Time signature issue
I created a file (attached) in 1.3 using Mac 10.10, which was perfect. I then opened it in 2.0 and added some instrumentation. However, I noticed some odd rests and spaces toward the end of the piece, and on closer analysis, 2.0 had removed the 3/4 time signature and replaced it with 4/4 (although no time signature was visible. If I now try to insert 3/4 at the beginning, it messes the whole format up from bar 2, inserting rests that can't be deleted. If you play the piece, although it may appear as 3/4, it plays in 4/4, with a pause at the end of each bar. I should mention that I previously moved eleven pieces (from the same suite in 1.3) to 2.0, and they worked perfectly. Anything you can do to resolve this will be greatly appreciated, or I shall have to start this score again from scratch, which is a big job. I have tried copy and paste into a new template, but it does not work. Thanks.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| 12 Day Extended Orchestra Muse2.mscz | 43.48 KB |
Comments
Did you not save the 1.3 copy? Having that would be most useful both for you to recover and for us to understand what might have gone wrong. The file you have attach has been corrupted somehow - perhaps it was already partially corrupted in an less-visible way in 1.3, or perhaps the 2.0 prerelease build you used corrupted it. But indeed, it seems to have a conflict between 4/4 and 3/4 throughout.
I was able to repair it at least partially by opening it in a text editor and inserting a time signature element manually. There appeared to be an unnecessary time signature at measure 76 that was causing problems, and a text element at measure 86 too, so I removed those too. The file I have attached should work OK if you don't mess with it too much, but no guarantees. Definitely save a copy of this unedited. And anything more info you can provide to help us understand what happened would be most appreciated.
I am extremely grateful to you for your repair work. To aid the forensic work, I have attached the original 1.3 file (The Day is Ended) and the earliest 2.0 version (12 Day 13 Feb), which I managed to extract from my external drive backup. In this 2.0 version, I have only inserted some additional instruments, but no notation. If you look at Bar 80, there are already some strange things happening, and right at the end, there seem to be two lots of double barlines. I hope that helps, and thank you.
Thanks for the 1.3 version - it shows the file was already corrupt (missing time signature at the beginning) before 2.0 ever saw it. That is, the time signature is missing even in 1.3.
BTW, I say a missing time signature constitutes corruption, because it generally does, but it's possible you tried to do that on purpose? If so, don't :-). MuseScore does support no time signature sort of, but it will actually treat the measures as 4./4, as you've discovered. 1.3 would have been happy to do bad things with that file as well had you kept working on it in that version much longer. If you wish to not display the time signature, just turn it off in staff properties.
Thanks for that. I think that issue is now resolved. For interest, I just checked my earliest versions of that 1.3 file, and they did indeed have the time signature, as intended. However, a later version showed that the time signature disappeared when some notation changes were made to the first four bars. I obviously did not spot that at the time, nor subsequently.
Incidentally, I see that there is no time signature in the file you repaired for me. I am happy to leave it like that, as I fear it may cause grief to insert one now. Thanks again for your efforts in resolving this.
Hmm, I guess I added it to the top staff only. That does seem to fix the problem - MuseScore now knows the length of each measure. But I am not sure I'd trust it. If I were you, I'd go ahead and add a 3/4 to the first measure, which will make it appear on all staves as it should. Do a little test to make sure all is well, then that is the version I would recommend going forward with.
I'm leaving the issue report open because there are probably better ways we could handle files with no time signature - some sort of auto-detect, perhaps, or a dialog. But I feel better knowing the problem wasn't originally caused by the 2.0 build.