Request: start playing in the second or third round of a repeat

• Aug 28, 2020 - 20:33
Reported version
3.4
Type
Functional
Frequency
Few
Severity
S5 - Suggestion
Reproducibility
Always
Status
active
Regression
No
Workaround
No
Project
MuseScore

I often want to check the last part of a score. Then I want to start in the second round of a repeat followed by the end. In the image below that's the part with the pinkish background.
PlaySecondRepeat.png

I'd like to to suggest a feature for this.

When playing a score and when I'm not in a repeat area, the play button looks what we're used to:
ChooseRepeatI.png

While playing, and when MuseScore plays into a repeat area, the icon of the play button changes to show the repeat I'm in:
ChooseRepeatII.png

If I pause, or if I get into a repeat area by clicking there, I get an arrow-down next to the play button. When I click it, I get a pulldown to choose the first repeat, second repeat, etc. Once I clicked in the dropdown and clicked "Play", the music should play as if I had gotten there the way I normally do. I hope that that also solves any "to Coda". The dropdown only appears when I'm in a repeat area. The dropdown is longer or shorter depending upon the number of repeats:
ChooseRepeatIII.png

If this solution wouldn't be possible, let me know. I appreciate reactions. If needed, maybe I can come up with alternative ideas.

PS 1:
I had asked if there was already such a function:
- https://musescore.org/en/node/308654
SteveBlower pointed out that there's a "Unroll Repeats" in the Tools menu, but I find it hard to tell where i'm in in the score when using that option.

PS 2:
This request is related to another topic:
When pausing and resuming in the second round of a repeat, MuseScore goes back to the first round.
https://musescore.org/en/node/309767

Comments

• Dec 28, 2020 - 14:24

I do like your idea.

Meanwhile, and in case you were not aware...
... during playback, you can press and hold the right arrow key to speed playback to finish a round more quickly.

(There is also the 'Play repeats' button on the toolbar which can be toggled to allow 'straight through', linear playback.)

Reply

• Dec 28, 2020 - 14:49

That looks like a rather complicated bit of code to determine how many times a measure is played for situation like when it's in a repeat that has a jump with repeats that includes it. That is it has a minimum of 4 repetitions due to this. I agree with the idea. To be clear, the dropdown should always appear if the measure is played more than once so the user can pick where in the song they actually are.

+1

Reply

• Dec 29, 2020 - 04:07

Jm6stringer, thank you for pointing that out. I didn't know and that already helps.

Mike, had I thought about how much code this would require before submitting the idea. I assumed that right now the code also has to determine in one way or another how many times a measure has been played when in a repeat. I hoped that if that count is kept in a variable, only the value of that variable would need to be changed.

Reply

• Jul 18, 2021 - 09:20

Playing on the second time is not really the same as this suggestion. This one is requesting playback as if on the second or specified repeat.

The use case I envisage is checking how a second volta or a jump.to coda sounds in context without having to play the first volta or DS al coda. In other words a facility to select a position to start playback some measures before the voltas and then hear what it sounds like on the second repeat (i.e as if the first volta had already been played) or similarly, start playback some measures before a jump to coda and hear what the jump to coda sounds like (i.e. as if the DS had already been played).

Reply

• Aug 7, 2022 - 23:00

I had been looking into the cause for this last year and it is due to the TempoMap being repeat-un-aware. Something I hope to fix after 4.0-alpha if the new tempomap/playback code is still somewhat similar at that point.

Reply