Play from Selection

• Aug 20, 2021 - 01:44

I would love the ability to playback from selection. I'm an old Sibelius user and I found this feature very helpful when working on a passage. I could select a starting note, and each time I hit "p" playback would begin from that note.

In Musescore, if I select a note and start playback it will start from that selection. But if I stop and start playback again it will continue from where it stopped. The only way I can begin again from the selected note is by selecting the note again.


Comments

I could see the use of a command that did that. Meanwhile, turn on loop playback, then the playback always goes back to the loop start point. And the loop region is set to the selection. So, same basic effect.

I too would love to see this implemented. In every DAW you can set "return to start on stop" or continuous. This is absolutely fundamental when editing as having to select the start point every time is a pain.

OK so the loop thing would work, but it is a kludge as often in editing I'm returning to the same spot to start just a few times, then moving on - so stopping briefly, hitting the mouse at that point in the timeline (or score if it were possible) and working forward from there. To have to define a new loop every time is just another task.

So a vote to add this function √√√

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

I tend to agree that the using the loop function is a poor solution. As Scardo said, this is a common feature in many DAWs. I have Logic X and use this feature often in my workflow.

With 'play from selection' one would simply select a note [1 click] and use a key command to play from that selection.

With Musescore, the user has to turn on Loop Playback [1 click], select the beginning of the loop region [1 click], set the end loop region [shift, then click], then hit play.

At the very least the user has to use 2 commands (click, then shift-click) each time to change the loop selection vs. 1 if 'play from selection' existed. Not to mention that you have to spend extra time determining where/how long each new loop should be.

This may not seem like much initially, but when a user has to perform this task dozens of times per day it becomes tedious and can significantly impact workflow. At my day job we call it, 'death by a thousand paper cuts.'

Some observations:
1. In Sibelius, the shortcut "P" is dedicated to playback from selection. That's it. It does it every time you hit P. It won't stop playback. You have to hit the spacebar or STOP in the transport. Interestingly enough, once you hit the space bar, each subsequent hit starts and stops playback just like in MuseScore.
2. There is no dedicated shortcut for playback from selection in MuseScore. The spacebar will only do it once. After that, its only job is to stop and start playback.

This is what the OP is after. A single key-stroke to always stat playback at the current selection.

The other problem with loop playback is that you are always stuck with starting playback at the beginning of the loop. If you want to start at a different place, you have to kill the loop and set up a new one. With a dedicated shortcut you can quickly adjust the starting note as needed. I would think that this would appeal to those who like to work as fast as possible.

All this may not be that useful for a copyist, but important for a composer.

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