I need someone in the San Fernando Valley area who can print MuseScore files
I have written a new score titled AIRWOLF RETURNS - The Motion Picture; using the MuseScore 1.3 program, which I released on my CDbaby aritst page about a year ago.
https://origin.cdbaby.com/cd/kevinfmontague32
I need to print the score out on something where I can read the score and prefer to print onto 11 x 17 inch size paper, if possible, but I can't pay an arm or a leg for the printing of each page. I'm on limited means and am disabled these days.
Does anyone know of someone in the San Fernando Valley who can print these MuseScore files to 11 x 17 inch paper. Trying to print to 8 1/2 x 11 sheets is ridiculous. The staves are not only too small, as well as the notes, but I can't get past printing 3 pages, before the whole thing stops printing and PDF files are not the solution either.
I don't like the fact I took as much time to write an entire complex score worthy of the London Philharmonic Orchestra where the printing feature on this program sticks to the high heavens. No matter how much I read on these forums, everyone has trouble printing using this program, even the new upgrade. While the digital sound is great when a final is made for CD playing or release through the Internet, it is important to have the written score in printable and readable form for live demonstration of the score.
Anyway, the San Fernando Valley area is part of the Los Angeles area.
You can hear the score for a time on my Jango Radio station site:
http://www.jango.com/music/Kevin+F+Montague/AIRWOLF+RETURNS+The+Motion+…
Kevin F. Montague
Composer and Arranger
Comments
Why is PDF not an option? Just set up the page format in MuseScore to your desired 11 x 17 inch, then save as PDF, put that on a thumb drive and take it to your favorite copy shop for printing.
In reply to Why is PDF not an option? by Jojo-Schmitz
Hello jojo:
Let me see if I understand this correctly. I went into EDIT and selected PREFERENCES. I then went under the tab named SCORE. I then changed the setting from letter size to A3, which is 11 x 17 inch paper. I then saved it as a PDF file, under SAVE AS. I did get the whole score on my computer screen and can see the whole thing spread out on each page of the PDF file. I'm using a Windows 8.1 platform. So are you saying what I'm seeing on my computer screen now is a 11 x 17 format of my score as it will appear when it is printed?
I'm not sure if my local kinkos will take a PDF file from me and print it on one of their systems, but I will ask. Just let me know if I have this right finally, so I can print my score on 11 x 17 sheets.
PS: it does fit onto an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper, but it is quite small needless to say. I remember my university days at Loyola University in Westerchester California reading music scores with the notes being this small, even Bach concertos. It's hell for me to read, because I've always worn glasses since my two eye operations as a young boy. It's worse at age 60 you should know. I'd rather have something bigger that I can read and submit to the U.S. Copyright office for formal recordation which is why I need it on 11 x 17 paper or A3 paper.
If this works, I owe you a great big thank you for taking time to help me, given I've been going around in circles with trying to get an answer to my problem concerning the printing issue.
In reply to Hello jojo: Let me see if I by prodigyboy
No, that is for new scores.
Open your score, go to Layout → Page Settings... and set the proper page format there, safe.
And no, A3 is not 11x17, but 11.69x16.54, close, but not the same.
Now you can play with the space value on the same dialog...
You man not even need to do this at all, if everything is setup for 8 1/2 x 11 already, just save that as PDF and tell the copy shop to print it 'scale to fit' on 11x17 and it will enlarge automagically
Any copy shop should accept PDF files.
In reply to No, that is for new by Jojo-Schmitz
Hello jojo:
Thank you for the clarification. I was able to use the PDF "Save-As" option. Funny I didn't notice that before? Well, it's been a year ago since I wrote this score and I've been tied up in other business matters, non-music related, where I have not had the time to try and learn more on how to solve this printer issue. sigh :-(
Anyway, I have time now.
I was able to print the entire score to 8 1/2 x 11". At least i can see all the pages printed which is a step forward because I want to formally record this with the U.S. copyright office. I really didn't think of the paper size when I laid out my score. (chuckling) It's the first score I've written using MuseScore, so the layout plays out as 8.27 in x 22.64 in. (LOL) I was more interested in getting the entire instrument set up the way I wanted when I was building the layout architecture of the score itself. It sounds fabulous too and has been selling slowly off of my CDbaby artist page.
