Multi line explode
Now I've got explode to work, but what I'd really like is to do something like the following.
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Write out a 4 part score on a piano - treble and bass.
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Then add in four parts below - say a wind quartet - which currently has to be done a line at a time, rather than just asking "add in a wind quartet below the piano part".
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Then expand the 4 voices on to the instruments below.
This kind of process can be done manually - but if it could be automated it would be great. Also, why limit to 4 parts? I guess it could get kind of messy - but even 4 parts split as I suggest would be great.
One last thing - the current implode works "in place", so that the top voice remains on the same staff, and the other voice goes to the staff below. My example above suggests that this is not always the most useful, so in order to get things done, new intermediate staffs need to be created, with copies of the original. It would be good if a destination staves could be specified.
Comments
If this particular task is something you personally do often, it's the sort of thing that a plugin could be devised for. It seems to me too specialized to be worth incorporating directly into the program.
In reply to If this particular task is… by Marc Sabatella
Is it easy to develop plugins? It is the kind of thing I'd find useful.
Are plugins based on "hard" code or are they more like macros?
Even if the sugggested change to the current explode is not so worthwhile (for others), what would be helpful would be if the explode didn't just work "in place", but rather split the voices onto two (or maybe three) staves below, leaving the original intact. Then one could go to a piano score, put a couple of spare lines below that, and then explode the RH and LH parts separately to the new staves under the piano. The piano part could then be retained or deleted.
Another approach would be to specify the target staves explicitly - but some form of labelling would be needed - unless perhaps a WYSIWYG interface were implemented.
In reply to Is it easy to develop… by dave2020X
It's reasonably easy if you have experience programming. The language is QML, and even if you don't already know it, just looking at other plugins gives you a decent idea of how it works. At some point all languages start looking the same,
The usual case for explode does require working in place. The norm is, you have a score - sy, for a jazz big band - and you use the top trumpet staff to write your voicings. Hit explode, now it's 1-4. You wouldn't want to bother adding a separate staff for this. But if it so happens you've for some reason entered chords onto a staff other than the top staff of the section - like if you've only decided to add the section later - simply copying and pasting before the explode would do the trick, and a plugin could probably handle that in just a few lines.
On the other hand, as I see it, it saves you only about three clicks. If you already have the passage selected, then instead of hitting Explode right away, you instead hit Copy, then click the next staff, then Paste, and then the explode. So even in this unusual special case, it's not hard currently. but if in your particular workflow this happens often, then indeed, a plugin could save those three clicks.