Beat charts

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motet
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Post by motet » Wed Jul 26, 2017 7:16 am

I have never used beat charts before. Is it true that to move a beat graphically, you must drag it with the mouse? It would be so good if it worked like the note-mover tool, where you can select one or more handles and move with left- and right-arrow. I did discover the dialog box that lets you type in numbers, but that's rather tedious.


Vaughan
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Post by Vaughan » Wed Jul 26, 2017 8:06 am

I use the beat charts regularly to tweak spacing that hasn't worked properly for some reason. Sometimes Finale fails to space for a lyric or for an accidental. I often find that Finale leaves too much space for a clef change. Cross-staff spacing usually requires tweaking. I generally do these things using the beat charts. You can't select more than one handle, but if you press Shift while dragging, everything after the selected handle will move in tandem with it, a very handy feature. If, for example, I need to increase space between two elements in a measure (and the TG Tools plugin for this doesn't work, or distorts the spacing), I'll add space either at the beginning or at the end (in Measure Attributes) and then drag the appropriate beat chart handle while pressing Shift. One caveat: respacing the measure destroys your edits and there is no setting in Music Spacing to prevent this, so you should do it at the very end of your editing.
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BuonTempi
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Post by BuonTempi » Wed Jul 26, 2017 8:54 am

Vaughan wrote:I use the beat charts regularly to tweak spacing that hasn't worked properly for some reason. Sometimes Finale fails to space for a lyric or for an accidental. I often find that Finale leaves too much space for a clef change. Cross-staff spacing usually requires tweaking. I generally do these things using the beat charts.
FWIW, when Finale doesn't get it right, I've had very good results by adjusting the "Minimum Space Between Items" and then respacing (sometimes just for a particular region). The default is 12 EVPUs, and trying either more (24) or less (6) can work, depending on the notation. This often fixes clashing accidentals, lyrics and other things.

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David Ward
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Post by David Ward » Wed Jul 26, 2017 11:15 am

BuonTempi wrote:… …I've had very good results by adjusting the "Minimum Space Between Items" and then respacing (sometimes just for a particular region). The default is 12 EVPUs, and trying either more (24) or less (6) can work, depending on the notation. This often fixes clashing accidentals, lyrics and other things.
I found setting 16 EVPU minimum spacing between items helped with a recent spacing oddity (following advice on this from BuonTempi in another persona on another forum!).
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Bill Stevens
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Post by Bill Stevens » Wed Jul 26, 2017 1:51 pm

>> if you press Shift while dragging, everything after the selected handle will move in tandem with it

What a great tip, Vaughn. I've always dragged beats beginning from the right side of the measure, but this will change my approach.

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Post by Vaughan » Wed Jul 26, 2017 2:28 pm

There are still situations for which altering the minimum space between objects won't work. For one thing, this often puts too much space between objects you want close together, like grace notes. For another, it doesn't help with objects which Finale ignores, whether intentionally (like with lyric syllables on a melisma) or unintentionally (like with the occasional accidental). In these cases, either using the TG Tools plugin (which doesn't always yield the desired result) or adjusting the beat chart is the best remedy.
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miker
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Post by miker » Wed Jul 26, 2017 3:05 pm

Yes, excellent tip. I use it quite often, for better lyric spacing. That should save me some time!
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John Ruggero
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Post by John Ruggero » Wed Jul 26, 2017 3:16 pm

The Beat Charts seem to be in the air at the moment. Two threads at MMFeature Requests:

https://makemusic.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/ ... Beat-Chart
https://makemusic.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/ ... Beat-Chart

Moving groups of beats with the Shift was mentioned over there too. Very helpful tip!
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motet
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Post by motet » Wed Jul 26, 2017 7:27 pm

Thanks for the info. The way it works having to use the mouse is awkward, especially since there's no visual feedback until you let go of the mouse, at which point you may have moved too far. The Shift key is a help--thanks--but sometimes you want to move a beat and everything to the left of it, so it doesn't help there.

I hope they implement John's suggestion of making it work like the Note Mover.

Probably AutoHotkey can be programmed with a hotkey that does click down, drag one pixel left or right, click up. I think I'll try that, and if anyone wants it, I'll share here.

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motet
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Post by motet » Wed Jul 26, 2017 7:35 pm

I struggled with the documentation trying to get the dialog to open. It talks about top and bottom handles, but there are handles on the staff (to invoke beat spacing) and handles on the beat-spacing thingy, and that was confusing me. It also says you need to apply beat spacing in order to be able to get a beat chart, which messes with current spacing, but that doesn't appear to be true.

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N Grossingink
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Post by N Grossingink » Wed Jul 26, 2017 10:59 pm

Interestingly, you can enter a new beat chart handle where none existed before. Just double click next to one of the upper handles and it appears.

I used to use this technique whenever running music spacing on an incomplete stack selection - just a stave or 2 of a full score, to get a roughed-in, less detailed spacing. I'd then go back and add a beat chart or two for the more detailed work here and there. It's also of use in more complex passages - giving an extra control point gives finer control in some cases. It's something that has to be played around with some.

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Beat Chart.png
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motet
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Post by motet » Wed Jul 26, 2017 11:31 pm

It looks like beat chart edits don't carry from score to part, right? I guess that's both good and bad (but mainly good).

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