5/8 notation problem
Hello,
I have imported a large piece with a time signature of 5/8 from MIDI into Musescore. It all look great except that any notes which last a whole bar are written as a minim tied to a quaver, whereas I understand they should really be written as a dotted crotchet tied to a crotchet. Similarly, I think there should not be any beams between the third and fourth quavers of any bar but there currently are.
Is there a way to get Musescore to display this all correctly so that it understands that each bar is effectively 3 quavers followed by 2 quavers for all notes and rests? I could manually edit each bar but this would take quite a long time.
Grateful for any advice.
Thanks,
David.
Comments
It depends on what you picked the shortest note to be. On the MuseScore Midi Import screen, where it says "shortest note on import", what did you choose? or did you just press ok?
In reply to It depends on what you picked by Cortney M
Think I just pressed OK. Have made quite a few changes since importing the original MIDI so would prefer not to have to import again - or is it too late now???
In reply to Think I just pressed OK. by DNicholls
Export and re-import?
In reply to Perhaps by xavierjazz
Thanks for the suggestions.
I've tried exporting and re-importing the midi with various settings for the shortest note on import, but unfortunately this doesn't affect the problem so I still can't get Musescore automatically to notate every 5/8 bar "properly" as effectively 3 quavers followed by 2 quavers (or alternatively 2 quavers followed by 3 quavers - I understand this would also be considered valid, unlike 4 quavers followed by 1 quaver as I have at present, or vice-versa).
I think I'll just have to edit every bar manually.
In reply to Think I just pressed OK. by DNicholls
If you think making changes takes too long, re-import it and when the screen that says "shortest note on import" then "1/64", click the down arrow beside it and change it to the shortest note you want, 1/128 being 128th notes (which i have never heard of), 1/64 being 64th notes, 1/32 being 32nd notes, so on so forth. This won't work if you have saved your changes onto the original MIDI though.
You may have figured this out by now, but you can go to the create part on the menu and create 5/8 (or any other type of mixed meter that isn't already listed. I hope it helps. :)
Musescore, like most of the computer scorewriters I have come across has a problem with compound time and other quaver based time signatures, particularly from MIDI import.
This is because it doesn't understand that the unit of beat in a compound time signature isn't a quaver, but a dotted crotchet.
This is compounded by the MIDI SMF format which treats all durations and other time related messages as fractions of a crotchet - TPQ (Ticks Per Quarter note)
I'm afraid there is no way to get MuseScore's SMF import behaviour of this kind to improve until someone rewrites the SMF import algortihms, and currently there is noone on the dev team with the necessary skills for this.
In reply to Musescore, like most of the by ChurchOrganist
I'm not sure why you think MuseScore doesn't support 8th note time signature in MIDI import. This file with two measures 6/8 and two measures 5/8 is importing correctly in MuseScore 1.3. The problem arises when there is no time signature event, then it's not about knowing or understanding SMF format but about writing a smart algorithm to find out of the blue what the time signature is...
I think some of the comments here may be missing the point. The issue isn't that MuseScore cannot import 5/8 or that it imported the score "incorrectly" in any truly objective sense, and it definitely has nothing to with shortest note on import as far as I can tell. It's just a question of *how* the rhythms are notated, and it's not even completely specific to MIDI import - it's a generally issue of how MuseScore tries to beam irregular time signatures.
In 5/8, "traditionally" (to the extent anything can be consider "traditional" in 5/8) the beats are groups as 3+2. That means a single note that takes the full duration of the measure would be a dotted quarter (crotchet) tied to a quarter. It means eighths should be beamed with a group of three followed by a group of two.
The issue is this is not what MuseScore does in 5/8, however. If it encounters, on MIDI import, a measure that is a single note lasting five beats, it won't notate that as dotted quarter (crotchet) tied to quarter - it notates it as half (minim) tied to eighth (quaver). And if it encounters a string of five eighths in a measure, it beams them all together rather than breaking the beams into groups of 3+2.
The latter is an issue that has nothing to do with MIDI import - it's exactly the same behavior you see just creating a new score in 5/8 and trying to enter eighths. One would "expect" it to beam this as 3+2 automatically on note entry, but it does not.
The truth is, as I suggested above, irregular time signatures like 5 & 7 aren't really standard enough to be able to say there is actually a "right" and "wrong" way to do it. Some 5/8 pieces parse more naturally as 2+3, for instance.
So anyhow, what this really boils down to is a request that MuseScore change - or better yet, allow control over - its beaming rules. If MuseScore defaulted to 3+2 beaming, and this worked for both note entry and MIDI import, that's half the battle right there. It should also obey that same beaming in deciding how to break up long notes requiring a tie.
And then if MuseScore also provide an override to say "I want beaming on this piece to go 2+3 instead of 3+2", then so much the better, Lots of people have requested similar overrides even in 4/4, to be able to specific if eighths beam as 4+4 or 2+2+2+2.
In reply to I think some of the comments by Marc Sabatella
How helpful Marc.