Time and tempo

Time signatures and how their eighths are grouped, tempo marks and the shuffle feel.

Available on iPad, iPhone and Mac.

Time signatures

With the Measure tool, select the bar where the time changes and choose Time Sig in the bars’ toolbar.Put the cursor in the bar where the time changes and choose Score › Time Signature (⇧T). The Time Signature dialog:

• Common: 4/4, 3/4, 2/4, 6/8, 2/2, 3/8, 5/4, 7/8, 9/8, 12/8, 5/8 and 6/4, in one tap.
• Custom: Beats, from 1 to 32, over Value, a whole note to a sixty-fourth (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 or 64).

Apply sets it from that bar until the next change, in every track.

How eighths are grouped

Eighths Grouping, in the same dialog, says how eighth notes are beamed in the bar: the size of each group, in eighths, up to four groups separated by hyphens, the pattern starting again until the bar is full. 2 beams 4/4 in pairs, 3 beams 6/8 in threes, 2-2-3 beams 7/8 as two, two and three, and 3-2 beams 5/8 as three then two. A common signature fills it in for you; change it before Apply.

Tempo marks

In Edit, put the cursor in the bar and choose Attach › Tempo.Put the cursor in the bar and choose Score › Tempo Marker (⇧⌘T). The Tempo dialog:

• Common: tempos from 60 to 200 beats a minute, in one tap.
• BPM: any tempo from 20 to 399, typed or stepped.
• Beat: what a beat is, Quarter or Quarter Dotted (for 6/8 and 12/8, felt in dotted quarters).

Apply puts the mark at the start of the bar, replacing one already there; the score plays at that tempo from there until the next mark.

Shuffle

Shuffle, in the Tempo dialog, plays the eighths or the sixteenths unevenly, long then short, without writing them as triplets: Straight (none), Light, Medium or Hard Eighth Shuffle, and the same three for sixteenths. It holds from the tempo mark on, like its tempo.