Notes too close when crossing staves

• Apr 20, 2013 - 09:26
Priority
P2 - Medium
Type
Functional
Severity
S4 - Minor
Status
active
Regression
No
Workaround
No
Project
MuseScore
Tags
crossstaff

R. 6398a01 nightly on Windows XP
When in a group of 16th notes, an up stem comes from the right of the note head and a down stem comes from the left. This causes the notes to be too closely spaced in some situations. In the printed scores I have examined the stems are more or less equally spaced and note heads move left or right. Example of problem attached.

Attachment Size
beam issues.png 10.38 KB

Comments

• Apr 26, 2013 - 19:49

To be sure we are talking about the same thing I circled them on the image below. It also seems that the other notes are too far apart.

beam issues.png

It also applies on the one staff if the beam is moved between the notes.

I'm curious to see your printed score example. I just tested with Sibelius and it has the same layout.

Attachment Size
beam issues.png 16.28 KB

Reply

• Apr 27, 2013 - 01:37
Status (old) needs info ⇒ active

That's exactly right, Lasconic. This might just have to be done manually since it appears in the printed score (see JPEG attached) that the notes on different staves overlap horizontally. I also noticed that the beam connecting the two 16th note groups seems to take its direction from the first note of the group instead of the notes that surround it. I would think that if the last 16th note of a sub-group is down stem, the connecting beam would continue the bottom beam instead of the top one.
20130426_192617.jpg

Attachment Size
20130426_192617.jpg 74.53 KB

Reply

• May 4, 2013 - 22:06

Hmmm...

The guide line here should be that, in beamed groups with notes above and below the beam(s), note heads and not stems should be (or look) equally spaced.

So, when a note below the beam is followed by one above it, stems should be closer (the first being on the right side of its head and the second being on the left side); and viceversa when a note above the beam is followed by a note below it.

Then MuseScore goes in the right direction; possibly the rule is applied too mechanically and the differences are too marked. I think it to be a matter of magnitude, not of quality, which is correct.
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Note 1: Note that this is the opposite of the case when unbeamed notes alternate up-stem and down-stem: here the stems should be (or look) equally spaced (more space when an up-stem note is followed by a down-stem note and viceversa); this is why the printed score 'slides' the low E almost under the high B across the beam interruption.
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Note 2: the clumsy sub-beaming in the screen shot is of course a bug ('angled' beams should be avoided as much as possible), but is a different one. I suggest to file another bug report.

Thanks,

M.

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