Global line breaks in Score Editor?

[valve]

I did some searching and found that apparently the line break functionality of previous versions of Logic haven't been all that great. I haven't seen anything on Logic Pro X that talks about my issue though.

 

Mainly, is it possible to add a line break to all instruments at once? I'm currently making a session of about 15 short cues, and I am trying to separate each of them through line breaks. It's pretty time consuming to have to go into each individual instrument part and add those line breaks per instrument.

 

As a side question, is it possible to set extra space after each line break so I can have enough room in between cues to add each title?

 

Thanks!

[volovicg]

Well it depends on whether you will be printing these out with all parts on a score or only each part on a score....

If you plan on printing out multiple parts at one time on the same sheet, then using score sets you can apply the line breaks to this score set and they will apply to all parts.

 

Line breaks are global - so they apply to all instruments in score set. The advantage of score sets are the ability to include instrument names, brackets/braces, instrument hierarchy (instrument ordering) which can be different then than the order in the arrange window ( meaning the ordering of instruments presented on the score) and line breaks which are manually forced with the layout tool are saved and recalled separately.

 

In the filter drop down of the inspector you have "all instruments", score sets, and instruments. Using score sets exclusively is my preferred method due to the advantages described above. Each score set can be composed of one, two, or multiple instruments ( how ever many you want).

 

So if you make a score set of all 15 instruments and add a line break to that score set, you will in effect do so for all instruments in that set. If you make a score set of say...5 instruments and drop in the line break it will affect all 5. If you make a score set of just one, then it will effect only that one.

 

I highly recommend using score sets exclusively ( even for each instrument) and don't use the "all instruments" or instrument parts section of the filter menu - you don't have to - but over time you will see that is the only way to go ( especially given the ability to scale the score which is only provided in a score set) and is huge for proper formatting of score in particular when multiple pages are involved.

 

Now if your goals are such that you want all the instruments in your project to display a certain number of measure per line, you can do this in the layout->global section where there is a global parameter which initially sets the number of measures per staff ( in all filter views, not just score sets). This can be over-ridden using the layout tool and the line breaks at any time, but is very nice if you want to apply the constraint across all instruments ( especially the non-score set type, i.e. "all instrument", each individual instrument listed in the filter dropdown.

 

If your line breaks are all different for each instrument and you plan on printing one sheet for each instrument, then you will have to do it individually. Keep in mind if a majority of them are the same, i.e 9 of your 15 are to have 6 measures in each line, but other staves are more or less, then use the global->layout setting and set them all to 9 for example - and only individually modify the remaining 6.

 

So we need to know more about how you want the final product to look like and whether the number of measure will be the same for all instruments or not.

 

 

 

 

My workflow for full flexiblity is such..... as an example lets say I have 4 instruments ( Piano, bass, horns, guitar).

note:

In the filter dropdown by default - you will have "all instruments" and instrument parts for the 4 above. You can format these if you choose to do so, but it will have the limitations described as advantages to score set above.

 

I create at least 5 score sets ( an all instruments score set (ss), piano (ss), bass (ss), horns (ss), guitar (ss) - and more combinations of (ss) if needed, such as a horns+piano or guitar+bass+piano score set. Then applying formatting (such as line breaks) to the score sets, affect all instruments in the set and does not need to be done individually.

 

remember too - you can use the layout tool to drag measure up / down from one staff to another staff.

 

Your last question regarding, extra space after line break can be achieved by modifying the local margin for each staff system. If you want to change them all for all staves then use the global margins. For the local ones you hover over the very end of the staff with the layout tool and click drag to the left or right. Is this what you are asking....

[valve]

I should have gotten back to you sooner on this, but I just wanted to say -- major major thank you for taking the time to write up that post. Extremely informative. I seriously appreciate the help, mate!