Slashes and voices in Beta 2

• Dec 30, 2014 - 13:47

I like the new application for slashes but am disappointed that voices are no longer included, A voice other than "1" must be used for notes that carry over to a measure with slashes. It's an OK solution but cumbersome.


Comments

Can you explain what you mean in more detail, perhaps post a sample score? There should be no limitations compared to 1.3.

With "fill with slashes", it always uses voice 1, butyou can use edit / voices / exchange to move them to another voice if you wish. You can also select partial measures before running the tool, so no need to use multiple voices just to split a measure between normal notes and slash notation if they don't happen at the same time. If you want slashes and notes at the same time, and you've already entered the notes into voice 1, then you do indeed need to first move the notes to another voice with edit / voices / exchange.

With "toggle rhythmic slash notation", it uses whichever voice you have selected, so you can use the Selection Filter to select the voice you want to use before issuing the command.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

In the attached score I'm referencing measures 59 and 60. When creating my scores, I'll enter the notes then the chords. I'll then go back and enter other notations. repeats, codas, articulations, etc. If I enter slash marks afterward, the notes disappear. I then have to use another voice to add those notes back in. Also, should I decide to modify those measures, e.g. remove the slashes, the chords disappear. To me, anyway, it was so much easier to select a voice for the slashes.

Quote: "If you want slashes and notes at the same time, and you've already entered the notes into voice 1, then you do indeed need to first move the notes to another voice with edit / voices / exchange." Quote. This is indeed one of the issues.

In reply to by rwmol

In cases where you want to have slashes and notation at the same time as in your example measures 59-60, there is of course a choice to make a choice as to which voice has the slashes and which has the notes. In order to simplify the interface for the majority of uses, the new facility elimiantes the dialog. This means you need to use voice exchange, but that's not especially more difficult than using the dialog. If you have already entered the notes into voice 1, move them into voice 2, then add slashes. And if you really want your notes in voice 1 and slashes in vocie 2, exchange them back when you're done. If this is something you do often, feel free to define a keyboard shortcut for exchange voices 1 & 2, and then it is literally only one extra click for this case, while still being fewer clicks in all other cases. Another solution if you do this often is to set up a measure with slashes in voices 2 (fill with slashes then exchange) and simply copy this around where you want, using the Selection Filter to filter out voice 1.

I don't think it's worth making the usual case more complex (by adding a dialog) just to save a click or two in the less common cases.

BTW, to remove slashes in one voice while leave the notes in another, the Selection Filter is your friend.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Hmm, a possible solution occurs to me that makes this case and the usual case equally simple (no dialog): just have the tool check to see if voice 1 is "empty", and use voice 2 if so. Realistically, I probably wouldn't to check the whole selected range - if the first beat of the selection contains a rest in voice 1 rather than a note, I'd use voice 1, otherwise voice 2. Actually, I could also check voice 2 and use voice 3 if both have content, or just go back to voice 1.

What we lose is the sometimes-nice aspoect that you can *replace* a notated section with slashes using the current algorithm. But it would just be a matter of pressing Delete before runnign the tool if I made this change.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Well. Here's where I think I might be going the wrong direction. If I take an empty measure and add slashes I can remove them by selecting the measure and press Delete. If there is other notation in that measure, in another voice, I have to hold down Ctrl, select the slashes and then delete them, leaving behind rests. I can make them invisible with Inspector. I guess this is one method.

It would be nice if you could "empty" a voice. Maybe there is. I don't know.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

I've implemented the automatic voice-selection algorithm for the "fill with slashes" command. I go through each measure of each staff one by one, choosing the first empty voice for each. "Empty" in this context means, no notes - it could have rests (normal or full measure) or it could have nothing. It seems to work well in my tests, and it fixes a bug I found along the way having to do with selections that begin with a partial measure across multiple staves.

Thanks for the feedback; hopefully this satisfies everyone. I will update here when it's merged.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

I installed and tried your nightly build. It works fine.

I tried removing the slashes with leaving no notation behind, on the voice for the slashes, by using the method provided by JoJo-Schmitz. This also worked but left an unwanted behavior. I could no longer select any measure.

This is the first time I have used the filter. For me, it would be helpful if a right click on the filter body would produce something like: "select all" and "deselect all". This may be a subject of another thread.

In reply to by rwmol

Once you deselect voice 1 in the filter, it is indeed impossible to select a measure that has only one voice. That's because there is nothing there to select. I suppose we could special case this and still allow the selection to appear to be made, and the blue rectangle to be drawn, but there would be nothing actually selectewd, so in a sense, that might be *more* confusing.

Anyhow, you just need to re-select voice 1 before continuing.

Regarding select/deselect all, I agree it would be useful sometimes. But for the case at hand - deleting the slashes in voice 2 - you really shouldn't need to do anything but deselect voice 1. Your chord symbols and everything else of interest should already be in voice 1, so voice 2 basically contains the slashes and nothing else.

In reply to by rwmol

First, no need to feel stupid - this is new stuff. That particular aspect confused me at first too. I wonder if maybe a dialog for this situation wouldn't be a bad idea - "Nothing to select - check your filter" or something like that.

Interesting abut the time stamp. In the USA (Colorado).

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