Change voice of notes
I understand that it has been asked before, it hasn't been done, and I wasn't request here (apologizes if I'm wrong).
It would be nice to have the ability to change the voice of an existing note (or a selection). AFAIK, presently one has no choice apart from deleting them and input them again.
Comments
First, highlight the measures desired for change.
Then, select the Edit menu and then click onto Voices.
You will see a number of possibilites for exchanging voices.
Hope this helps.
In reply to Change voice of notes by Bill Watkins
Thanks. That's something. But, besides being somewhat clumsy, that's not very flexible.
A typical scenario (for me) is when, writing some guitar part, I want to switch some notes from (say) the middel voice to some outer voice - but adding them to the already existing notes in that voice. Or,. viceversa, a note that was placed as lower note in a chord in the high voice, we want to pass it to middle voice.
It would feel so much natural, that one just clicks on a note(s), and then right-click to select the voice for those notes -as a property of these notes.
In reply to Thanks. That's something. by leonbloy
Really guys? cmon. that's not how you do it. I suggest you watch the video tutorials. It'll take you like 30 minutes. actually maybe more but the video you need is this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGZgeZApBgE&feature=player_detailpage
you literally use the arrow keys to move it up or down.
you can find the videos on the home page i think
In reply to Watch the tutorials. by Boris_
Don't think moving the notes up and down was the point here. Think it was a matter of changing what voice a note "belongs to". Currently have a MusicXML with 4 voices, but the tenor and soprano are on the same voice, and the bass and the alto are on the same. Would be nice if I could just switch the tenor and bass to 3 and 4 somehow...
In reply to Read the question by Svish
Looks like an interesting problem. I think it's solvable without retyping with a plugin and a couple of workaround.
Something like :
Could you attach your MusicXML file?
In reply to Looks like an interesting by [DELETED] 5
Is there a plugin to do these things automatically? I've never used MuseScore before, so kind of a newb :p
In reply to MusicXML file by Svish
Here is a way to do it
Video : How to split a staff with two voices to two staves in MuseScore 1.0
In reply to Here is a way to do it Video by [DELETED] 5
Lasconic, yes that works but it is very cumbersome for users who want to quickly alter the note assignment of, say a single note! In that situation the user would be best just deleting the note (or even a group of notes) and re-inputting it in the new voice. Other scoring programs have the functionality to simply alter this by selecting the note and pressing the 1, 2 ,3 or 4 button on the voice grid or similar, or perhaps with a right click menu ' change to voice.....'. This would be a basic feature request - it's strange that as this product is becoming more mature in so many ways that this hasn't been added yet.....
MuseScore is an excellent piece of software!
In reply to Change note voices - works but cumbersome! by Natbud
If you have (some (consecutive) notes in voice 1 and want them in voice 2, simply swap voice 1 and 2 via selecting the section and menu -> Edit -> Voices -> Exchange Voice 1-2
Only works on complete measure(s) though, not on single notes or parts of a measure
In reply to If you have (some by Jojo-Schmitz
Copy the few notes you want to switch, paste in an unused bar, switch voices, copy and place back.
In reply to Copy the few notes you want by xavierjazz
Er, this one misses the point which is to implement a design feature that does this automatically with a single select/click. Physical cutting and pasting, unused bars, switching, paste back - exactly the cumbersome stuff the original suggestion is trying to avoid. Still, thanks for the reminder it can be done this way..
In reply to Copy the few notes you want by xavierjazz
I'm not sure about others... but xavierjazz's fix doesn't work for me.
Try: Input notes into voice 3 in m. 1.
Select m. 1 and copy it.
Select m. 2.
Change to voice 1.
Paste.
The copied material does not paste in voice 1, it stays in voice 3.
In reply to hmm by nikrepka
You left out the step about "switch voices" - by which he meant, Edit / Voices / Exchange ... This actually changes the *content* of the voices in the selected region. It's different from simply clicking on of the voice icons on the toolbar.
In reply to You left out the step about by Marc Sabatella
Sorry, I thought he meant switch the current voice when he said "switch voices"... what I described might be a useful feature though. For instance, if you accidentally entered a passage entirely in voice 2 and didn't have another voice to swap it with or only wanted to swap a certain segment, you could simply select the passage, control-x, choose voice 1, control-v, and the passage would now be in voice 1.
In reply to sorry... by nikrepka
Yes, but that's exactly what the "Exchange Voices" command does. Not sure what you mean about "if you ... didn't have another voice to swap it with" - what you are describing *is* swapping with voice 1. The old contents of voice 2 are now in voice 1, and the old contents of voice 1 - nothing but a measure rest - is now in voice 2. Then you just delete the measure rest from voice 2.
The only difference is that what you describe could potentially work on something other than a full measure, but then, what work went into implementing that could more easily go into extending the existing Exchange Voices command to work on something other than a full measure.
In reply to Yes, but that's exactly what by Marc Sabatella
ahh... I didn't realize the Exchange Vocies command worked with voices that contain nothing but rests. Then yes, I can't think of a situation when this tool would not work...
In reply to Change note voices - works but cumbersome! by Natbud
If you do a search, you'll find a few other threads on this topic. There are definitely situations where this could come in handy, but at least as many where there is no way it could possibly work well in terms of what would happen to existing notes in the voice you are moving to. I am not sure which programs do provide this feature, but I suspect more don't than do, because it really is far from easy to decide how it should work in any but the simplest of situations. If someone wanted to really examine how the few programss that do provide it work, and how they handle the case of existing notes, and come up with a clean design proposal, I'm sure that would greatly increase the chances of it being implemented someday.
