Automatic Measure Adjustment?

• Jan 1, 2019 - 23:02

Greetings, love your product!
I have been through as many threads as I can find (5+) and have written 70+ lead sheets for combo work.
I like 4 same size Bars (measures) per line, with Cord (changes) at the start of each bar. (jazz player here)
This way the Cord Changes stack up (vertically) as you read, which makes reading easier.

To get this result, I have to "{ or }" approx 100 times per chart, to get each bar adjusted,
(some bars: tight spacing, some wider, to get this result)
Then, I adjust (drag) the Cords, and of course the bars "reset", so it's a fight!

Result: When finished, I have 4 bars per line, and Changes stacked.
BUT ... this seems like a classic "auto-set" concept, that I can not find.
I wish :-) there was a way to "auto set" to this method, so I get 4 equal bars per line, with spacing auto-adjusting to fit.


Comments

Create a score with too many measures. Press ctrl+a. Press { about 10 times and all of the measures will have minimum stretch. When your done, delete the extra measures. If you have to add measures, then select the first added measure, ctrl+shift+end, then { about 10 times to reduce those measures.

In reply to by mike320

Thanks Mike! But I am making a custom stretch/shrink of Each bar (yuck).
So it's not getting "minimum stretch on all bars, then deleting some" ...
It's every bar needs different spacing, assuming each bar has a different number of notes)
in Jazz we just read changes (the notes are just a guide, so they can be auto squeezed in bars with many notes - no worries there)

In reply to by allen49

I forgot a very important step in my instructions. After the measures are minimum width using { go to Edit->Tools->Add/remove system breaks... (Format->Add/remove system breaks... in 3.0) and set the number of measures per line you want. If there are still not enough measures on a line, the only option is to change the spacing in Page Settings.

In reply to by mike320

Thanks Mike! Note: I posted this as a NEW FEATURE suggestion, JoJo suggested I try vers 1.3 (I can't seem to make that work - as the bars "auto expand" with the notes.)

I will try your advise (thank you) I'm not the best at this - will give it a go!

In reply to by allen49

Maybe I need to upgrade to 3.0
(tried Shrinking All { ... then all 3 options, none would have the system Auto Space the Bars so they are Equal in Width. (the bars with many notes are always wider ... then I need to shrink the fat bars (my original issue)

In reply to by allen49

There's no easy way to compress measures any more than using {.

You can select all of the notes and reduce (to negative numbers, I think -1 is the smallest, but I'm not sure) leading and trailing spacing in the inspector. You might have to do some calculus to get the exact numbers for these settings, but you can wing it and get the measures close to the same size.

In reply to by mike320

Thanks Mike & Fred,
I think I am at the end - tried the steps, but it's the same { or } to adjust Bars ... what I was hoping for was an Automatic feature to have the bars an Equal width.

JoJo suggested I try 1.3, but I can't find the setting in this version either.
(and 1.3 have bad sound, and less shortcuts, such as t=Trinagle, for writing Major Jazz Chords)

In reply to by allen49

In most cases I believe people use fill with slashes to show the chords are to be played and then enter the chords, for the musicians to play. This is far better, IMHO, that adding meaningless notes and keeps the measures mostly consistent in width.

In reply to by mike320

True That - but I am just writing for myself, I am a saxophonist, playing in a jazz quartet.

there are 250+ charts I need the changes for, and having the melody (the Head) written concurrently is a help, and note this is typically when the old cats just say "learn the tune" .... true that too - I'm working on it :-)
Note: I did find this option in version 1.3 :-) (JoJo found it for me!)
But I can't get the crappy sound fixed. (she said it is in 2.0 ... not sure how to input that sound "plugin?")
And - the Major Cord notion (a Triangle) is not avail in 1.3 (as far as I can tell) looking for a plug-in to fix

In reply to by allen49

Jojo is a "he" by the way, but he'll get over that.

I would open my version 2, copy the path to may sound fonts under preferences and then paste them into the preferences in version 1's path for the sound fonts. Both versions would then use the same sound fonts.

FYI, I used version 1.x before version 2 came out, but the sound was so terrible I didn't open it again for about 4 years when it told me version 2.0.3 was available. I've been hooked ever since.

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