Page 1 of 1

Copy/pasting a passage from another score

Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2011 3:02 am
by Rob M.
I'm baffled. I haven't found a way to do this that doesn't mess up the work I've already done.

I'm working on a double-choir choral score (with organ) which sometimes goes into a single-choir system. As a result, the file contains 12 staves, most of which are hidden most of the time. The meter is irregular, varying from 2/4 to 6/2 and nearly everything in between.

I want to replace a 24-measure section in the middle with a 22-measure passage in which note values, measure lengths, and time signatures have been changed. The replacing passage is in a separate file. It does not include the double-choir sections, so it has only 7 staves.

I'm finding that simply selecting the 22 measures in the replacement file, then clicking on the beginning of the 24-measure passage to be replaced and hitting CTRL-V does considerable violence to the remainder of the score that follows the replaced section. Selecting the replacement passage as a system selection results in a message to the effect that the paste will start in the top staff of the destination system, which is the first of the two double choirs. Selecting the 22-measure passage in the replacement file, then ALT-clicking at the beginning of the passage to be replaced only results in a message that I must select something first. Creating 22 blank measures to paste the replacement passage into seems to want me to create each few bars separately, specifying the time signature in each passage. Pasting in a system from the replacement file gets me the notes from the replacement section, but with the time signatures of the original passage.

There's something I'm not getting. What is it? What should I be doing to get the replacement passage into place without murdering the rest of the score?

Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2011 9:46 am
by Jeremy Hughes
Hi

You have two options.

a. Make the number and layout of staves in the source score match the destination score, or

b. Move the music to the correct staves after pasting.

I would recommend the former, but the latter should work without much problem.

For both, the actual copy-paste is done by making a system selection in the source score (double-purple box, via cmd-click) and copying. In the destination score, these bars will be inserted (not overwriting anything) before the bar you have selected when you paste.

Hope that helps

Jeremy

Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2011 9:27 pm
by Rob M.
Thanks, Jeremy -- the latter option worked fine, even if it was a bit fiddly.

I chickened out of the first option -- I really didn't want to have to make all the meter changes again before pasting in the notes. They came across just fine from the source score using the second option.

Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2011 10:11 pm
by Jeremy Hughes
Glad you got it to work. In fact both options copy across all system information (including time signatures, tempo text, etc.) so you would have been fine in either case.

J

Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 12:07 am
by Rob M.
Jeremy Hughes wrote:In fact both options copy across all system information (including time signatures, tempo text, etc.) so you would have been fine in either case.
That's good to know. I may have to do something like that again.

Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 9:45 pm
by Rob M.
On taking a bit of further thought, I think I see how it was that I caused the problem I encountered -- and perhaps describing it here might help others to avoid that situation.

I had created the score from which I was copying by selecting a 7-stave passage from the score I was working on, and running the "Double/Halve Note Values" plugin on that passage to double the note values. I did not include 4 staves above the passage selected because they had no content and were hidden.

The plugin ran fine, and did what I expected it to do, i.e., create a separate score that contained the passage with doubled note values. But I didn't know then that I would need to make a system selection to paste the passage back into its place in the original score, or that Sibelius would paste that selection from the top system in the destination score, hidden or not.

Next time I do that, I'll include all staves in the selection to run the plugin on, not just the visible ones.