Input not working correctly...

• Nov 29, 2017 - 13:37

While transcribing Kindertotenlieder for Openscore I came across a situation where I was attempting to enter rests in Voice 2 on a stave and the rests were being added to the stave below the one I was attempting to enter on. This happened on a number of occasions with a number of files. My workaround was to move from Page View (where blank staves were ignored) to Continuous View, which enabled me to enter correctly. Sadly I didn't report the bug at the time! The transcription is now complete but on trying to reproduce the bug I am getting a slightly different one...instead of entering on the wrong stave, there are now staves where I can't enter at all in Page View. I thought initially it was only happening in some (but not all) bracketed staves, and even for some bracketed staves it worked in some bars but not in others. However, it also happens for non-bracketed staves. Again, Continuous View solves the problem. I'm attaching a file to exemplify. If I try to enter a rest (or a note, I think) in Voice 2 for Contra-Fagotte at Bar 3, I am able to. If I try to do the same at Bar 7, I'm not. As I explained above, I was previously trying to enter on a particular stave and the note or rest was appearing in the bar in the stave below. I am using Musescore 2.1 on MacOS 10.13.1. I'd be interested to know if anyone else has found this or experienced anything similar, or knows what is going on.... Thanks

Attachment Size
Song 5 Kinder-Totenlieder 171120.mscz 117.71 KB

Comments

• Nov 29, 2017 - 13:44

Most probably a side effect of using 'Hide empty staves' and using mouse to input notes/rests, at some cutoff point MuseScore decides that a note/rest entered via mouse belongs to the (invisible)staff above or below

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• Nov 29, 2017 - 16:17

Just some notes from testing:

This also happens in all voices.

This seems to happen when the empty staff after the desired staff is empty. e.g. in Measure 1 it happens to the English Horn (which has the Bb Cl.s hidden) and 4 Horns in F (which has the 4 individual horns hidden), the percussion staff (that has several instruments hidden after it) the Celesta (that has the second staff hidden), and Violin II (that has another Violin II staff hidden). All other staves work fine and have the next staff visible (C.B. doesn't have a staff after it and works fine).

This doesn't happen in Continuous view because empty staves are not being hidden. I deleted everything in a couple of staves and they stayed visible in continuous view.

This doesn't happen if staves are hidden. I deleted the notes from 4 Horns and hid all 5 horn staves and the problem did not happen in measure 1 which has a visible harp.

Perhaps this will help track down the source of the bug.

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• Nov 29, 2017 - 17:33

Yes, there is a known issue where mouse input can be misinterpreted when hidden staves are present. See #204201: Mouse input does not work for staves with hidden empty staves below them, also #151041: "Hide empty staves" error and #8997: Hidden instruments re-appear when clicking outside the stave of visible ones.

Meanwhile, it's best to keep the "hide empty staves" option turned off until you are done entering notes (for a lot of reasons, this being but one of them). And in general, for more efficient input, get in the habit of using the keyboard rather than mouse.

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• Nov 30, 2017 - 12:37

Thanks, Mark. Normally I don't hide empty staves until I'm finished but, in this case, with a significant number of instruments that wouldn't fit on a single page at a sensible size, I thought I'd try it. As I said, Continuous View solved the problem so it wasn't a major issue, but I wanted to report it in case it was an unknown bug.

Keyboard entry - ok, that's going to be a whole new learning process for me; it's not something I've ever used so I shall have to give it a go. Is the handbook the best source of advice/method for that?

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• Nov 30, 2017 - 18:08

Well, you can still use the mouse to select durations if you'd like, then use the keybaord to type the notes. Given you can leave your mouse on the toolbar when doing this it's still going to be way faster than what you are used to.

But while I can understand reluctance to learn a whole bunch of random cryptic commands, do keep in mind durations aren't random - they follow a clear sequence from short to long. 5 is quarter note, longer notes are bigger numbers, shorter ones are smaller numbers. If you can remember 4-5-6 for eighth, quarter, half, you've got probably 80% of it covered right there.

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• Nov 30, 2017 - 19:19

You wrote:
It's more about learning the numbers for note lengths and remembering the short cuts...

Here's an idea...
You can open the attached image in a photo viewer and use it as a reference while you work on your score.
--OR--
You can print it and place it near your computer screen.
--OR--
You can place the attached image on your score as you work, then delete it when finished (or when the duration shortcuts are ingrained). For instance, here's the image placed on a score's title frame:

Icons - Durations_and_rest_shortcuts2.png

BTW: The zero encircling the rest icon denotes that zero is the shortcut to enter a rest.
See:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/images
which also explains how to adjust the image size.

Regards.

Attachment Size
Icons - Durations_and_rest_shortcuts.png 15.59 KB

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