In reply to If you do a search, you'll by Marc Sabatella
Switching a note's voice would work if there is no note in the target voice in that measure, or a rest of same or longer lenght or a nore of same length and would not work in all other cases, provided we don't want to 'destroy' or overwrite something existing. Three distinct and relativly easy to detect conditions. Or am I missing something?
In reply to If you do a search, you'll by Marc Sabatella
Thankyou for alerting me to the other threads, where, I see, Marc, that you have already been through all this, so I am a little confused that you are still standing strong about it not being necessary. As you have seen, Sibelius has this feature and all I can say is that I have 'found myself' using it a lot. Like rickfitz, I too work a lot with importing other formats - at the moment I'm scanning scores to PDF and converting them to MUSICXml and then using musescore to tidy them up etc. Here, there are often places where other notes are indeed 'messed up' already and it's fine to sacrifice them but without laborously deleting / re-inputting complex rhythms of a part which is actually fine, but just in the wrong voice. Being able to quickly change the voice by selecting a note/group of notes would save me a LOT of editing time. I would think importing other formats (midi, musicxml and tidying up would be a pretty COMMON situation actually for many users, not the exception rather than the rule really. Surely programmatically you'd just automate a copy/paste procedure to remove the selected notes from the current voice and then paste them in to the exact same location into the new voice - yes, destroying anything in their path - that would be fine (after all setting 'N' and typing notes in is destructive/overwrite and NOT insert based so if that's ok for inputting notes, why not for this too? Thanks for your attention - maybe this feature will appear sometime?
In reply to Changing a notes' voice by Natbud
I'm *not* opposed to it. I'm simply pointing out that it is a much more complex problem to solve than people seem to be imagining, and that there has been some prior discussion of these issues that those interested in seeing this feature should check out. And then If you or someone else interested wants to put together a specific design proposal, that would make it more likely that it will be implemented some day. Again, I'm *not* opposed - I am just trying to suggest how those who are interested in the feature can increase the likelihood of it happening some day.
FWIW I can see why those people dealing with scanned PDF files might encounter this often, but I have to believe that is a very small monority of users. I would assume most MuseScore users are creating scores directly, and in that case, this just doesn't come up very often, since you'd normally be entering each voice one at a time anyhow. So I do think the average user would probably rather see the developers spend their efforts elsewhere. But that is why I am encouraging those who see this feature as useful to do their homework and put together a specific design proposal - a specific design proposal is much more likely to be implemented than a kind of vague suggestion that it be possible to change voices of notes. Especially if the design proposal makes it clear than only the rudimentary case (nothing in the other voice) need be handled.
In reply to I'm *not* opposed to it. I'm by Marc Sabatella
Thanks - I understand. I will investigate the design proposal possiblity. I am only one user of many. I have been back to Sibelius, it actually also MERGES the notes if there are existing notes in the target voice which is actually great - free non destructive swapping of notes. This, would be complex though, I imagine. Thank you Marc for your time and input.
In reply to Changing a notes' voice by Natbud
i do hope so...
"maybe this feature will appear sometime?"
I arrived to this post after struggling with a Bach score where some voices where wrongly set.
I think that the developers of this great soft could see this feature as if the voices were "layer".
Anybody who has worked with AutoCad or any other CAD software would be astonished not being able to change an object to a different layer.
Come on! This must be an object (note) property and it should be easily feasible.
In reply to Voices not editable by luisrosety
Read the thread leading up your post and you'll see why this is not possible in the general case - other layers are generally already full if they exist at all. Only in the special cases where there happens to be room in another voice - eg, because there is a rest there - would it make sense to move something in. Which isn't to say it wouldn't be nice in those few cases, but you have to understand, music is not CAD, and the constraints are different.
In reply to Read the thread leading up by Marc Sabatella
Landed on this post too because of transforming from PDF to midi. I've found myself that I can exchange voices and this would let me identify in synthesia each hand. The problem is that if the partiture is predefined as "solo" it would always asume that in the second voice appears elements from the first one. Try for example:
1) Create a new sheet
2) Select Solo - Piano
3) A sheet with silences is created, the ones on the left hand belong to voice 1
4) Add notes on the left hand with voice 2, automatically the staff is filled with your notes in green and silences in blue, cannot delete the silences from the left hand
How should be created a new sheet if you want to hace each hand on separate voices? I asume that the one that I have with both hands in the same voice is not reusable because it becomes filled with silences everywhere for the left hand
In reply to Landed on this post too by Raúl Macián
Unless it's specifically necessary to enter the notes in voice 2, don't. Start with voice 1, no matter what staff you're on.
This is a doddle.
If the notes are the same length, simply highlight each one in turn and press the voice number at the top that you want it to go to. Things can get a bit more complicated if they're not the same length. For example, I had a 3/2 bar where the top notes on the stave were a semibreve voice 2 (wrong) followed by a minim voice 1 (correct). The lower notes were dotted minim followed by crochet, both voice 1 (wrong), followed by a minim voice 2 (correct). I couldn't use the above to correct the wrong voices as the notes weren't the same length. Instead, I swapped the voices in the bar by highlighting the whole bar, using Edit -> Voices -> Exchange 1 & 2. That left the 2 minims that were correct the wrong way round, but all I had to do, as they were the same length, was highlight each in turn and assign a voice as above.