I'll have to try this out when isolating parts of the score as well. For some reason, when I try to isolate a part of the score, like the piano guide, which is 4 staves, it will only print the first three pages, if I print directly from the generated new piano score taken from the original orchestration. Odd? I'm using Windows 8.1 and have a very good set up. My laserjet printer is a HP p1102w printer, which normally has no trouble printing anything. I doubt it is the printer, but has to be a bug coming from the MuseScore program, which I can not isolate. I'm not going to try and load this up into MuseScore 2.0.1, because all the dynamics of my score change from 1.3 when I do that and I have not the time to try and reset all the dynamics, unless you know a way to load up a 1.3 file into 2.0.1 so it is not changed to the new version of MuseScore 2.0.1 and keeps the dynamic settings from 3.1?
You also did say the following:
"Now you can play with the space value on the same dialog."
Does this mean I can compress the stave distance between staves so they better fit onto an 11 x 17 size sheet? It might get too compressed looking even if I can do that I'm thinking?
Anyway, I'm uploading a screen capture, so you can see how I set up the layout for this score. Unless there is a way to move the staves closer together on the master score I'm looking at on-screen, I don't see anyway to make this any smaller so it better fits a 11 x 17, even if I can find a print shop that will print an 11 x 17 for me. FedEx/Kinkos is right next door to me, but like I said earlier, I'm not sure if their self service machines can take me loading in a PDF file for printing. I've never seen the option even if I use a USB transport device. They do have computers there you can rent, which I've never done given I've always had my own computers through the years. Maybe that's a way to go I'm thinking as well? Not sure right now.
If I use the over the counter service, if they can do that with a PDF upload, they charge about $3.00 per page for 11 x 17, but that was for color images. YIKES! That's way too expensive too, but I'll have to ask about a simple black and white of the MuseScore PDF file.
You'll have to excuse my ignorance of these settings with MuseScore. I'm learning this time around with the first written orchestration I've done using the program. You are helping me a great deal to better understand this feature of the program, so that when I do my next score, I'll better think out how the score should be set up for final printing in advance. Guess I was too excited about getting the new score done and really didn't think about the printer settings all that much when the score was done. (chuckling) Still, as you can see by the screen capture, the present layout is an awkward visual size, but does follow along the setup guidelines of the London Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, which is who I had in mind, as I did the set up work for this score.
In reply to Hello jojo: Thank you for the by prodigyboy
"Save as"??? Oh, I see, you're still using MuseScore 1.3 and not 2.0!
Loading a 1.3 score into 2.0.2 (!) should not change anything about dynamics. It may Change the layout, esp. if you were usung many Manual tweaks that might habe been needed in 1.x but are no longer in 2.0.
That space value is basically sort of the over all zoom factor, almost all other sizes and distances are expressed in these space values (sp). There are lots other settings, like in Style → General Style → Score, where you can set the distance betwen staves, Systems Grand stafes, above and below lyrics, etc.
In reply to "Save as"??? Oh, I see, by Jojo-Schmitz
Hi Jojo: Sounds like you have not tried this. You use the word "should" which sounds like you don't know. Thanks for trying though.
Well the dynamics were changed on my score as I loaded my work titled AIRWOLF RETURNS into version 2.0 and it changed the dynamic dramatically. Have you tried loading in one of your 1.3 works into 2.0?
I'll have to look more into changing the distance between the staves. Thanks for trying though. At least I learned about the PDF function and that's a step forward. The printing manual from version 1.3 was not at all clear on any of this with the printing option and I tried for a long time trying to look it up through these forums and got no where, so I gave up earlier this year. Had to many other business demands on my time. Now I have a little time. As to playing with the space setting between staves, I'm not sure how to handle that at all, if I'm to try and make it fit more evenly on a 11 x 17 sheet, especially when submitting it to the U.S. copyright office. I appreciate the suggestions. Seems I'll have to look more into those variables to see if any of them can help me compress the score more so it will more easily fit onto a 11 x 17 sheet.
