4.4.3 upgrade created two problems
PC running Windows 10. version 22H2.
Upgrading Musescore to version 4.4.3.242971445, revision eb6b367 caused two problems.
First, it reformatted most of my scores. It spread out the measures to the point that some one-page scores went on to a second page. They had fit on one page, going all the way back to Musescore 3, and for Musescore 4 until the latest upgrade. See my first attachment, "A Summer Song after upgrade"; this used to fit on one page.
Even scores that still fit on one page were reformatted so the measures changed positions. (When possible I prefer certain positioning -- for example, the beginning of a repeat starting at the first measure of a line. I'm rediscovering piano after 30 years away and need to make things as easy as possible.)
By adjusting style and page formats I'm able to reconstruct the scores fairly well, but it's very time consuming and shouldn't be necessary. It's also imperfect -- in some cases I can't get back to how they were.
Second, the upgrade seems to have imposed its understanding of key signature on my scores. I'm sure it knows more about music theory than I do, but it shouldn't have changed my sharps and flats. See the two scores "When I'm Gone" before and after upgrade.
I've no doubt I have key signature inconsistencies in some of my scores, but that's the way I formed them, learned them, and played them. I know that C# is the same as Db, but after playing a score with Db for months, it throws me off to see it as C#. Again, I'm not a good player and need to keep things simple and consistent.
Why did these problems happen? Is there any way to undo these changes, short up going back to the previous version?
Thanks!
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| A Summer Song after upgrade.mscz | 59.43 KB |
| When I'm Gone before upgrade.mscz | 49.39 KB |
| When I'm Gone after upgrade.mscz | 152.5 KB |
Comments
I can say something about the second point: select the whole score and press 'J' several times until C# has changed to Db.
Perhaps it would have been better to write the score in F major. Maybe then Musescore wouldn't have turned it into sharps. But I don't know that for sure.
In reply to I can say something about… by HildeK
Thanks. Actually I started out with it in F major. But at some point I deleted and replaced the first couple measures. Apparently when I deleted the first measure, it also deleted the key signature. From that point on the program put the flat symbols "manually". (I didn't do it -- Musescore did.) I didn't notice it right away, made more revisions, and by the time I caught it I was well along with changes. I tried to reinstate F major but that screwed up a lot of things so I left it as was.
Not sure what you mean by before and after upgrade. When I open the before upgrade file, I see all flat symbols in the score. When I open the after upgrade score, I do see sharps but also other changes like a different tempo, added comments about being transposed to C major and being based upon another score. Are the changes have not been applied by making changes?
I have not experienced MS to change the key after opening a score after an upgrade.
About the page formatting, I can imagine there are corner cases where the changes made to (I believe mainly the footer area and when a copyright text is used) would now create two pages instead of 1. To really check this, a before score would be helpfull.
In reply to Not sure what you mean by… by Henk De Groot
Yes, I made all the changes except for the flats-to-sharps. After the upgrade I have continued working on the song and made those changes. It took me several days to get around to posting here. But the flats-to-sharps were not me -- that was 4.4.3.
I don't think I could properly say that the upgrade changed the key signature, in that it didn't add a key identifier in the first measures. But it did change the way the individual notes are depicted.
Regarding the formatting, I wish I could post a "before" and "after". However since the upgrade all the scores are "afters". In order to post a "before" of any song I'd have to roll back to version 4.4.2. When I open songs now they of course open in the current version.
However I posted that song online. If you want to see the "before" go to:
https://musescore.com/user/36182409/scores/7584101
In reply to Yes, I made all the changes… by camppub
I downloaded the online score (was indicated it was MS 3.6.2 version).
So opened that in 3.6.2 and see one page, as you indicated.
And also indeed opening that in 4.4.3 creates two pages.
The difference I can spot is that the headertext (which contains the date) in 3.6.2 is placed inside the top frame, while in 4.4.3 this is place outside the top frame. Believe that is indeed one of the changes made in 4.4.3 or maybe even before 4.4.3.
Other changes are visible in the last system. Tempo marking outside the Volta instead of inside. And also some measure strech/compress is no longer applied.
I can say indeed, it is not nice how the new setup/engraving improvement are changing this one sheet into two, but at the same time you can make the sheet music look a lot more professional like that. It shows really crowded to me in 3.6.2, resetting all styles makes the layout even better (still using two pages).
I recommend to keep using 3.6.2 for existing score and minor changes you may need/want to make if you want to prevent changes like this to happen and just start creating new scores in 4.x.
Obvious, not to stop you migrating all scores to the latest version, but you may run into layout issues like these.
I still have v2 and v3 installed.....for this reason.
In reply to I downloaded the online… by Henk De Groot
Thank you for checking it and the explanation.
I do still have v3.6.2 installed. However I made a few edits to several of my songs (I enjoy arranging almost as much as playing, so I often make minor changes) in v4.x, so v3.6.2 can't open them. "Cannot read file [name]: This score was saved using a new version of MuseScore, which of course is expected.
I probably have the v3 scores on a backup somewhere. I could restore them but then I'd lose any revisions I've made since. So I'll just adjust the v4.4.3 scores as well as possible.
Agreed that my scores can get a little crowded. However I prefer a crowded one-page to a more spread two-page (within reason, of course).
Thanks again for your help.
In reply to Thank you for checking it… by camppub
My MuseScore 3.7 Evolution can read Mu4 scores
In reply to My MuseScore 3.7 Evolution… by Jojo-Schmitz
My 3.6 can't. Any score that I opened and saved under v4 gives the message "Cannot read file [name]: This score was saved using a new version of MuseScore". There's an option to ignore but when I do so it just opens an empty score.
Apparently 3.7 was designed to do so. See:
https://musescore.org/en/node/362360
I don't know why 3.6 is my last 3.x version. I always upgraded when I got the notification, but I never had 3.7. I'm not sure whether to install it to open the files revised under v4 or just plod ahead as is.
In reply to My 3.6 can't. Any score… by camppub
See https://github.com/Jojo-Schmitz/MuseScore/wiki
In reply to See https://github.com/Jojo… by Jojo-Schmitz
Now it makes sense why I didn't install it. I don't think I ever realized it existed.
I can confirm that the formatting has changed with the update to V4.4.3. Overall probably to the better but still it means I've to go review all my symphonic pieces and update the formatting.
In earlier 4.x versions of MS, there was a problem with dynamics not carried over to the parts. This appear to be fixed now, but the only way to benefit from this, you have to reset the parts formatting. Doing so, you loose all manually inserted formatting. I've about 5 symphonic pieces to which I've to make some corrections (each with 25 - 30 instruments). "Pain in the a. . " but that's the way it is. C'est la vie🤔
In reply to I can confirm that the… by TomStrand
I'm glad to hear it just isn't me. When I Googled this topic I didn't get any direct hits, which surprised me because I couldn't see how I'd be the only person affected.