Conversion between triplet and 8th notes (to solve: deleting triplets without deleting notes)

• Apr 19, 2021 - 19:28

I've noticed that you can't remove a triplet without removing its notes in it (https://musescore.org/en/node/311439).

This is very annoying in swing music where 8th notes are played like triplets and their notation gets often exchanged.
Another situation where this a problem: a song with a melody played in triplets and chords played in quarter notes (see Interplay by Bill Evans). If you play this in a DAW and import the notes with xml into Musescore, the chords initially appear as parts of triplets and to be able to separate them in a separate voice or staff you have to manually reenter every note, which is very time consuming.

Suggested solution (feature request):
A function to convert a triplet to two 8th notes by using the notes of the 1st and 3d time of the triplet and viceversa.

Examples:
ta ki da, ta ki da (2 triplets) >> ta da, ta da (4 8th notes)
ta da, ta da (4 8th notes) >> ta silence da, ta silence da (2 triplets with silence in the middle)

Ideally this function would also convert:
ta silence silence, ta silence silence (2 triplets) >> ta, ta (2 quarter notes)

Let me know what you think about it!


Comments

Someday it would be nice to figure out a way to design and implement this, I agree.

But meanwhile, it should be possible to get MuseScore to recognize swing during MIDI input and handle it more appropriately automatically. See the options in the MIDI import panel. if you have trouble, please attach the MIDI file in question and we can try to help. Oh, but this might be one of the very few situations where MIDI is better than MusicXML I guess.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

How about the case where we play triplets in the melody and chords in quarter notes? How would Musescore help us notate this with one staff with the melody in triplets and another staff with the chords in quarter notes? I don’t see a way of doing this quickly with the current tools without recording separately melody and chords and it may surprise you but sometimes it is not straightforward for a pianist to play both separately in a jazz impro (when the chords are not always quarter notes).

In reply to by drmq

I'm not understanding the question. Are you talking about trying to record this in a DAW then import into MsueScore? That's still not likely to be as efficient as simply entering it into MuseScore directly, but in any case, I don't see that there would be a problem with it, either. That is, the full triplets will be recognized as triplets, the quarter notes as quarter notes, and the setting in the MIDI import panel will control whether swung eigths get interpret as triplets or eighths.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

In my opinion a setting in the MIDI import panel is not practical. The context defines what it is a better notation (8ths or triplets), so it may change in the middle of a score. Besides that people may change their mind after importing the MIDI and seeing the result.
Regarding my previous question I was talking about a polyrhythmic piano performance with triplets in one line and quarter notes in the other recorded at once (one hand plays one and the other hand the other). Having tools to transform triplets to 8th notes would be particularly useful in that case to notate the whole recorded performance in two separate staves..

In reply to by drmq

True, I'm not saying it's ideal, I'm just trying to help you get better results with the tools as they exist today.

For more efficient results, though, I highly recommend entering directly into MuseScore, I guarantee it's almost always faster in the long run than any process involving recording, quantizing, exporting to MIDI, importing, then fixing up rhythms, enharmonic spellings, use of multiple voices, etc.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Thanks Marc :) You’re right that is what I end up doing now in those cases and don’t get me wrong: I appreciate enormously what Musescore is giving us for free already. I was only trying to make a point for a feature that could even improve it. Best regards

Do you still have an unanswered question? Please log in first to post your question.