Layout, how to make it look good
I need the notes and everything to be as evenly spread out as possible, so they're not too tight in some places and too far apart in others. How exactly should I edit for best result?
Like, can I decide how many bars I want per line somewhere?
Comments
Edit/Tools-> Add/Remove Line Breaks
or use the Break&Spacers Palette
With multiple instruments you will get variations on the distance between notes. This is normal notation so all notes on beat 2, for example, will line up vertically. A staff with 1/8 and 1/16 notes will have the notes closer together than a staff with 1/4 and 1/2 notes in the same measure on a different staff. You can only expect identical spacing between notes when all staves play the same rhythm.
In reply to With multiple instruments… by mike320
Yeah I'm not expecting identical spacing, just..better. Sometimes the 1/8 and 1/16 get really close together and I can manually edit it through "increase/decrease stretching", and when I stretch too much there's a linebreak and so forth (but then it might be too much space...) It's just an annoying and hard way to do it. Notes should automatically position themselves in a way that looks good...
In reply to Yeah I'm not expecting… by Simon Gårdh
By default it should look good - the defaults were chosen to mimic common engraving standards. That's why it is important you attach the score you are having trouble with, so we can understand better what special unusual thing might be going on. And then if you explain what specifically you are not liking, we can explain better how to customize things to be more to your liking.
In reply to By default it should. That… by Marc Sabatella
I guess I'm not having that much trouble. I suppose it looks ok, I'm probably just picky. It was just that, identical phrases looks a little different, maybe because there were 5 bars in one line and 4 bars in another. Anyway, I don't think anything that unusual is going on.
In reply to I guess I'm not having that… by Simon Gårdh
Indeed, it is perfectly normal and correct according to established engraving standard that identical phrase might be spaced differently on different systems if the rest of the content of those systems differs. The correct engraving standards calls for spacing within a system to be consistent, but spacing between systems will almost always vary unless the entire content is identical. Actually, even in that case, the usual standards call for the engraver to manually adjust things so things are not exactly the same, because otherwise it can be too easy for a reader to lose track of which system he is on. MuseScore doesn't go that far automatically, but it does allow you to achieve that effect through the use of stretch and line breaks where desired.
Generally, if you have no line breaks, spacing should already be pretty consistent. S step one is to remove any line breaks. You can then increase spacing score-wide by doing Ctrl+A to select all then pressing "}" to increase stretch. You can also insert line breaks manually via the Breaks & Spacers palette, but again, spacing should already be pretty consistently.
If that doesn't produce what you want, please attach your score so we can understand better what is going on.