More gradual tempo changes

• Apr 1, 2024 - 21:44

Right now in MS4, the accelerando and ritardando markings change tempo at very wide intervals, making it feel as if there was a quick succession of sudden tempo changes and not a gradual change of speed. I would love to be able to use these markings for playback as well, as they are currently built-in to MS4 (something that was lacking in MS3) but I am forced to turn playback off and enter in tempo adjustments myself (as there is currently no plugin that does this compatible with 4.x).


Comments

Enter an accel. Select it and go to Properties. Select "Playback" and you will be presented with a adjustable tempo change %. And 3 different tempo change methods.

In reply to by bobjp

I am familiar with the menu and enjoy the flexibility in the current system, but what I am saying in this post is that the time increments of tempo changes are too far apart to be useful. The easing methods and percentages would be very useful if this change was made.

In reply to by bobjp

Make a ridiculously long accelerando (for example, the one attached) and you'll see what happens: In any accel, the program divides the length of the accel line by four and increases the tempo by 1/4 of the total increase at each such point.

In the attached file, the accel is 20 measures long; the initial tempo is 120; the accel is set to increase the tempo by 200% over that period. When playback hits the accel, there is no change for the first 5 measures (the first quarter of the 20 measures), Beginning in the 6th measure of the accel, it increases by 1/4 of the total change: in this example, it increases the tempo to 150. Beginning in the 11th measure (halfway through), it increases the tempo to 180 (half the 200%). Beginning in the 16th measure, it increases to 210. Then at the end of the accel line, tempo reaches the full increase.

I set this one to be ridiculously long to make the point. In a one-measure accel, it's not noticeable. But in an accel longer than 2-3 measures, it begins to be noticeable.

It would be nice if it could increase the number of steps if the accel line is longer than some threshold. For example, if the accel is n measures, it should take n*2 steps, with a minimum of 4. So, 1 measure or 2 would use 4 steps. 3 measures would use 6, 5 measures, 10. Et cetera. That may be too much, but something like that.

Attachment Size
20240424-Accelerando.mscz 27.03 KB

I think we still need an example of what you are trying to do over how many measures. Is this score meant for playback only, or for real players?

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