Marc and underquark! by azumbrunn
To clarify, I am not suggesting you actually try doing real work with the nightly builds. Just that any time youencounter a bug or have an idea for a fature request, it woild be very helpful if you would first try it on a nightly build before posting. If it's a bug and already been fixed, it's not worth reporting. If it's a feature request and the feature has already been added, seeing how it has been implemented might allow you to give more specific suggestions on how the feature might be implemented. But then go back to using 1.2 for actual work.
In reply to To clarify, I amnot by Marc Sabatella
I followed your advice and tried a nightly build. Results:
Scaling: in the version I had (from yesterday) all text elements I tried scaled down if a staff was set to "small" (this is improved compared to version 1.2). Line elements (hair pins, pedal line) did not scale down however. I think they ought to scale down as well though maybe by a lesser factor.
Grace notes still have the issues I described above. Even though I encounter grace notes quite often I think this is not an urgent issue since I don't think it is easy to fix. One can sufficiently "beautify" the music manually.
New problem: The new button for grace notes AFTER the note (such as at the end of trills--at least I think that is what it is) has some problems left: I entered a quarter note in the right hand of a piano score and set ip up with a trill and a turn at the end using that button, The left hand went in sixteenths. Now the turn was placed in between the second and the third sixteenth note of that beat, i.e. optically too early. In playback it was rhythmically screwed up. The turn was audible and the remaining two sixteenths played afterwards at reduced tempo. The tempo was picked up again at the following beat.
I won't quit here before adding that the optical appearance of scores is even better in the nightly build than in v. 1.2., especially slurs look very elegant in the new version.