Bb Instrument status bar display bug

• Sep 10, 2017 - 14:03
Reported version
2.1
Type
Graphical (UI)
Severity
S4 - Minor
Status
closed
Project
MuseScore

I am a music noob, I think I found a strange behaviour and hope to notify the developers.

The status bar for Bb instruments, for example clarinet, in my humble opinion is not showing the correct Note; Pitch:

Please see attachment.

An example for the problem, a C4 is being displayed as C3 at status bar for Bb instruments. The easiest way to proof this is

With concert mode select, enter Bb3 note for a Bb Clarinet. Check it being display as Bb3 on status bar.

Then unselect concert mode to have the note transposed to C. Theoretically a Bb3 note when transposed for a Bb instrument should be a C4. However the status bar is showing the note as C3.

Attachment Size
Bb-instrument-transpose-bug.png 64.77 KB

Comments

• Sep 10, 2017 - 20:04

Problem is Note::tpcUserName(), which takes the octave from pitch() (always the concert pitch regardless of mode) rather than epitch() (pitch according to current mode).

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• Sep 10, 2017 - 20:09

So not a big problem, but an easy fix?
Actually I just tried it, and that one-letter change indeed seems to fix this issue.
@Marc: are you going to make a PR?

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• Sep 10, 2017 - 23:26

May I suggest that for the status bar display, Musescore display the written note and the played note please?

For example, (please ignore my naming of the labels, I have no music knowledge of what they are call, just read the concept please)

When not in concert mode, for a Bb instrument , on the status bar display,
Note: C4 ; Sound: Bb3

When in concert mode, for a Bb instrument, for a Bb instrument , on the status bar display,
Note: Bb3; Sound: Bb3

That way the status made clear that for a transposed instrument, the written note and the actual played sound, and this will also help when a user is composing in non concert mode.

Thanks you so much, and keep up the good work. My son and I are relying on Musescore to learn music :-)

Reply

• Sep 11, 2017 - 13:47

Pity, probably not as easy a fix as it first looked, this works badly with e.g. "Guitar (treble clef)", were we did some trickery with string data to get tablature to work properly

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• Sep 11, 2017 - 16:36

I'm not familiar with what was done there - can you describe? And what goes wrong if you just make that change I just suggested?

If it's a matter of everything being consistently off by an octave on that instrument, to me that is better than the current story.

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• Sep 11, 2017 - 16:45

If we changed the display to show both pitches, then - transposed and concert - would that be good for guitar? Maybe just if in transposed mode, and only the there is a difference?

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• Sep 12, 2017 - 10:26

That's what @mobilegps suggested further up too.
And I'm no longer sure that it just fretted octave transposing instruments that are problematig, need to have a closed look at other ovtave (or more) transposing instruments, like Tuba and some other brass.

Reply

• Sep 12, 2017 - 15:26

OK, I tried my proposed fix, and I'm not understanding the problem. The status display seems to correctly reflect the actual displayed pitch for guitar (treble clef) - which is to say, it shows a pitch one octave higher than it will actually sound. This is the correct transposition. For example, top space E - the high string on a guitar - displays as E5, which is indeed the name of that pitch. I don't see any glitches in this display as I move the pitch up and down the staff - the octave changes right where it should, and it always displays the correct transposed pitch. Am I missing something? Or were you expecting it to show the sounding pitch even though you are in transposed mode? This is specifically what transposing instruments do not do - the show the transposed pitch. As, I think, they should by default. If we wish to also show the sounding pitch, that's possibly OK, although unnecessary I think.

BTW, tpcUserName() is also used in the Select / More dialog, and it suffers the same bug. That is, the "Same pitch" checkbox shows the octave of the concert pitch even while displaying the pitch name of the transposed pitch.

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• Sep 12, 2017 - 15:30

Hmm, right, seems my thinking was screwed. So let's go for that fix then and catch 2 birds with one stone ;-)
Or extend it to show both, if different. Not sure that worgs with the selection dialog though

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• Sep 12, 2017 - 15:36

Select / More dialog shows the same issue. With middle C (aka C4) for a Bb clarinet selected, go to Select / More and you'll see it shows C3. Same fix applies here too. These are the only places that function is used, so this should be good. I will submit the PR.

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