Overlapping of notes and texts

• Sep 3, 2014 - 10:04

I don't think I need to explain how much better if these problems can be resolved automatically. I think manually going into Style->General and find the responding field to change a value isn't exactly an easy way to resolve it.
lyrics.png

And this also happens in the lower notes in the primary clef overlapping the lyrics.

Attachment Size
lyrics.png 9.24 KB

Comments

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

Spacers only work for higher notes from the lower clef (yes, the one shown in the picture can be solved by the spacers).

It was on 1.3 and therefore not a priority to improve then? That is a good answer, sir, indeed, problem solved. I should probably go back to my software and move manually to adjust these instances, making them inconsistent.

Sarcasm aside, it may not be a priority, but maybe there would still be a large-enough user-space to do something for song-writing experience?

In reply to by Iosue

Sorry, that's not what I meant, doing a bad job on something in 1.x is no reason for doing the same bad job in 2.0, it is just an explanation for it.

Changing this for 2.0 may not be as easy as it sounds though, and may require large architectural changes, for which it most probably is too late for 2.0, but could be revisited for, say, 3.0.

In reply to by Iosue

I'm not quite sure what you are asking. The default amount of space is good for "most" purposes. Adding more by default would just ruin the experience for the cases where the staff below the lyric staff doesn't use multiple voices in the way you are showing. It's only staves that happen to contain an upper voices sticking out above the staff in that way where the default space isn't enough.

So for pieces in which that is the case, you have three options, all very good options that work well:

1) increase the lyric lower margin via style setting

or

2) click the staff below the vocal staff and drag it lower to create more room between it and the staff above (new for 2.0 Beta 1)

or

3) use a spacer

Either of the first two are good if your music *consistently* does this so you need extra room for all staves. If it's just a subset of staves, then the spacer obviously makes more sense.

I don't understand what you mean that spacers "only work for higher notes from the lower clef". In cases do thy *not* work? Could you pot a score demonstrating the problem you are perceiving? Could be just a misunderstanding on your part, or it could be a bug that needs fixing.

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

Well, if the stems in the upper stave is too low and overlapping the text, then there is no way to fix it easily.

You have the spacers and there may be some work needs doing.

1. Spacer attached to the lower stave: No problem. It fixes it.
2. Spacer attached to the upper stave: Well, even if the space between the two staves is enlarged, but the texts are still following the original axis.

Illustration:
spacer.png
The text is still sticking to the upper stave.

Attachment Size
spacer.png 7.94 KB

In reply to by Iosue

Oh, I see. You mean you want to adjust the lyrics themselves, not necessarily the distance necessarily between staves.

This could in theory be done by re-imagining the "lyric upper margin" as a distance to the lowest note on the staff rather than a distance to the bottom staff line. That wouldn't be terribly difficult change, but it would be a sledgehammer - it would move lyrics for the entire system just on account of one note, which wouldn't be what you'd want. Or, if it applied to just the current note, it would result in uneven lyrics, which is also not optimal. I'm afraid there isn't great solution here aside from manually adjusting the lyrics themselves. Luckily, in 2.0, the Inspector makes this very simple. Select the lyrics you want to be moved lower and to remain in alignment with each other, and increase the vertical offset. Thus, you are in control of how many lyrics are moved and how far they are moved so you can make intelligent judgement calls.

Not saying there isn't any possibility of some automatic algorithm improving things some day, but realistically, as mentioned, this sort of automatic collision avoidance is beyond the scope of MuseScore 2.0's layout system right now.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Is it possible to just make a "lyric spacer" tool? So it is attached to the bottom of the upper stave and has a default length downwards (just like regular spacer). The lyrics will begin below the arrow-head of the lyric spacer.

Well, it depends on the style of the musician. I don't mind moving the whole line downwards just for one note, but I don't like having a line of texts that is not allied into a straight line. I am sure, some other musicians could prefer moving individual syllable downwards or something.

Automatic may be nice, but an option to turn off may be in order.

In reply to by Iosue

Lyric spacer sounds like an interesting idea. I could imagine an above-staff version also working for chord symbols.

Meanwhile, if you want the lyri s adjusted on that staff for the whole system, easiest way is probably

1) select measures
2) right click lyric
3) select all similar within range
4) nudge via Inspector

Probably no less efficient than a lurics spacer, but the disadvantage is it would have to be redone if the layout changes such that different number of measures are on the system.

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