Few suggestions that I believe would really improve everyone's experience with MS3
- Command keys combinations + Left or Right mouse key drag = different presets of items filter. For expample, Ctrl+L mouse drag = dynamics markings exclusively. Whole filter subsystem need overhaul in terms of usability. This will be extremely useful for voice handling.
- Voices: shortcut for swapping voices, paste into nth voice, drag-select n-th voice (see filter), counterpoint operations (invert, reverse, augment, diminish), diminution, etc.
- Insert option for pasting, whitch "squeeses" itself into the score rather than just replacing the bars content.
- There is absolutely no use in being able to select note beams and groups separately. All the corresponding features should just be accessed through note properties. This will make workflow SO MUCH EASIER. And imagine: clicking on a beam or group will select note so you don't have to aim precisely at a note, just at a bar position.
- Dynamics markers should replace each other! pp stuck over ff doesn't make any sense.
- Throughout tempo handling. For example aply rate to tempo (already exists?). Tempo envelope?
- Custom shortcuts for everything.
More cosmetic one: maybe make a preset dark layout with black background and white notes? White page on the screen is somewhat disturbingly bright for me when I work at night with lights off.
Comments
Thanks for the suggestions, but better to start new threads to discussion them individually or this discussion will get hard to follow very quickly.
Much of what you request is already possible, though. For example, you can define custom shortcuts for most operations, including voice assignment and exchange, there are commands for augmentation and diminution (paste half/double duration in Edit menu). Not sure what you mean about some of the others - like why you want to be prevented from selecting beams. Multiple dynamics on the same note are possible and not uncommon (first & second times through a repeat, for example). Others are common requests I expect we'll see sooner or later, like native support for tempo changes (but meanwhile, a plugin does the job nicely).
In reply to Thanks for the suggestions,… by Marc Sabatella
To chime in about selecting beams, I think this is even more prominent for stems. I basically never want to select the stem so I can edit it, what usually happens is I accidentally click on the stem, click on the notehead which selects the head for editing instead of selecting the note object, and then have to click away and reclick the notehead. From a design and workflow standpoint I agree that changing the stem properties would be better suited to being all done through the inspector (or through an edit toggle in the inspector/through a hotkey, like note insertion mode).
In reply to To chime in about selecting… by Gabriel Klavans
This has indeed been suggested elsewhere, and I can see the value. We did improve the click-detection algorithm a few months ago to favor the notehead over the stem in the area closest to the notehead, so the problem isn't as bad now as it once was. Also, it shouldn't be the case that clicking the notehead after the stem puts it in edit mode, only double-click of the notehead itself does that. I don't think there is even a way to click the stem followed by the notehead fast enough to register as a double-click.