Regression - MusicXML, extend no longer exported on lyrics

• Jun 27, 2015 - 15:12

Just found this today.
Imported a v1.3 score into v2.0.1 and lyrics which extend over multiple notes have their "underlining" correctly displayed.
However, when the MusicXML is generated, the <extend/> node is no longer generated.

I then went and created a simple two bar score and repeated the test. No <extend> nodes are exported.

I am surprised that this has not been raised before.
This is a serious regression in my opinion.
Can it get fixed ?

Comments

• Jun 27, 2015 - 17:52

What it is called is somewhat immaterial, but for the record, extenders were completely reimplemented for 2.0, so they now continue cross systems correctly and have a number of other major improvements in editing and layout. However, the new implementation does indeed not do MusicXML export yet.

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• Jun 27, 2015 - 19:19

This is really frustrating as I cannot go back to v1.3, where it worked correctly, having over 50 new scores transcribed in v2.0.1.

From a users point of view, I would always expect that things continue working when a new version comes out.
Enough of my ranting now, though.
The big question is - when will it be available ?
v2.0.2 ?
v2.1 ?
Timescale ?

I'm needing to know this to see if I need to redo all those scores in v1.3

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• Jun 27, 2015 - 20:11

Well, first you should probably subscrbe to the issue, maybe post there to bump it. it's more likely to be addressed if the people who would be most likely to be able to do know there is a user who values this. So far, you are one of the only ones to miss it.

For the record, almost everything that worked in 1.3 continues to work in 2.0. Only a very tiny minority of things don't. Mostly in cases where something was re-implemented from scratrch in oprder to vastly improve its functionality but some small part of the old functionality didn't make it into the new implementation. For most users, even in these tiny minority of cases, the gains would far outweight the losses. Eg, the limitations that 1.3 placed on extenders, and the bugs in the implementation made them extremely problematic and pretty much a deal-breaker for professional usage. The improvements in the 2.0 implementation have fixed this, and for most people, that is far more important than correct MusicXML export. That doesn't mean it isn't worth getting the MusicXML too, of course - I'm just trying to provide some context. We don't simply remove features for no reason.

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• Jun 27, 2015 - 20:38

FWIW, the 1.3 implementation appears to be incomplete. It exported only a single "extend" element on the lyric that starts the melisma. My read of the spec says a separate lyric element with no text but an "extend" element is supposed to be present for each note covered, although I guess maybe that is new for MusicXML 3.0. Would be good to get clarification on what current best practice is considered to be.

See for example http://forums.makemusic.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=2446

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• Jul 18, 2015 - 14:26

One thing not clear from Michael's reponse is whether it is ever acceptable to omit start and end entirely, as 1.3 did and 2.0.2 now does as well. I guess the start & end are new with MusicXML 3.0, but it still isn't clear if they are *required* or simply *recommended*. My understanding is that prior to MusicXML 3.0, all you did was put a simple extend tag on the lyric - no start, no separate tag on the last note with an "end". Is that way still valid, assuming the extender actually is meant to extend to the next lyric?

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