2Qs: Measure numbering, file combining ...
My church's music director (let's call him CMD) and I are learning MuseScore ... me, from the techno side of things (25+ years working with Oracle database and more), CMD, as the virtuoso composer (organ / piano / choir). In general, we have found MuseScore to work very well ... and we are able to share music between PC (me) and Mac (CMD), also good. I _have_ read the manual (but that does not mean I understand music). CMD is relatve computer neophyte, and I ... don't have much facility with Macs (alas, but that's the way it is). We are using v. 1.2 ... and can download 2.0 if that bears on these 2 questions. I did search for answers, but saw nothing recent.
(1) I looked up how to start numbering a score at a particular measure, basically adding an offset. That works ...
EXCEPT if you then export to XML format ... back at number 1. I cannot find in the XML file where the offset is recorded. I _was_ able to take an XML file, _renumber_ the measures manually, then import each part into _another_ XML file (with same parts, and the initial measure sequence), and successfully combine two scores.
Which leads to my 2nd Q ...
(2) is there a simple way to combine two scores that were inadvertently created separately?
I found that cut / paste did not select all accidentals, ornamentation, and dynamics. Plus it screwed up key changes when pasted in. SO ... that's when I thot of adjusting the XML ... and amazingly, that worked. The brilliance of the XML merge is that it perfectly preserves all the ornaments, etc. And it is easier to "mindfully" replace measure numbers ... than be a non-musical librettist (is that the right term?).
The problem is not combining small files ... easy enuf to do find / replace and change the measure numbers for ... 20-30 measures. But now ... I have a huge final section (CMD _now_ knows how to change key w/o starting new file) ...
So ... I am hoping someone will say in the next few hours (while I am combining the small files) ...
"Oh, yeah, version 2 rewrites how the measures get written to XML" or
"Oh yeah, version 2 will let you import another score, inserting it at spot X or appending it to the end."
"Oh yeah, used Editor XYZZY to combine XML files / do global renumbering" (etc.)
... rather than "No, can't do that ... yet."
If the measure renumbering gets hard coded, it's easy to combine XML files / re-import (easy, in sense is tedious, but not hard). If score combos (even just an "Append" function ...) ... that would be better ... but it can't obliterate key changes and frills.
Please advise. I very much appreciate your time and help.
(if you're in NYC, am happy to supply food or metro cards, if that warms a solution ...)
Kind regards, Happy Easter, Happy Passover,
SuMiche
Comments
In fact, I found after writing the XML file ... if I then opened MuseScore and opened the XML file (rather than the .mscz file) ... the first measure # was indeed 1 ... which suggests to me ... (a) offset is not getting written (altho' how / where into XML ... not my bailiwick), and (b) desired start measure number (and subsequent measure numbers) _also_ not getting written to that XML file.
Version 2 *will* apparently have some sort of feature that allows you to combine scores in some fashion. I haven't tried and have no diea how it works, but they are called "albums" and you can try installong a nightly build from the Download menu at right of this page (don't worry, it won't clobber your existing installation).
In reply to Version 2 *will* apparently by Marc Sabatella
I shall give it a go ... I don't look forward to slogging thru 14 pages of cut / paste.
My 2nd attempt at combining XML files did not succeed ... but I also didn't go looking for an XML editor (another project).
But I have to say, it has been fun to work with this. I have learned more about music in last 3 months than in last 10 years (and the other software I tried did not work so well as MuseScore ... I think it's a very interesting program).
Kind regards,
SuMiche
In reply to Version 2 *will* apparently by Marc Sabatella
Of course, other things broke.
If you want feedback on the nightly build ... I did not see a "testing feedback" section on the developer's page. Perhaps I missed it? I am not going to write code (day job is hard enuf), but ... I _can_ test and provide feedback (assuming y'all would want "neophyte" level feedback. E.g., when I exported to XML, I was then able to read that in the 1.2 version ... but it screwed up a ton of things like dropping accidentals and dynamics. Am trying to figure out if I should work with / fix the new XML version, or go back to my slow combining ... in key change by key change section. PITA, fer sure.
Nightly build combo of two scores was brilliant! But ... file could not be shared with older version. Unclear why, was not doing anything old version could not do.
Files saved in odd, unexpected places ... I had to go hunt things down.
Kind regards, and thanks!
SuMiche
In reply to It _did_ combine the pages ... however ... by sumiche
Could not edit formatting for dynamics text.
Put in odd line breaks.
Could not "save as" XML, had to export.
Printing to PDF format took Fore EVvvv er ....
Screen formatting white on gray / black, hard to read.
Page navigation ribbon too large, could not figure out how to size it in 5 seconds.
Palette undocked / redocked itself for unclear reasons.
In reply to It _did_ combine the pages ... however ... by sumiche
export as XML from MuseScore 2.0;
Open XML with 1.3.
In reply to You can try this: by Shoichi
Thanks, Shoichi ... by the time I read your note, I figured out how to do that, and it definitely worked.
However ... the joined-up XML ... had odd flaws ... all the lettered dynamics had to be reinserted (they had become boxes), and some other bits ... but ... despite all the detail and cleanup needed ... it was easier than cutting / pasting, which didn't get the dynamics _at_all.
Kind regards, all, happy Easter, happy Passover!
SuMiche