Maximum size for multimeasure rest
Is there a way to limit the maximum size of a multimeasure rest? It would help write the score more compactly and perhaps allow the melodic line (example the first two 5 measure rests in the first two lines of the attached file) to be written on two lines rather than being split across three lines. I suspect the auto formatting in MuseScore is using the multimeasure rests to fill out the length of the line but to a point I would prefer the notes were farther apart rather than having rests taking up much of the space of the line. I've looked and haven't found any place to set a maximum size for a multimeasure rest so thought I would ask the "experts".
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Symphony No. 9 in EMinor Horn II 1st movement.mscz | 42.64 KB |
Comments
Click on the bottom line of the staff where the multimeasure rest appears. (A blue box appears around the entire multimeasure rest. This differs from merely selecting the multimeasure rest symbol).
Then, to decrease stretch:
◾Use the shortcut { (left curly bracket) (Mac: Ctrl+Alt+8);
◾Or from the menu bar, select Layout→Decrease Stretch.
See:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/layout-and-formatting#layout-stretch
Regards.
In reply to Click on the bottom line of… by Jm6stringer
I would never have figured that one out. Thank you so much for the pointer. btw, shift + left curly bracket works on my Mac for decreasing stretch.
FWIW, the algorithm for calculating size of multimeasure rests is flawed, in my opinion, increasing the physical size of the rest by too much as the duration gets longer. At one point I actually investigated this in the code and came to some sort of understanding about what was going wrong, and I posted about it somewhere here, although I'm not finding that right now. I think it's worth revisiting for 3.0. I think there should be a max width in addition to the existing min width, also a parameter to control how responsive the width is to the duration.
In reply to FWIW, the algorithm for… by Marc Sabatella
The existing algorithm does an okay job. It isn't that tedious to run through the score and adjust the multimeasure rests as needed. I suspect when you have multiple parts the notated parts would determine the sizes of the multimeasure rests so the issue is more for individual parts and works with few staves. That said I do agree with you it would be really nice to have an adjustable multimeasure maximum size.