"2nd time only" playback support

• Apr 17, 2018 - 06:09

I know I'm not the first person to request this, and I'm sure I won't be the last, but it would be great if support for only playing certain parts within repeats on the 2nd/3rd/6th/etc. time could be implemented to the playback functionality. I'm working on a jazz tune where a soloist repeats a chorus eight times, and I only want the backgrounds to play the 5th and 6th times. Obviously I could just write out instructions for the player, but it would be great to hear it play back correctly in the program as well. I've seen posts with people asking about it, so I'm clearly not the only one who would like this implemented.

Comments

• Apr 18, 2018 - 16:46

The "solution" (workaround, really) is simply to copy the passage out multiple times in the version of the score you create for playback purposes, if it's important to hear that. Meanwhile you can keep the main version as is for display/printing purposes.

It's certainly possible a future version will include more control here, but it is important to keep in mind the primary purpose of MuseScore is notation, not playback, so new features are prioritized accordingly.

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• Apr 18, 2018 - 19:10

I know the obvious workaround would be to simply write it all out without the repeats, but I would really rather not write out a 16-bar passage eight times (even with copy/paste), especially because such repeats happen twice in the piece, and it would be significantly easier to work with if they were consolidated into 16 measures instead of writing out all 128 both times (I know those are very long repeat sections — they're meant to be extended jazz solos).

The solos themselves are supposed to be improvized, which programs like MuseScore obviously don't provide and likely won't any time soon (that would require insane AI), so it's not like I'm particularly worried about the playback for those sections, so long as I can hear what the backgrounds sound like at all. It just got me thinking that it would be a really useful feature for some more straight-forward pieces. Since it's already possible to change how many times the repeats are played, I think it would only make sense to let the composer change WHICH times the parts within the repeats are played as well. I know playback isn't the priority with MuseScore, but I do think that would be something many composers (including myself) would appreciate being implemented. I agree it's not a necessity, but it would be nice to see in a future version, which is why I posted it as a feature request.

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