In reply to Hi Jojo: Sounds like you have by prodigyboy
I haven't tried with your score, but with many of mine, works quite well most of the time.
In reply to I haven't tried with your by Jojo-Schmitz
When you say most of the time, what happens with the times it doesn't work?
Also, I noted with the Page Setting option, it shows how the score will fit on each type of page layout selected. Problem is, I did a correct set up for orchestration with my new score, but it is an awkward length for all of these layout options. I'll try to explore some of the things you said to see if I can find a way to compact the score more to make it fit on a page size that might work for me.
What might further solve the problem would be to get more than one MuseScore page onto a printed page. When I say MuseScore page, I refer to the written score pages at the bottom of 1.3 where there are a set number of bars per stave for each MuseScore page as the sequencer moves through the written score during a playback. It would also eat up less paper to do a print out where more of the paper is being used, even for 8 1/2 x 11. The 8 1/2 x 11 is small in size, but at least I can use it for show and tell.
PS: I'm truly grateful for the help you are giving me with all of this too. At least I was able to print my score. Now I just need to find a way to do the things I was just talking about to help make it all come together a lot better for show and tell purposes, as well as discussion.
In reply to Hi Jojo: Sounds like you have by prodigyboy
When you say dynamics are "changed", in what way? The position on the page, or something about playback? The latter could simply be a function of the different default soundfont. But differences in position is invariably caused by not having attached the dynamics to the correct note in the first place. For instance, if you attach a dynanic to a note in one measure then drag the dynamic to the left to appear as if it were in the previous measure, this won't work correctly if the layout changes and there ends up being a line break between the two measure - it will instead appear the same distance to the left of the second measure, which will place the dynamc in the left margin rather than under the previous measure on the previous system. And so forth. FWIW, I have loaded literally hundreds if not thousands of 1.3 scores into 2.0.
In general, if you are having problems with some aspect of a particular score, the thing to do is start a thread in the support fourm dedicated to that problem, attach the score you are having problems with, and the precise steps to reproduce the problem. That is what we need in order to be of much help; otherwise we have to just guess based on our own past experiences or those of others that have posted about similar issues.
BTW, the US copyright office does not care what size you print a score. I assume you are aware that it is also completely unnecessary to send them a score at all? For the past several decades, copyright law has been such that your work is protected the moment you write it down ("fixed" in a "tangible medium", to use the exact letter of the law). Registration is not required in order to be protected by copyright law ever since the US agreed to the Berne convention in 1989. You are still welcome to, and it does provide certain minor benefits, but the size of the score you submit has no bearing on that.
In reply to When you say dynamics are by Marc Sabatella
The program names "volume" levels like "p" or "mp" as "Dynamics". Look at the far left side of the 1.3 program in the column to the far left, after you have activated "palette" found under the "Display" tab. That's what I like to use as a handy tool when writing the music.
The term "dynamics" is correct terminology according to traditional classical music scoring I might add which is what I grew up under. I think you missed what I said. Everything sounds just fine in 1.3. But when the same file is loaded up into 2.0, all the dynamic settings change and are not mixed correctly, throwing the final mix of the score off in terms of blend of sound with all the dynamic settings put into the score as it plays out from the sequencer.
I have no intention of revealing the score, because it is selling and making me some money. I'm also barely scratching the surface of the internet market with my outreach of this one score, as I learn of the niche market this might belong to it. It's not big deal. I can simply work with the 1.3 program for any changes I may need to make with the score, given how well the 1.3 program works for the most part with this score. Thank you for the suggestion however. My main concern was to finally get a print of my work for both copyright recordation and show & tell to the right people.
I don't think there is anything wrong with the 1.3 program, but there is something wrong when a 1.3 file loads into 2.0. If I can't load it into 2.0, no biggy. I'll just work with it in 1.3 when need be. The score is done anyway and the mix is good too, even with the dynamics mark settings in 1.3.
