Tempo Markings Migrating

• Mar 20, 2013 - 01:28

I am encountering a strange behavior that I have not seen reported in the forums (unless I missed it -- I did search). I am using version 1.3, downloaded & installed just a few days ago.

On one of my scores, (Lindberg-Full.mscz, attached), every time I save and reload the score, the tempo marking moves a little to the left and down. The attached screen caps show the progression:

  • screencap1 - My initial positioning, where I want "Andante semplice" to appear.
  • screencap2 - I save the file (Ctrl-S), then reload (File > Reload -- or close and reopen the file, which does the same thing), and this is the result: "Andante semplice" has moved a little.
  • screencap3 - I repeat the above steps: save (Ctrl-S) then reload (File > Reload), and the tempo marking has moved again.
  • screencap4 - Again: save (Ctrl-S) then reload (File > Reload), and it has moved even further.
  • screencap5 - This continues until, after four more iterations, the tempo marking has migrated completely off the page.

More clues: If I reload twice or more without saving in between, the text does not move. If I save twice or more without reloading in between, the distance moved is no greater than with a single save. So it seems to require both a save and a reload for it to show up.

Curiously, this behavior only occurs on the Lindberg-Full.mscz score, and it happens every time. It does not happen on the Lindberg-Piano.mscz file, which is the piano part that was extracted from the full score. I can save and reload to my heart's content, and "Andante semplice" remains rooted to its spot. Similarly, I have extracted the two horn parts (not attached here), and neither of them has the problem. The difference? Not the presence of a rest vs. a note in the first measure -- I tried both starting with a note in the full score and starting with a rest in the piano and horn scores, but there was no change in behavior. Perhaps it is the smaller instrument staffs above the piano staff in the full score that makes the difference?

MuseScore is installed on my Windows 7 computer at home, and I also have a portable version on a USB drive that I open up on my XP computer at work. Both are the latest version, 1.3. The behavior I am describing is identical in both places.

Attachment Size
Lindberg-Full.mscz 12.67 KB
screencap1.png 191.42 KB
screencap2.png 191.63 KB
screencap3.png 191.15 KB
screencap4.png 191.27 KB
screencap5.png 190.14 KB
Lindberg-Piano.mscz 8.74 KB

Comments

I opened your score;
I deleted "Andante semplice";
I selected the first break:
I entered the time marking.
It seems to me that it is no longer a wanderer.
Check on your pc

Attachment Size
Lindberg-Full.mscz 12.63 KB

In reply to by Shoichi

I tried various anchors but could not get it to stop moving.

What I eventually did was to add some staff text and format it to look like the tempo marking. This solved the visual problem. I did not want to actually delete the tempo marking because that would affect the playback, so I just set it to invisible and let it wander. Even after it marched off the page, the tempo setting still remains.

I think your hypothesis is correct - attaching items to notes in small staves causes positioning problems. Even if you are trying to attach to the bottom staff, tempo markings are probably treated as "system" text and hence attach to the top staff.

See http://musescore.org/en/node/17590 for more examples of similar behavior and some background.

In reply to by Shoichi

Yes, using the workaround I described above (5:49pm).

It looks to me like you added staff text or system text in place of the tempo text, which is what I did too. The problem with deleting the tempo marking is that it also resets the playback tempo to the default BPM, so it plays back way too fast. I just kept the original tempo text but set it to invisible.

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

Note that beats per minute here means quarter-notes per minute, Thus for 4/4, 3/4, 2/4 time etc. beats per minute=quarter-notes per minute.

When it comes to something like 6/8 and your music calls for it to be conducted 1, 2, 1, 2 (or counted {123}{223}, {123}{223}) then you may feel that 120 beats per minute (2 triplets per second) is the correct timing for your marching band piece or you might think that it should be 360 (6 eighth notes per second) but you would actually have to enter the speed as 180 since 120 beats per minute in your piece = 120 x 3 eighth notes = 360 eighth notes = 180 quarter notes.

MIDI standards count quarter-notes per minute. Also, MuseScore can't tell if you mean 6 beats or two beats to the bar for 6/8 time (or 3 beats or 1 beat to the bar for a polka etc.).

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