Bars Per System Not Working as in MS 1.3
Musescore V2 Beta 1
Under Style/General Style/System/Fix number of bars/system I cannot force a higher number of bars than what MS has defaulted to which is 4. However I can decrease the number of bars.
The attached score was originally notated in MS 1.3 and I can increase the number of bars per system to 5 in 1.3
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Eleanor_Plunkett (My arr.).mscz | 7.63 KB |
Comments
It's because of the scaling factor you've chosen under Page Settings (2.764). It can't display any more than 4 on a line. Reduce the scaling to 2.5 and it will show 5 measures.
Many thanks. Sorry for the false alarm. I did try various settings but didn't come across that one
I believe this style should be used only for very (very) particular use case. In fact, I would even advocate to remove it in one of the next version. The best way to have the right number of measures per system is to add line breaks or use Plugin -> Break every X measures.
Wouldn't break my heart to see it removed. It just tends to lead to problems.
I use it -and other layout features - when I want to exactly fill page. If there are other ways of doing that I guess there's no point in keeping it if it causes other problems
The trouble with setting the "Fix measures/system" option is you don't see anything that indicates why the lines are now fixed. It doesn't place visible objects like manually placed line breaks or using the "Break Every X Measures" plugin. Many times people forget they set it, and then wonder why they can't adjust the score.
And I've _rarely_ found a score that adheres to having exactly X measures per line. I've always found it easier to manually place line and page breaks where I need them as I write. I too would not shed a tear to see it go.
Yes, but if the standard score layout gives me 4 bars per line and I want 5 I can't do that with manual line breaks
There is no "standard score layout". When you start a new score there are no line breaks and you place line breaks in natural places, about every 4-6 measures depending on measure contents. Only the "my first score" has manually-placed line breaks. If you set the "Fix measures/system" option, there is _no_ way to deviate from that number.
If you haven't set "Fix measures", and you can't get more than 4 measures per line even without manually placed line breaks, then either your scaling is too high or the measures are too full.
Ok, I understand. In this case it was the scaling that was causing it. But I don't know how it got set the the value it contained. It was a vanilla install of the latest Beta so I assumed it was some sort of default setting. Now I've changed the scaling and have 5 bars per line it certainly isn't "too full" or cluttered in any way. In fact I think it would still be easily readable with 6 or 7 bars on most lines
Feel free to post any scores you are still having trouble with - maybe in a forum post - and I'm sure people will be able to show you how to get the effect you want. Btw, it isn't just scaling - also "stretch". Often that's all you need to adjust.
I can't tell for sure, but it seems your problem with this particular score is solved though?
2.764 is definitely not the default space setting; so you must have inadvertently changed that yourself. That's actually enormous. The standard figure is 1.764. Sizes above 2mm would generally just be in music printed for young children or for the visually impaired.
Marc,
Thanks. Yes, my problem is solved.
As I said in my 2nd post this is a setting I hadn't come across so I don't know how it got set the 2.764. However, now that I understand it I think it would be a bad idea to get rid of it. I can see that it could cause all sorts of problems with a long complex score but that's probably true of many layout settings. Ultimately I think that layout options are something that should be dealt with fully in the Help/Manual - flexibilty is a good thing as long as you're able control it
I don't think anyone said anything about getting rid of this setting - it's a very important one for MuseScore to have. I'm just saying that unless you have some special reason to make your music that big - like it's for small children or the visually impaired - you should go with something more standard, like the default of 1.764, or really, anything in the range of about 1.6 - 2.0.
I assume you are referring to the "Fix measures/system" option when you mention about not getting rid of it. One big problem with this "feature" is it doesn't understand pickup measures. Create a new score with a pickup measure and set the FIX option to 4. The pickup measure is assume to be a full measure so your first line only has 3 measures plus a bit where it really should be 4 plus the pickup. The plugin "break every x measures" understands pickup measures, but I don't know if it handles irregular (exclude from measure count) measures well, so I simply stick with laying down my own line/page breaks.
Oh, yes of course, we *are* talking about getting rid of that one :-)
Flexibility is indeed good - and that's the problem with the "Fix number of measures/system". It's not flexible at all - it forces every system to have that number of measures whether it makes sense or not. Using line breaks is much more flexible. Then you can force whatever number of measures per system you want for most of the score but still have exceptions, such as for pickups or voltas or codas or passages with odd phrase lengths.
And BTW, as far as I can tell, neither 1.3 nor 2.0 will actually put *more* measures than can normally fit on a system. So I don't think 2.0 is actually doing anything different here. But it is true that because there are changes to the layout algorithm in 2.0, occasionally it will fit fewer measures per system by default than 1.3 did.
We seem to have our wires crossed somewhere. Just to clarify............................
I downloaded and installed the v2 beta yesterday. It was my first experience with it. I didn't change any settings. I decided to try out the Tab feature so I imported a simple score from 1.3. and got the tab working. Then I tried to make it fit on to a single page and could get it to do it using the methods I usually employ in 1.3, which are found in Style/Edit General Style. As none of these measures worked I reported a bug. Then schepers put me on to the Scaling setting, which solved the problem. Then lacsonic said "I believe this style should be used only for very (very) particular use case". Then Marc Sabatella said "Wouldn't break my heart to see it removed. It just tends to lead to problems.". So I assumed they were talking about the Scaling setting which had been the subject of the discussion to that point.
However, it seems we are all in agreement that the Scaling feature is useful and as it wasn't a bug at all maybe it would be best to just delete it from the issue tracker in case it confuses anybody else
I understand you didn't change any settings on purpose since installing the Beta. I suspect you had done this in your 1.3 score back whenever you created it. Feel free to post that version here and we can see. If for some reason the scaling was normal but got changed on import, that would be a bug we would need to fix. But I think your 1.3 score must have *already* changed that setting. Perhaps you did while experimenting with the software years ago, just browsing through the dialogs seeing what was what.
Anyhow, I think you are right that this issue can be closed. The "Fix measures/system" option is working correctly as intended - the same as in 1.3, it can *decrease* but not *increase* the number of measures per system.