Question about copying dynamic symbols

• Jun 6, 2018 - 05:29

Hi, gang!!!

I've been trying to improve a Beethoven piece, from an old MIDI file, from Internet.

When I say: "Improve" I mean to get the most simple and nearest professional printed score (fixing some "normal" issues when we "translate" from MIDI files, you know).

But, when I added the standard dynamic symbols (pp, mp, ff, etc.), I discovered something... a little annoying (to me, at least):

Let's say, think about a bar, into the flute staff, with a whole note. I put the ff symbol there. Then I copied it to other instruments in the same bar.

Well the issue is that... When the other instruments have more notes than the original bar, MuseScore put one ff symbol to each note into the target bars.

In other words: if the violin bar has 4 quarter notes, then MuseScore put 4 ff symbols!!! (Remember that the source bar had just one whole note).

So... I expected to get just one ff symbol (the first time of that bar), but... I got 4!!!

I want to know if it is "by design", or... Is it a bug???

If it is "by design"... Can we change this behaviour??? How???

Bleesings & Greetings from Chile!!!

JUAN


Comments

How do you copy a dynamic from one measure to another?
Select the dynamic, Ctrl+C, select the target note/chord, press Ctrl+V

If you select the target measure, you actually select all the notes/chords and rests within, and then indeed the paste applies it to all the notes, that much is by design

It'd be easier to select the note/chord(s) and double-click the desired dynamic from the palette though

Indeed, it isn't really clear how you were doing the copy; I'm actually having a hard time figuring out what you were trying. But copying a single dynamic should be as easy as clicking it, Ctrl+C, then clicking the one note you want to copy it to, Ctrl+V. Or if you want to copy it to all staves, Ctrl+click the note on each staff you want, or otherwise select one note on each staff (eg, range select plus "Notes" button in Inspector).

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Hi, Marc!!!

The way I did it is the simplest way: I put all the dynamic symbols, I wanted to use into the whole piece, into the flute staff. Then I select all of them. Then I used [CONTROL] + [C] and... I pasted them into all other instrument staves!!!

That way is the logical way to me, because we are talking about the whole piece dynamic, not an specific instrument, into one specific moment dynamics.

I hope the MuseScore team doesn't expect the users put all the dynamic symbols, instrument by instrument!!!

Indeed, I think MuseScore should have a dedicated panel (or window) to this (like another panel to the overall tempo changes).

Well, Just my crazy idea.

In reply to by jotape1960

What I meant was, how are you actually foing the copy & paste, because when I tried it, I didn't get the dynamic copied multiple times. I started with a single whole note with a single dynamic, clicked the dynamic, Ctrl+C, then I clicked the single quarter note in the destination measure and pressed Ctrl+V, and got only one dynamic, just as I expect. What I can now see is that you were attempting to copied multiple dynamics all at once. And I still can't understand how you actually did this. How did you select all the dynamics? Right click one, Select / All Similar Elements in Same Staff? And how did you attempt to paste them into other staves? Try as I might, I can't find any sequence of operations that results in multiple dynamics being copied in the way you describe. So please describe in more detail how you are doing the copy and paste.

Anyhow, the issue here is that you made the mistake of only entering the dynamics into the flute part. It would have been much better to enter them all at once to begin with. That is, instead of just selecting a note in the flute then double-clicking the dynamic in the palette, select that entire "slice" of the music - the note on that beat on all instruments (eg, click the flute note, press Shift+Down) and then double-click the dynamic in the palette. Then it would be applied to all instruments at once. This only works if they all have a note at that location, but then, if they don't, you wouldn't want to apply the dynamic at that position anyhow.

For now, since you already have the dynamics in the flute, probably the best way to attempt to reproduce that in other staves is through use of the "swap" command (Ctrl+Shift+X). Copy the flute part to a temporary staff, select ll the music on it, use the Selection Filter to exclude dynamics from the selection, and hit Delete, leaving just the Dynamics. Now re-enable Dynamics in the filter and copy again, so your clipboard has just dynamics. Now select a destination staff and press Ctrl+Shift+X twice. The first one replaces the contents with the dynamics, the second restore the contents, leaving the dynamics in place.

Eventually, we should probably add a way to copy just the dynamics just as we do for lyrics, chord symbols, and some other elements.

In reply to by jotape1960

The only way I would think about copying dynamics is to use the selection filter (F6) and uncheck the slurs. This is because slurs do not get overwritten when pasted over. I would then copy the staff with the dynamics. I would then select the first beat or (or entire staff) of the destination and exchange the clipboard twice. This should leave the original staff and dynamics on the staff. You need to recopy a staff with dynamics because their will be two copies of the dynamics on the clipboard. I've had some success using this method.

In the case of dynamics, I would never use copy and paste since they are attached to a specific chord. If I want several ff dynamics I would select each of the notes that need the ff then double click the ff in the palette. Unfortunately in the case of dynamics there is no easier way to apply them.

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