As for the copyright issue, yes I'm aware of the law change come 1976. I'm nearly 60 years old and was around when the new law didn't even exist. The law went through its formal changes between 1974 and 1976 while I was attending Loyola University in Westchester, CA. I knew the law before 1976, under Title 17 and the new law afterwards as well. I keep a copy of it all in my home, as a handy reference, when needed.
Regardless of what the law says, I take the time to formally register my works once a work proves commercial value. While the new law states my work is copyrighted the moment I create it, try and prove that in a court of law without a formal copyright certificate? The answer is you can't. Formal copyright is still the best way to prove ownership of a work, once it takes on commercial value. Once you are making money, you better have that certificate in your hands or you are in for a fight from others who may challenge you. If this work were to go viral in the time ahead and someone challenged me, I'll need the certificate to help keep the peace. 60 years of experience have taught me the reasons why, but thanks for the information. Just know it is covered.
Also, while I know the copyright office doesn't care about the size of the notes, I do. If I take the time and effort to set up a copyright for formal recordation, even with written music, I want things crystal clear to what my intent is and also have everything very easily legible. Again its an experience thing with my years of living dealing with attorneys, without giving all the reasons why.
So far, thanks to Jojo, I'm having good success this evening playing with the page and space settings which is great. I should be able now to prepare a layout that can be printed to 11 x 17, once I master it all on 8 1/2 x 11 with the way I want it to appear on an 8 1/2 x 11 as an experiment with the settings. It's just taking time now to sort out the settings and what they affect when I make a change to a given setting. At least jojo got me going down the right road which I thank him for. :-)
In reply to The program names "volume" by prodigyboy
If you don't wish to post the full score, then you could create a copy and delete all but a few measures and post that. or simply create a new score. We need to see what you are talking about to understand and provide meaningful help.
Again, 2.0 does not *change* anythign about your dynamics, I promise. "p" is still quiet, "mp" is still a bit louder, "mf" a bit louder, "f" louder still, etc. But as for *how much* louder is "f" than "mf", every single musician in the world will differ on this, and so will every single soundfont in the world. Simialrly, if you ask a flute player and a trombone player to both player "mf", they won't be the same volume - the trombone will invariably be louder. But *how much* louder will depend on the specific musicians involved - or, in the case of syntehszied playback, it will depend on the specific soundfont.
So, like I said, since MuseScore 2.0 uses a different soundfont by default than 1.3, you might hear differences of that nature. But both 1.3 and 2.0 let you listen using whatever soundfont you like see the Handbook under Soundfont. So you can change the playback in 2.0 to use the same soudnfont you are using in 1.3 or vice versa. You can also use the Mixer to change the relative levels of the instruments.
In general, the default soudnfont in 2.0 is much more realistic in terms of these things than the 1.3 soundfont was, but it is possible you added dynamics or adjusted Mixer settings in 1.3 to account for the deficincies in that soundfont, and now those adjustments no longer make sense. In which case, if you do not wish to revisit the dynamics and Mixer settings, simply changing to the old 1.3 soundfont would allow you to hear your score as before.
As for copyright, I was just providing information - many people are unaware of how copyright law and are under th mistaken impression that regitration is legally necessary, which it no longer is in the US or most other countries. You should of course continue to do what you feel is best.
As for printing 11x17, it should be as simple as going to Layout / Page Settings, changing the page size to 11x17, then upping the "Staff space" setting (I think it's called just "Space" in 1.3) to fill the page. Doubling the current value would be a good starting point. This scales everything in the score except the few items that shouldn't scale with music size. 1.3 has some bugs where certain items don't scale well; 2.0 is better in this regard.
In reply to If you don't wish to post the by Marc Sabatella
Hello Mark,
Thanks for the reply.
I understand what you are saying, but you are not listening to what I'm saying. I'll say it again, when I load up my mscz file from 1.3 into 2.0, all the set dynamics are changed dramatically. This messes up the blend of all the instruments from the original score and makes the whole thing sound awful. I have not idea why it does this. Maybe it is the sound fonts. It may be a week before I can check into it.
