Feature Request: Add mp3 time stamp
There are many ways to indicate a position in a score: measure numbers, rehearsal marks, or other score notations as references (codas, repeats, etc.). Rehearsal marks are useful reference points when a group of musicians are sitting together to rehearse. But what about people--vocalists and instrumentalists alike--rehearsing independently (or even in group) using an mp3 file as a backing track? I think it would be useful to be able to add 'mp3 time stamps' to the score, much like measure numbers or rehearsal marks.
For example: as a vocalist, I look at my (paper or pdf) score, and I know I need to work on a difficult section at measure 45. I have an mp3 backing track produced from the score in MuseScore which contains the orchestral accompaniment, but where is measure 45? In the mp3, I can't skip to rehearsal mark C, or measure 45. If I had a time stamp in my score that indicated '1:03', then I could easily set my mp3 to that time and start my rehearsal. (Of course, this applies not only to vocalists, but also to instrumentalists who wish to practise with the sound of the vocals or other instruments.)
In the software, the mp3 time stamp could be inserted as a text object just like a rehearsal mark. Behind the scenes, the software analyses the playback and identifies the time code at which the selected note begins, and it inserts the time (rounded down to the nearest second, so, if anything, playback starts slightly early) above or below the note (according to the style settings). As the score is modified (notes added/removed, tempos changed, etc.), eventually these time stamps might become inaccurate. A menu option, similar to 'resequence rehearsal marks', would be useful to 'update time stamps'.
Comments
Part of the difficulty here is how to handle repeats/jumps etc resulting in that point in the score being played a number of times.
In reply to Part of the difficulty here… by jeetee
I'm writing here as an end user without really any knowledge of the programming behind the software...but the thought in my mind is a formula that unfolds the repeats and calculates based on BPM. If a time stamp is added within a repeated section, each instance of playing that note would be separated by a solidus (/). So, if we're in 4/4 time at 60 BPM (thus, 4 seconds/measure):
m1-3
||: m4-6:||
m7-10
the time stamp above beat 1 in m4 would be: '0:12/0:24' and above beat 1 in m7: '0:36'. Since it would insert as a text object, the user could customise it as a style setting (changing the seperator, which could be a space, a line break, a hyphen or dash, or some other punctuation), or directly in the score as a manual modification.
I second this! It would be really helpful for recording/tracking as well as we are often comparing the chart to the demo recording and it would be great to have a quick reference.