Bends: make prebend optional so that down bends can be notated
Reported version
3.0
Type
Functional
Frequency
Few
Severity
S5 - Suggestion
Reproducibility
Always
Status
active
Regression
No
Workaround
Yes
Project
Currently if the start node of the bend is greater than zero, the program automatically adds a prebend—an upward pointing arrow. It would make the bend tool more flexible if there was an option to hide the prebend and just show the subsequent bend(s). So, for example, rather than showing this:
Hiding the prebend would show (and play) this:
Related to #286108: [EPIC] Bends issues.
Comments
OS: Windows 10 (10.0), Arch.: x86_64, MuseScore version (64-bit): 3.5.1.293615790, revision: 12ab1d9
This option is essential, otherwise solitary down-bends cannot be notated. Came up in https://musescore.org/en/node/311583.
The specific notation that this tool supports is guitar-specific, and guitars really don't bend down. The request for down bends almost always come from people writing for instruments other than guitar, and this is then the wrong tool for the job. So not that this couldn't be added, but it really wouldn't help the people requesting this. Higher priority to me would be making playback work in the symbols that actually are intended to work for other instruments (eg, the scoop, fall, doit, and plop).
Portamento style glissandos should help here
An example may help to illustrate.
A downbend does not have to immediately follow an upbend. If there is an interval between the upbend and downbend, it is quite possible to run out of steps – because the max. length of the bend is limited to only 12 sp! In practice this is insufficient – especially so when you consider that the bend does not extend (or contract) with changes in layout, and a bend of sufficient length in one layout may be short of the target note in another.
In the following image, the bend should extend all the way to the grace note, followed by a downbend, but ends only halfway, having run out of steps:
This is how it should look:
Not only does the bend tool need more steps, but it should be possible for the user to turn off the prebend option, so that the downbend can be notated separately from the upbend.
Another reason for wanting to separate the downbend from the upbend might be to prevent it overrunning the end of a system.
Deleted.
This would be very useful for other things (such as pitch wheel on synths).
As noted above, the guitar bend symbol is the wrong symbol to use for instruments other than guitar. You should be using the regular fall & scoop etc. Of course, those currently don't play back, but that's really what is needed for those instruments, and there are separate suggestions already for playback of those symbols,