Score tab not showing all instruments. Need to export to PDF

I'm having a really hard time exporting this piece for Orchestra, to PDF so I can share it with a peer musician and get his feedback on the orchestration.

I have already tried the Camera Snapshot technique to no success. That method is just clunky and inefficient.

I have tried clicking on Print, and then Save as PDF, but the document is not displaying all of the instruments on the page. It's showing less than half of them and then the page just "eats" the rest of them.

I checked the score tab again and it is in fact, not displaying all of the instruments on the page. I have a total of 34 instruments, but the page is only displaying 8!!!!

How do I instruct Logic to please, display each and every one of the instruments on the Score page??

The print and save as PDF is the correct method. However, you need to create a score set. A score set is a set of one or more instruments in your orchestration with localized formatting (meaning independent from other score sets) associated with only that score set. You can have a score set for each instrument, for subsets of instruments or for the entire score. In your case and just to get the results you are asking for without too much explaination - I would create a score set which includes all instruments ( Open the score set window->New->New complete set. It will be called *complete set - you can rename it if you like.

Click on the score ( give it focus) and go up to the filter box in the inspector and select the score set you just created. You now should see all your instruments... If you need to shrink it to fit on one page - go back to the score set editor, select *completed set or whatever you named it and lower the scale parameter in the upper right corner until the score fits on the page the way you want it. Depending how and where you click on the score itself can change which score set is active - so anytime things don't like the way you expect - check the inspector and ensure the *complete set is the active score set. If you want to upload your project, I can take a look if the above doesn't help you achieve your result. PS. the camera snapshot is legacy and left over from the very very early days of Logic. It is sort of an old way of doing a screen snapshot.

The print and save as PDF is the correct method. However, you need to create a score set. A score set is a set of one or more instruments in your orchestration with localized formatting (meaning independent from other score sets) associated with only that score set. You can have a score set for each instrument, for subsets of instruments or for the entire score. In your case and just to get the results you are asking for without too much explaination - I would create a score set which includes all instruments ( Open the score set window->New->New complete set. It will be called *complete set - you can rename it if you like.

Click on the score ( give it focus) and go up to the filter box in the inspector and select the score set you just created. You now should see all your instruments... If you need to shrink it to fit on one page - go back to the score set editor, select *completed set or whatever you named it and lower the scale parameter in the upper right corner until the score fits on the page the way you want it. Depending how and where you click on the score itself can change which score set is active - so anytime things don't like the way you expect - check the inspector and ensure the *complete set is the active score set. If you want to upload your project, I can take a look if the above doesn't help you achieve your result. PS. the camera snapshot is legacy and left over from the very very early days of Logic. It is sort of an old way of doing a screen snapshot.

Alright... I did everything you said. I created a New Score Set, I lowered the scale parameter to 50 and now I could see more instruments, but still not all of them. I tried lowering the scale parameter even more and it wouldn't let me! Logic won't let me lower the scale parameter below 50. So, I still can't get the score to display all the instruments.

At this point, I think I'm gonna have to upload the project here. But how do I do that?

save your project preferable as a package......

Compress or zip that file (right click on the logic file and select compress)

Click reply to this thread.

below the text box is an upload button.

Attach the file and press submit.

You might try the following;

For each staff style (different from score set) make the the font size a smaller point. (I suggest 4 or 5)

Then move the staves themselves closer to each other by simply pushing them up. At some point it becomes ugly and you don't want to do that. Then in page set up, go with a smaller size. I'm not sure about this.. sometimes it just takes what's there and makes it smaller and you don't get anything from it… Basically, balance all these techniques.

You might try the following;

For each staff style (different from score set) make the the font size a smaller point. (I suggest 4 or 5)

Then move the staves themselves closer to each other by simply pushing them up. At some point it becomes ugly and you don't want to do that. Then in page set up, go with a smaller size. I'm not sure about this.. sometimes it just takes what's there and makes it smaller and you don't get anything from it… Basically, balance all these techniques.

Ok, this is confusing.... The Font size? Font as in Text? I don't understand. There is no text in the score. Did you mean Font as in the actual Notes? If so, how exactly does one do that?

save your project preferable as a package......

