Collaborative typesetting - the best way to split typesetting orchestral works between users
I have some orchestral scores and I plan to split the typesetting work between different users according to instruments.
In Musescore, what is the best way to do this, and how can I combine different parts at the end to get the full score?
In a full score, obviously there are some common features such as tempo, volta, double barlines and rehearsal section marks, which need to be only printed once on the full score (don't need to print tempo, time signiture for each instrument on full score) , but also need to appear on each instrument orchestral part score. Can MuseScore handle properly?
If so, would it be a good idea to typeset a instrument first with details from tempo and time signitures etc and set the full score,
then copy the file to all other members and let them typeset their own instrument in parallel, and finally I open each version, and copy-and-paste each instrument back to the master copy?
Are there better ways?
Thanks!
Comments
That is probably the best way I can think of. However you should be aware that there are a few things that you'll have to add after the copy-paste. For example Slurs do not copy-paste , nor do dynamics or staff text.
The collaborators could add just the notes and articulations to their instrument parts. Then you would have to add the final touches afterward.
In reply to That is probably the best way by David Bolton
So would it be the best way to simply ask each player enter their parts and make sure they look right? For each player, players are asked *not* to enter extra information such as titles and composers etc.
Separately, the group leader construct the Lilypond global.ly for common information such as tempo, time signitures, volta, repeats, double bars and rehearsal marks.
Then I collect all these files and after ensuring the parts are right, I strip the tempo mark, volta, repeats, double bars and rehearsal marks from the Musescore part files and export to Lilypond.
Then the group leader opens the Lilypond file and strip the time signitures, and finally the group leader include all parts, together with the global parts for the Lilypond full score. And for each final orchestral part, combine the orchestral part with global.ly.
Do you think this is a better way? Is Lilypond export quality good enough for this purpose?
Thanks!
Daryna
In reply to should I combine the parts directly in Lilypond? by daryna.baikadamova
"Is Lilypond export quality good enough for this purpose?"
The state of the lilypond export is a little uncertain for the moment. We don't exactly know what is supported in the export. So the best thing you can do is open one of the demo files or import a MusicXML file from a typical score you want to typeset, export it to lilypond and check out the difference between the lilypond pdf and what you see in MuseScore.
BTW use the 0.9.5 release candidate instead of the current 0.9.4 release because it does have some improvements for lilypond export.
In reply to State of lilypond export by Thomas
The best approach is to take a short but enough representative piece with 2 or 3 parts and try both methods.
In Lilypond and in MuseScore, a big part of the time is spent in entering pitches and notes values. So a collaborative effort to get these from different persons will be benificial. How much work will it be to gather all this information and make a full score? Only experiment can tell you.