Combine two instruments into a single staff when creating parts
It would be fantastic if it were possible to combine two separate instruments into one staff when creating parts. I am thinking you create and edit your score as separate SATB instruments, and then create a part consisting of SA and TB staves (that is, one stave with S+A combined as separate voices, and a second stave as T+B combined as separate voices - the tradition is tails up for S and T, and tails down for A and B).
Comments
The SATB closed score does it the opposite way for you. It creates SA in one staff using voice and TB in another staff using voices. You can then create a T part by selecting voice 1 of the TB instrument.
What you are asking for really doesn't make sense to me. Combining parts on the main score is normal, combining parts on a parts score is strange.
In reply to The SATB closed score does… by mike320
I hadn't thought of it that way TBH, but yes I can see that making sense most of the time. Sometimes though, especially where lyrics are concerned, it can be far easier to work on the score as separate instruments and then combine them afterwards for publishing. Another thing that many music systems have is selective combining/splitting of staves. That is, where the parts are similar you have the two voices combined, and then at other times when they differ greatly, you split into individual voices. Usually, you get a double 45° arrow symbol at the end of the combined stave indicating a split, and single 45° at the end of each split stave indicating they combine together again. The closest I can get to that at the moment is to have two extra instruments - one each for S and A, and a third for SA combined (and the same for T, B and TB). It works, but it's really not nice to work on.
That kind of selective split and combine would be a good alternative to doing it with parts (actually I'd prefer it that way, since that's the "proper" way of dealing with it).
In reply to I hadn't thought of it that… by majenko
Similar requests have been made. I'm not holding my breath for these to happen in MuseScore any time soon.
In reply to Similar requests have been… by mike320
It's a shame, because they are standard score layout systems. Things that need to be there for a music publisher to take the software seriously.
In reply to It's a shame, because they… by majenko
The workarounds are not terrible, so it seems to be a rather low priority.
In reply to The workarounds are not… by mike320
There shouldn't need to be "workarounds" to perform things that are standard in music notation. That's like saying we won't implement quavers because you can just draw the tails in with a pen after printing them.
In reply to It's a shame, because they… by majenko
I would accept using a workaround if the correct barline symbols were available. I've opened another feature request for that...
In reply to It's a shame, because they… by majenko
Maybe I'm misunderstanding. In what way are you prevented from doing this currently? No workarounds are needed to enter music with SA on one staff, it works perfectly right out of the box. If you've entered the music on separate staves first (for whatever reason, I wouldn't recommend it if your final goal is to have them combined), then the Implode tool does this automatically. And if you want to switch between closed and open format, just add the staves and use the hide when empty feature.
So it should be perfectly possible and very simple to get music in standard published form. Is there something I am missing?