Is there a limit in the number of bars?

• Mar 8, 2012 - 22:51

I use regularly Musescore for small jobs, songs, piano arrangements, even some Big Band compositions. I've been offered a paid job, the transcription of a orchestral score, 250 pages long. At 5 bars per system, that is 1250 bars, more or less. Is Musescore stable enough for this job? Has anyone done a score this lengh? Has it something to do with the processor and RAM amount of the computer? Thanks


Comments

Presumably a work of that length is split into movements.

I would begin by doing a separate MuseScore file for each movement

Then maybe see if they would combine into one big file.

In reply to by ChurchOrganist

There is no hardcoded limit of the number of pages or measures. In MuseScore 1.X, the software will slow down with the number of objects in the score, because everytime you move, delete or add something the whole score is relayouted. Of course, the more powerful CPU you have, the faster the relayout is and so you'll experiment the slow down later than with a smaller CPU.
Splitting the score in different movements and different files is a good idea. It will also isolate possible problems. Also, for a big project, I would recommend using Dropbox, or SVN or GIT to keep your scores in a version control system.

If you want to test your system, you could browse through http://musescore.com to find long pieces.

Congrats for the paid job !

The longest score I put together with MuseScore was 44 pages long and ca. 1500 measures (I can't tell exactly, because it is made of 10 different pieces and measure numbering restarts at each piece). This was more than 1 year ago, in version 1.0 days.

With a 'normal' PC of those times (i.e. not a particularly powerful machine), at the end it was a real pain in the neck to work on it, as there was a delay of some SECONDS between the time I hit a key and the time I saw the note appearing (or changing) on the screen.

That score was a 3-part, early Baroque, work (you may find it here ), possibly simpler than the average score, so you may want to keep your file(s) significantly shorted than that. I know I did since that experience.

Good luck!

M.

In reply to by jasonyoungyat1

There is no limit set by the program, but it may become slow in entering notes and you will want to do something. The score mentioned in the original post would probably get slow. I would put each movement into it's own score. If a movement got long I would create a temporary file where I enter the notes and everything else that can be copied. I would limit this to 1 or 2 pages of notes. I would then enter time signatures to prevent rhythms from being rewritten into the destination and then copy and paste them temp score into the actual score and add the system items (that can't be copied) like rehearsal marks and key signatures.

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