There is nothing wrong with my systems fortunately, which are well protected even from malware and other invasion issues. Everything worked just fine with 1.3. Why 2.0 is a problem I wish I knew and I wish I had time to figure it all out right now, but I'm tied up in other extensive legal business issues right now in my life eating up all my time each week. I had a little time this weekend to try once again to ask for help with the printing and that took up an entire day trying to master the settings with the help of jojo on this thread which I'm grateful for. At least I got the printing issues taken care of which is great! I had hoped there would be a quick fix to this with the dynamics, without it all going into the fiddle factor, but I see this is going to take time I don't have right now. Sorry about that. :-(
I'll keep in mind what you said about the sound fonts. I'll have to learn then how to load up the 1.3 sound fonts, but maybe later in the week I would guess, given my current To Do list. I do appreciate the suggestion, but I'm a guy who likes to put the key in the car and go, not fiddle with this stuff all that much. I have a lot on my plate each day and time is precious to me.
No worries about the copyright law issue. At my age, I tend to be blunt about everything I've learned in life. You were not offending me, so you know. I was just letting you know I'm well versed with the old and new law at my age, but I do appreciate you sharing what you did. Maybe it will help someone else who reads this thread in the future. I'm sure your advice will not be wasted in other words.
You are absolutely correct about the "space" setting. Wish you had posted sooner. It took me time to figure that one out. (LOL) Oh well. I know now anyway. That proved to be the most helpful in getting the effect I wanted on each page for printing...finally! That is located under the tab "Layout" and then under the selection "Page Setting", in case someone else finds this thread and needs to know. At least I was able to get the entire layout not only to fit on a 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper, but I was able to get a lot more than just 4 or 6 staves worth of music onto a single sheet as I worked with it. The General Style settings helped too. Jojo was right. There are a lot of setting controls that can be used for the spacing. The manual wasn't clear on this usage at all in my opinion. Once jojo told me the things he did, I got past the barrier in my thinking and now I've got it with the page settings. This part was no intutitive in my opinion having worked with programs for decades and more explanation could have been given on how to use this part of the program. Just a suggestion. I use to do technical advisory work for engineers when I was younger and one thing I learned about engineers back in those years is that the things that seem obvious to them, are not always obvious to the common layman. I did work for Hughes Aerospace, Packard Bell, Ratheon and so forth and like one head programmer told me long ago, "I hate getting into someone else's program". All the more reason why I said I like to just put the key into the car and go, not fiddle with it. Everything should be clear to me. I have degrees both in the Communication Arts and Sciences as well as Music at the University level dating back to 1978 and I try to keep up with the changes, but trust me, all of this stuff is not intuitive even with my background. I can only imagine what it is for a young budding music student who is trying to learn the tradition methods and then at the same time learn all of this on a computer sequencing program like MuseScore. The student must either be very bright or be very patient for the extra years that will be needed to learn these computer applications. None of this stuff is simply by a long shot. It's enough to learn music, let alone how to apply it using a sequencing program like this. I also think MuseScore is an excellent program, both in application and execution after seeing other programs. If my first score even goes viral, I'll make a sizeable donation to the cause to help the designers along.
Anyway, thank you for your input and attempt to help. I'll look into what you said when I get more time. We'll see later on if that solves the problem. I'll have to think about revealing the score titled AIRWOLF RETURNS. I'm not too quick to want to show anyone that just yet, because I think it may eventually go viral on me. I'm not sure yet. If it does, then after that kind of sales activity settles down, I'd be more inclined to share the score for visual examination, but probably not until then. I appreciate your willingness to try and help though.
In summary, I have no trouble now printing from a PDF file when I save to PDF from MuseScore, but if I try to print from a mscz file, it only prints the first 3 pages and then stops which to me is odd. I should be able to print from the program, like I would MSword or any other program where I had to print a document directly from the source program, not have to save it as a PDF file just to print it. No other program I've ever worked with has done that. Then there is the issue of the sound fonts you suggest from 1.3 to 2.0. When I have time, I'll look into that more and thanks for the suggestion.
In reply to Hello Mark, Thanks for the by prodigyboy
I definitely hear what you are saying about dynamics, and I am 99% sure my answer explains completely why this happens, as you'll see when you try different soundfonts.