Compress or zip that file (right click on the logic file and select compress)

Click reply to this thread.

below the text box is an upload button.

Attach the file and press submit.

I googled the whole "save as package" thingie to see what is it you meant, and apparently that option is only available for Logic Pro X. I have Logic 9, so it doesn't seem like I have that option. I've googled for it, but I've gotten nothing.

Please Click this link to add your signature and your Logic and OS versions

ucp.php?i=profile&mode=signature

If you are using Logic 9 - upload the .logic file. Have you consider reading or watching some tutorials on scoring in Logic Pro? - There are a few good books and videos on the subject - I highly suggest this if you plan on scoring a bit more and to give you a better understanding of how it all works.

Yes, I have looked up tutorials on youtube, but there are only a couple that are about what I'm dealing specifically with (The others are just about how to notate and stuff like that). It's really frustrating that even googling about most of these things give up no results. There seems to be little information (at least for free) about the kind of issues I'm having specifically. That's why I ended up resorting to this forum.

I have opened your file in Logic 9. You have 34 tracks. Each is assigned to the Piano score style, which has two staves. So, per page of score, you have 68 staves. That number of staves could not physically fit on a common size page and remain legible to a conductor.

Your present layout uses multiple tracks per instrument to accommodate articulations. This does make composition easier in Arrange, but eventually, to render a readable, acceptable score, instruments are collapsed into their own staves by family, not articulation.

Your present 50% setting allows for twenty four staves per page. If your instruments were correctly printed, you'd have about 22 staves. Even that would be tight on an 8 X 11 piece of paper. John William's "E.T." score has about 27 staves per page... but the page is fourteen inches tall. A standard printer page is 8.5 inches tall, and that may be your current setting. And yes, that does affect PDF printing.

If you set the page to "Tabloid Oversize," you could fit 41 staves on a page. On your first page, 38 of those staves would be blank. And that would leave 26 staves not on the page but still in the system.

As volovicg suggested, consider published resources. Jay Asher has a book on Scoring, and ski has a video tutorial series at MacProVideos. Your entire approach will change. Both are about Logic X, but the Score wing of Logic is essentially the same.

We all went through this, mate. Welcome to the fold. Everything gets better from here on. If you have a passion to do this, embrace learning the conventions of orchestral notation. Logic is routinely used by professional orchestrators. Be assured that it can handle a conductor's printout. But there is a learning curve.

I have opened your file in Logic 9. You have 34 tracks. Each is assigned to the Piano score style, which has two staves. So, per page of score, you have 68 staves. That number of staves could not physically fit on a common size page and remain legible to a conductor.

 

Your present layout uses multiple tracks per instrument to accommodate articulations. This does make composition easier in Arrange, but eventually, to render a readable, acceptable score, instruments are collapsed into their own staves by family, not articulation.

 

Your present 50% setting allows for twenty four staves per page. If your instruments were correctly printed, you'd have about 22 staves. Even that would be tight on an 8 X 11 piece of paper. John William's "E.T." score has about 27 staves per page... but the page is fourteen inches tall. A standard printer page is 8.5 inches tall, and that may be your current setting. And yes, that does affect PDF printing.

 

If you set the page to "Tabloid Oversize," you could fit 41 staves on a page. On your first page, 38 of those staves would be blank. And that would leave 26 staves not on the page but still in the system.

 

As volovicg suggested, consider published resources. Jay Asher has a book on Scoring, and ski has a video tutorial series at MacProVideos. Your entire approach will change. Both are about Logic X, but the Score wing of Logic is essentially the same.

 

We all went through this, mate. Welcome to the fold. Everything gets better from here on. If you have a passion to do this, embrace learning the conventions of orchestral notation. Logic is routinely used by professional orchestrators. Be assured that it can handle a conductor's printout. But there is a learning curve.

