Invisible notes and lyrics spacing
Hello everyone,
I am currently rewriting a score which was written with some parts designed to be sung by both men and women; in order for this to be played back while keeping the score light and clear, I wrote the music on one staff, copied it in the same staff as voice 2, lowered it one octave, and made the copy (so in voice 2) invisible:
However, when I add lyrics, they are spaced from the staff as if the invisible notes were visible, even when i uncheck the "show invisible items" tick box in the "show" menu (I translate on the fly, hope I get the names right):
And even in the PDF export the space is too big.
Of course I could manually override this problem in several ways, but I do think this is a bug. Or have I missed an option?
Thanks a lot,
Paul Debaecker
Comments
It's kind of hard to be sure from just a picture - attaching the actual score is usually better. But I think I know what you mean, and it does seem like a bug. Meanwhile, though, probably the better solution to the original issue is to use a separate invisible staff for the extra playback notes. it's easier to work with, and will cause fewer problems like this.
In reply to It's kind of hard to be sure… by Marc Sabatella
My bad, I should have attached the score! I'll do that tonight once home.
But for example, you can see on top of the second picture two other staves, with lyrics but no hidden notes, and the lyrics are much closer to the lines than on the bottom system (all auto spaced).
The reason I would rather not add staves is that, for this 24 measures acapella SATB score, I already have nine staves because of staves names, so this would mean adding one more; besides, I never found out a way of hiding a staff that works (but maybe I did it wrong)
In reply to My bad, i should have… by debaeckerpaul
You wrote:
I never found out a way of hiding a staff that works...
Have a look/listen:
Invisible Staves.mscz
Go to Edit > Instruments... and notice the 'Visible' checkbox.
So, in your case you would make a staff for those invisible notes and still be able to hear them. Also, that staff can be made visible for any future editing.
This is different from Format > Style > Hide empty staves, or from any visibility options available in Staff/Part Properties.
In reply to You wrote: I never found out… by Jm6stringer
Okay, I see! I had seen this option, but at the time (for another score) it did not work for me since I needed the staves hidden only part of the time. But it will work here, so thanks!
Although I still think that the spacing point I raised is a bug.
In reply to Okay, I see! I had seen this… by debaeckerpaul
I agree the original problem is a bug, and suggest you submit it officially via the issue tracker (see Support menu above, or use Help / Report a Bug, from within MuseScore). Be sure to attach a sample score showing the problem to that report.
As for hiding staves, there are two totally different commands, and each works well for its purpose. one is the ability to make staves completely invisible, in Edit / Instruments. This works whether the staff has notes or not, and is great for situations like this where you want the staff to be heard but not seen. The other command is to make a staff hidden when empty only. This is found in Format / Style / Score if you want to do it score-wide, ot in Staff/Part Properties if you want only certain staves to be hidden when empty in this way. That works well for a different purpose - when you want to save space in a score by only showing instruments actually playing at any given moment.
In reply to It's kind of hard to be sure… by Marc Sabatella
Here is the score:
The "real" fix is indeed as Marc point out to just use a different instrument and hide that.
A possibly "quick fix" is to select all those voice 2 notes (right-click one, select, more, same voice) and check "fix to line" for them in the inspector to force their vertical position whilst maintaining their pitch.
In reply to The "real" fix is indeed as… by jeetee
I did not think of it, I'll give it a try. Thanks!