I still have no insight into why printing is stopping for you after three pages, but again, 1.3 is extremely old and unsopported at this point. Absolutely none of the hundreds of thousands of users of 2.0 have reported any such problem. It makes sense to continue to use 1.3 for a score of any complexity that wasd originally developed in 1.3. But you will definitely want to switch to 2.0 as soon as possible for future work. It has literally housands of bugs fixed, hundreds of significant improvements in score layout and playback and usability, etc.
In reply to I definitely hear what you by Marc Sabatella
Thank you for understanding. When I get time, maybe next weekend, I'll look into the sound font issue and explore what you suggest and see what I can learn. Thanks for giving me direction on this Marc and thank you to Jojo for his help. You both got me back on track as these issues have been on hold for the past year with me. I'm glad you took interest in my problems so I could have a chance to address them with some worthwhile answers. I really do appreciate it. I'm just too loaded down with some serious legal work this next week and it leaves little time for doing the fun things I like to do. I had even hoped to write the Star Wars Suite by December 1st of this year for the new Star Wars release, but the legal has kept me busy 24.7 the past 12 months. Too bad too. I would have been the only one on CDbaby offering the suite when the new movie releases. Can't be helped.
I will keep 2.0 in mind for future works. The AIRWOLF RETURNS score sounds really great too when I transferred it to CD and played it on the stereo system in my living room in my house. You can't even tell the thing was written on MuseScore 1.3. What an incredible sound too! It sounds like I rented out the entire London Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra it was written for. I'm glad to see it selling too. It would appear I did something right with this one, which is why it is selling. I just can't localize the niche market yet to make it go viral yet. That still remains illusive to me.
If I ever make a ton of money off my work, I'll make sure to make a donation to the designers at MuseScore, but for now, sales are steady but light in numbers. Here's hop'n I find a way to make the new score and old-new score (remix) go viral somehow. Guess we'll see in the time ahead.
I may be in touch later next week when things settle down on this end a little more, if I get a chance to work with the sound fonts. I'll have to think about what to provide you that might help you understand the printing problem I'm having when I try to print directly from the mscz file. I have no trouble printing from the saved PDF file now, but I still think it is odd I can't print straight from a MuseScore file. Oh well. (sigh) I hate the fiddle factor too. I have too much work I need to get done and fiddling with this stuff is not my idea of fun. (double sigh) :-(
In reply to "Save as"??? Oh, I see, by Jojo-Schmitz
I'll look into these settings again.
In reply to "Save as"??? Oh, I see, by Jojo-Schmitz
I'm exploring the Edit General Style option and I can see now what you were saying. Yes, there are a lot of spacing control options in this area. I'll have to play with them and see what happens. I pretty much left these settings alone because I simply wanted to get into knowing the program as I did my first orchestration with it. I did take time to read through the manual along the way, but there are questions I found myself asking that were not answered in the manual which is why I'm glad these forums are available. At least I'm getting somewhere with your help. I'm starting to see what I need to do to play with the sizing of the score on a printed page. :-) Thank you!
In reply to Hello jojo: Let me see if I by prodigyboy
@ prodigyboy, if your printer has the "poster" option you can print two A4 and paste them to get an A3.
Or you can try something like PosteRazor (free)
I think you might be confused. There are literally hundreds of thousands of people successfully printing form MsueScore; only two or two three other people were experiencing problems. I am sorry you seem to be one of them. But even among the two or three others who are having problems there problems seem different and unrelated to yours. Absolutely no one else to my knowledge has reported any problem with printing stopping after three pages, so it has to be something extremely unique to your particular computer / operating system / printer combination. We'd love to understand why your computer / OS / printer seems to not be working with MuseScore, but until someone else is able to reproduce the issue, there is very little we can do.
Anyhow, PDF is absolutely positively the answer. Export your score to PDF and your problems are solved, completel;y and totally. Assuming your printer works at all, you can print that PDF yourself - MuseScore will have no say in the matter. True, you probably don't own a printer capable of printing 112x17, but virtually every print shop in the world does, and they will all be happy to print from a PDF. Just make sure you have the score set up as 11x17 with corresponding staff sizes before you export.