Engraving improvements in MuseScore Studio 4.3

• Apr 23, 2024 - 14:38

MuseScore Studio 4.3 is centered around the sound flags feature and, as such, contains fewer new engraving features than usual. Even so, here are multitude of bug fixes and smaller improvements, and also a large number of MusicXML import improvements in this release. Stay tuned for 4.4 which will contain a lot of exciting engraving work!

New features

Ties on tab staves

Main implementation: Issue 20536 / PR 20744

There are new options for how to display ties, to control whether ties and/or repeated fret marks should be shown, as well as when parenthesised fret marks should be used (each new bar, only on a new system, or never). There are also improvements to the alignment of ties and fret marks.

Clef options

Main implementation: Issue 20795 / PR 20911

There is now an option specifically for TAB clefs to control whether they are shown on all systems or only on the first system where they appear (which is the default).

The existing options to control the behaviour of clefs, key signatures and time signatures have now been moved from Style > Page and Style > Clefs and consolidated into a new section, Style > Clefs, key & time signatures.

An option to control whether clefs should be shown on all systems or only at the beginning has been supplemented with a new option to control TAB clefs specifically. This new setting, "Hide TAB clefs after the first system where they appear", is turned on by default.

Layout reset

Main implementation: PR 21628

A new option has been added, Format > Reset entire score to default layout, which does the following:

Removes system and page breaks
Removes spacers
Resets positional properties of items
Resets positional styles to default
Resets layout stretch

This is a quick way of seeing how a score looks in the current version using all the updated default settings and layout, but only resets style settings and item properties which relate to position (spacings, minimum distances, etc), preserving those which are intentional stylistic choices. This can be particularly useful when opening files from much earlier versions, as it establishes a new 'baseline' and removes many customisations which may have been necessary in earlier versions but are not longer required.

MusicXML import

This release contains a multitude of improvements related to MusicXML import - see the list below.

Many of these changes concern inferring the type of a text item based on its content (as many text items end up as generic stave text when exported from some software). Since this means adopting 'smart' behaviour in favour of strict adherence to the MusicXML specification, this can now be controlled via a new toggle found at Edit > Preferences > Import > MusicXML > Infer text type based on content where possible, which is turned off by default (PR 22151). For batch processing, it is also controllable via a new command-line flag (Issue 22409 / PR 22428).

Layout and interaction fixes

Issue 18430 / PR 20652: Position of the 'floating' endpoints of slurs crossing a system break are improved
Issue 19036 / PR 21191: Augmentation dots are now shown on 'full' tab staves
Issue 19979 / PR 20484: Custom beam positions in files from MU2 and earlier are now correctly recalculated in migration
Issues 19852 & 21286 / PR 21883 Fixes a bug where spanners would sometimes disappear from parts
Issue 20170 / PR 20897: Accidentals on ornaments no longer distort slurs
Issue 20180 / PR 21176: Changing clef on a standard stave no longer overwrites the clef on a linked tab stave
Issue 20291 / PR 20756: Flags are now drawn 'under' noteheads (important for note-name noteheads)
Issues 20399 & 20672 / PR 20675: Invisible articulations no longer affect the position of visible articulations on the same note
Issue 20804 / PR 21215: Fixes a bug where toggling slash notation was 'backwards' for pre-4.2 scores
Issue 20541 / PR 21171: Pressing space to skip a note during lyric entry no longer removes a preceding melisma line
Issue 20672 / PR 20675:
Issue 20671 / PR 21186: Grace note beams on tab staves now have the correct thickness
Issue 20773 / PR 21210: Fixes a bug where measures would extend beyond the margin of the page in certain circumstances
Issues 20816 & 21011 / PR 21090: Fixes a niche issue where layout would change between save and reload in narrowly-spaced contexts
Issues 20894 / PR 20902: Corrects the position of glissando lines that cross page breaks
PR 20896: Fixes layout of grace notes around cross-stave notes
PR 20966: Implements advanced glyph shapes using SMuFL cutouts for accidentals
Issue 21006 / PR 21015: 1-bar multirests are no longer shown over the top of 2- and 4- bar repeats
Issue 21052 / PR 21168: Corrects the alignment of fret marks in a chord where some are parenthesised
Issue 21145 / PR 21174: Corrects padding between arpeggio lines and the preceding note
Issue 21212 / PR 21216: 'No break' layout element is no longer cloned to parts
Issue 21300 / PR 21568: Ties are now positioned correctly on dotted slash notes
Issue 21336 / PR 21418: Cut-and-pasted slurs from grace notes no longer disappear from parts
Issue 21140 / PR 21142: 'Floating' endpoints of ties on tab staves are now aligned where possible
Issue 21621 / PR 21730: Measure numbers, when reset after a section break, now update immediately
Issues 21809 & 21991 / PR 22013: Fixes an issue where applying beam properties to the whole score could corrupt beam positions or cause crashes
PR 22157: Single-note tremolos on cross-staved notes are now drawn relative to the correct stave
Issue 22257 / PR 22261: Trill lines no longer remain in parts when their note is deleted in score

MusicXML improvements

Issue 18752 / PR 21536: Exports 'Swing' and 'Straight' markings correctly
Issue 19019 / PR 21772: Improves export of figured bass items with non-standard content
Issue 20873 / PR 21362: Improves the import and export of chord symbol visibility, colour and placement
PR 21384: Only sets line placement to below if explicitly set as such in the source
PR 21392: Sets alignment of chord symbols correctly
PR 21395: Uses the correct track to determine melisma line length
PR 21416: Adds lyrics on grace notes to their parent notes
PR 21483: Adds support for general tags used for encoding common symbols
PR 21497: Sets fermata direction when none is specified
PR 21499: Corrects endpoint of ottavas exported from Sibelius
PR 21518: Scales down header and footer text to fit within margins
PR 21587: Fixes import of metronome marks where noteheads are exported as letters
PR 21595: Implements a temporary solution for gaps before codas
PR 21619: Correctly imports and exports cross-voice arpeggios
PR 21635: Correctly reads and writes placement information for lyrics
PR 21653: Adds support for reading elision tags and tags containing SMuFL symbols
PR 21661: Allows multiple lyric melismas with different placement
PR 21734: Corrects caesura placement and adds support for caesuras exported as tags
PR 21761: Sets hairpin default placement to 'Above' on vocal staves
PR 21806: Applies the default font to all text elements when the relevant 'Apply default typeface' option is set
PR 21821: Moves arpeggios on a rest to the following chord
PR 21862: Honours relative lyric position, to accommodate lyrics attached to grace notes
PR 21908: Infers text in header frames, and reformats said frame
PR 21942: Sets above/below position of spanners based on vertical offset
PR 22032: Infers fingerings
PRs 22143 &22462: Infers 'cresc.' and 'dim.'/'decresc.' text as dynamics
PRs 22183: Infer tempo text based on a list of common words
PR 22212: Automatically sets the height of header frame so that all text fits without collisions
PRs 22220 & 22337: Unticks 'Follow written tempo' for tempo directions which do not include a metronome mark
Issue 22229 / PR 21364: Exports all accidentals attached to ornaments
PR 22329: Removes unnecessary duplicated chord symbols and fret diagrams
PR 22310: Infers numbered codas and segnos
PR 22455: Removes 'hanging' ties (pending a proper solution in MuseScore Studio)
PR 22474: Improves import of 'unfinished' pedal lines