Explode / Implode

The "Explode" plugin takes a series of chords containing a fixed number of notes and splits those chords up into the same number of individual staves, each containing one note at a time. This can be useful when writing for a section of a band or orchestra. In passages where all parts share the same rhythm, you can write the whole passage on one staff in one voice, then run the plugin to split this into separate staves.

The "Implode" plugin performs the opposite function: it takes staves containing lines with identical rhythms and combines them all into chords on one staff.

To use the "Explode" plugin, the staves must be contiguous, and you have to manually copy the whole series of chords onto each staff. Then you can select the whole passage (all staves) and run the plugin. You will be left with staves containing just one note at a time each, with the notes assigned to staves from top down.

To use the "Implode" plugin, the staves must be contiguous as well. Select the passage (all staves) and run the plugin. The contents of the lower selected staves will be collected into chords on the top selected staff. The lower staves will be left unchanged.

The functionality of this Plugin got integrated into MuseScore 2 and later, this plugin here is useful and needed only for MuseScore 1!