Condense/Expand Feature

[Fourniture]

Your idea

I would like Musescore to have a condense/expand feature that functions similar to Sibelius and Dorico. The user can select a chord (in one voice or in many; it should not matter), select a corresponding number of staves, and then expand it so that each note of the chord is assigned to one staff. Condense works so that a number of parts/measures can be selected, and then a staff for them to be condensed on, and then they are written out in as many voices as are reasonable. (If more than five voices are required, the user receives an overload notice.)

Problem to be solved

Musescore does not have quick and easy features to do this, even though its competitors do. It would be an immensely useful feature; it is already much appreciated by those who have it. In addition, the condense feature would be a speedy (albeit lazy) way to create piano reductions of orchestral pieces at a minute's notice.

Prior art

No response

Additional context

I suggested condense/expand because the names explode/implode are already taken up, but a better name could certainly be found. It would be confusing for a user to see what looks like two synonymous options (explode/expand and implode/condense), but Sibelius already uses explode/implode for the feature I am describing. Perhaps the current functions of Musescore's explode/implode could be renamed...

Checklist

• [X] This request follows the guidelines for reporting issues
• [X] I have verified that this feature request has not been logged before, by searching the issue tracker for similar requests

[MarcSabatella]

How is what you are describing different from the existing explode and implode (other than the fact that what you describe appears limited to a single chord whereas explode/implode work on ranges of any length)?

[Fourniture]

I apologize; I did not understand the handbook clearly enough in its description of these features. It appears Musescore can do what I described. However, I would suggest one improvement: It would be nice to select up to six parts, click implode, and all the parts are properly imploded on a new stave that the system has automatically created and named accordingly. In "Parts" the individual parts exist, and so does the new stave. In the full score, the individual parts are not hidden; instead, they no longer exist in the full score. However, this would be a non-destructive workflow: one could select the new stave (part) and click explode; the condensed part/stave would be removed, and everything would return to its original staves.