Hehe... I had deleted the original file I uploaded and I was gonna replace it by a file with nothing but one note, but the same orchestration, because I decided I didn't wanna make my work public, just out of caution.... but I guess I was too late

Trust me, I have nothing against learning the conventions of orchestral notation. That's why I'm here. But that takes time (By the way, thanks for the recommendations on stuff to read) In the meantime, I'm trying to solve this problem right now, if possible. You seemed to be telling me more or less what I could do, but I'm not sure I understood. So you're saying that if I basically change the staff setting so that I have a single staff per instrument, this whole problem will be solved? Is it as simple as that, or is that just part of the solution?

Also, where is this "Tabloid Oversize" option?

" So you're saying that if I basically change the staff setting so that I have a single staff per instrument, this whole problem will be solved?

You have 34 tracks. If you condensed them to a single staff, you'd have 34 staves. That's still too many. More importantly, no one reads staves according to articulation. They are notated according to instruments.

You have to collapse the multiple articulations down to one staff per instrument. Staccato and legato do not get separate staves. If it's a violin, put it on a violin staff. This is going to take some cutting and pasting on your part. As I said, it's easier to compose with separate articulations per track, but it is a printing apocalypse -- as you have demonstrated.

Then, remove the redundant tracks. For example, French Horn legato has two tracks with the same name.

The template attached *begins* this process. I did not listen to the piece. I only looked at the first page. The attached template has all notes deleted. But it coalesces the instruments into a beginning layout.

Piccolo / flute, horns, trumpets and trombones do not always need two staves, but I did use them here.

There is no "pop string ensemble" instrument. You should divide it among the strings you have for clarity's sake.

File > Page Setup > Paper Size > Tabloid Oversize (But it isn't necessary, and it may wind up making a PDF that does not fit on a monitor in one screen. Not sure there.)

Screenset 1 should show the "Revised" Score Set using 8.5 x 11.

None of this takes into account Staff Styles, which would create even more room.

The recommended resources assume a knowledge of orchestral layout.

Be well.

Template Revised.logic.zip

" So you're saying that if I basically change the staff setting so that I have a single staff per instrument, this whole problem will be solved?

 

You have 34 tracks. If you condensed them to a single staff, you'd have 34 staves. That's still too many. More importantly, no one reads staves according to articulation. They are notated according to instruments.

 

You have to collapse the multiple articulations down to one staff per instrument. Staccato and legato do not get separate staves. If it's a violin, put it on a violin staff. This is going to take some cutting and pasting on your part. As I said, it's easier to compose with separate articulations per track, but it is a printing apocalypse -- as you have demonstrated.

 

Then, remove the redundant tracks. For example, French Horn legato has two tracks with the same name.

 

The template attached *begins* this process. I did not listen to the piece. I only looked at the first page. The attached template has all notes deleted. But it coalesces the instruments into a beginning layout.

 

Piccolo / flute, horns, trumpets and trombones do not always need two staves, but I did use them here.

 

There is no "pop string ensemble" instrument. You should divide it among the strings you have for clarity's sake.

 

File > Page Setup > Paper Size > Tabloid Oversize (But it isn't necessary, and it may wind up making a PDF that does not fit on a monitor in one screen. Not sure there.)

 

Screenset 1 should show the "Revised" Score Set using 8.5 x 11.

 

None of this takes into account Staff Styles, which would create even more room.

 

The recommended resources assume a knowledge of orchestral layout.

 

Be well.

 

[attachment=0]Template Revised.logic.zip[/attachment]

Thank you so much for all your tips. I was aware about some of those things (Such as, there not being a "Pop String Ensemble Instrument" or the fact that Instruments aren't originally separated by articulation), but in my rush, I guess I forgot that if I want to make a PDF version for an actual orchestra to play, those things need to be changed.

The French Horn tracks are not redundant, though. I do want A total of four french horns. Each track is supposed to be for two French Horns (I say "Supposed to be" because even though this was my original intention, I may have included more than 2 voices per track, which I have to correct)

The "Page Setup" option in the file tab is not active to be clicked on, though. Any ideas on why that may be?

You would still only use one track for French Horns. This would be assigned to a two staff Score Style, as I demonstrated in the file. As you know, the horns are I through IV from top to bottom in the score, but as chords, I and III are high, II and IV are low.

Open a Score window, and then "Page Setup" should appear. Both this and "Print..." will be grayed out if no Score window is present.