Changing time corrupts music

• Sep 3, 2009 - 09:58
Type
Functional
Severity
S5 - Suggestion
Status
closed
Project

(0.9.5, OS X Tiger, G5)

Changing time corrupts the already arranged music.
I typed a song that includes some time changes. First I used one regular time and wanted to insert the time changes afterwards. Instead of keeping the sequence some notes disappear.

Here’s an example. File “Timetest”.
a. Insert 3/4 in measure 2. Last note disappears.
b. Insert 2/4 in measure 2. 2nd half of all bars disappears. Klick and delete 2/4-sign. Piece displays 4/4 at the beginning but still changes to 2/4 from bar 2.
c. Insert 6/4 in measure 2. Rests appear on “5+6” in all following bars.
Klick and delete 6/4-sign. Piece shows 4/4 at the beginning but still changes to 6/4 from bar 2.

Expected behaviour: The timeline of notes etc. should be independent of the timesettings, and these should easily be changed any time.

This puts up the need for a “move” function:
“move selection (or all following) for-/backward xxx measures/quarters/eights etc”
I know this is no minor issue, but for serious work it is essential.


Comments

Jaap Plaisier
Oct 23, 2009 - 20:45

This works if the program remains active.
I worked on page 1. After restarting MuseScore turned the pages 4,5,6,7 and 8 were maimed ...
Anyway, thanks for thinking of a solution.
Greetings, Jaap

Jaap Plaisier
Nov 7, 2009 - 00:08

Eventual this helps ...
When the measure is changed to smaller time, then beginning problems afther the alteration.
example:
4/4 to 3/4 worke not well
3/4 to 4/4 works well

Jaap. Sorry, my comment was out of line. At the time I was remembering my workaround but not remembering your response in comment #5.

The bug remains marked as critical so we agree that it is important. Werner has mentioned in an email that the next two big features that he wants to impement are "timewise insert and delete (which includes changing time signatures without changing actual notes/rests) and 'linked parts'." Since these are "bigger" changes and we are coming to the end of the 0.9.6 development cycle it is likely that these will be new features scheduled for 0.9.7.

In case you aren't aware, there is a backup MuseScore file that contains the previously saved version of your score. Look for the file with the same name except it starts with a period (.) and ends with a comma (".mscz,"). Rename the file to remove the initial period and ending comma and open it in MuseScore. If you have not saved your score more than once after the notes disappeared then you should have a backup copy of the previously saved version.

Jaap Plaisier
Jan 8, 2010 - 20:34

David, thank you for your reply. This is good news and gives hope for the future ... I had the feeling that nothing happened with the bug and the move was to the long long long term. I had my destiny in the Dutch forum is linked to. Come on back there ... I go back to translation work. Further, the program is fantastic, we go on to 0.9.7 ...

Changing the time signature and retaining all notes is a difficult operation in MuseScore. There are several conflicts to solve. Inserting/removing a time signature can position a following time signature in the middle of a measure which does not work. Practically notes have to be moved only until the next time signature. To put this time signature at the beginning of a measure, rests have to be inserted.
All in all i think inserting/removing arbitrary time signatures cannot be done "lossless" but it should be possible to implement this reasonable lossless.
In 0.9.7 i want to see a function to move a selection of notes/rests arbitrary to the left or right. This function will be the basis for "nearly lossless" time signature editing.

"In 0.9.7 i want to see a function to move a selection of notes/rests arbitrary to the left or right. This function will be the basis for "nearly lossless" time signature editing."

This will benefit composing as well as notating. A very serious ambition I will gladly support.