Adding tempo indicators.
I am currently transcribing a fairly large piece that has a large number of intruments, and many pages.
There is also a number of tempo changes throughout the piece.
As each instrument has it's own separate score, I am transcribing each instrument separately and combining them as I complete that instrument.
Which way, in anybody's opinion, would be the better way to do the tempo changes, add the changes in each instrument as I come to them, or add the changes to the completed combined piece.
The completed piece has in exess of 1000 measures, with approx. 30 instruments, not all instruments will be at the same time.
Some instruments will only be used for between 2 to 10 measures throughout the whole piece.
While others will be used in almost every measure.
BTW, the tempo changes are at the same measure irrespective of the instrument.
Alex.
Comments
My suggestion is to add the tempo indications once the score is finished, rather than to any instrument.
When combining separate parts into a score, I usually work on the whole score since the beginning, adding each instrument to the score (either all initially, or each one in turn) and filling its own part from the separate part. Usually this gives a better indication of mistakes in counting measures, particularly for instruments which tacent for a long time (separate parts can always be generated once the score is finished). But, of course, this depends on individual preferences.
My suggestion is also to NOT turn off (hide) empty staves until the score is finished, as this would make rather difficult to add the part of a new instrument.
Hoping it helps,
M.
P.S.: It would be surprising if the tempo changes did not occur at the same time for ALL instruments...
I'm not understanding why you are transcribing each instrument separately then combining them. Is this providing some sort of advantage I am not seeing? If you transcribed directly into the full score, then you'd simply add the tempo markings once. And tons of other things would be simpler as well.
In reply to I'm not understanding why you by Marc Sabatella
Each instrument has it's own separate score sheet.
It's a PDF that was given to me some time ago.
It started out as an experiment at first, by transcribing each instrument separately, but as time has gone on, I am feeling that because of the size of the score, it has proven to have many drawbacks and at times I feel that I have gone too far to start again.
I have found though, when I combines what I have already done, because of the large number of instruments in the score, and the large number of measures, I have found computer issues, in that the larger the score becomes, the slower the compter becomes.
In some ways, by transcribing each instrument separately, and combining later, I can transcribe the instrument and combine into the score quicker than transcribing all into a single score.
Only in very large pieces though.
Hope that makes sense!
In reply to Each intrument has it's own separate score sheet. by murray45a
What do you mean by "each instrument has its own separate score sheet"? Do you mean that eachinstrument has its own separate *part*, showing its own music only. If so, that's completely normal - that's how ensemble music apis almost always done. But the point is, one normally starts with a score, then MuseScore can *automatically* extract the parts into separate files. This is how museScore and most other scoring software is designed to work. Going the opposite direction as you are trying to do is unnecessarily complicated.
You wouldn't have to start over to move to the usual method. I take it by now you do have a score, at least for the instruments you have done already. Just add blank staves for the rest of the instruments (ie, press "I" and add the necessary instruments. Then you can start adding the notes for those instruments directly into the score. And when you are done, let MuseScore automatically extract the individual parts.
It is true that with especially large scores, MuseScore gets slower. The better way to address this, though, is to still have a full score, just break it into sections (a few hundred measures at a time).
In reply to What do you mean by "each by Marc Sabatella
I've taken a long time to reply, been away for a while with a touring production of McBeth, (as back stage crew).
Over the time, I've taken your advice and played around with the best way to transcribe large pieces.
There are a 2 or 3 instruments that will need to be added as individual parts due to the notation being far above or below the staves, and intruding into other instrument parts making it hard to see where I am putting the notes, this will not present a problem.
All in all, I'm happy with the method you presented, and it is all working well.
Thank you, still have more to learn.
Alex.