Part names are not synced with instrument names / mixer

[amijaishalev]

Issue type

Other type of issue

Bug description

If you edit the name of an instrument then the part name is not updated to match, and vice versa.

The problem is particularly bad when changing instrument numbers (e.g. renaming "Flute 2" to "Flute 1"). After renaming the instrument, the part will still be called "Flute 2", which is confusing.

Also, if you subsequently add another flute instrument then the newly generated part will also be called "Flute 2", so now you have two parts both called "Flute 2".

This file had some instruments that I deleted and created new ones. The new instrument are numbered in addition to the old (deleted ones), I then changed the name of the instruments to what I need but in exportation MU does not update the changed names.

Steps to reproduce

1. create new file with two instruments (Flute for ex.)
2. add another instrument of the same type (you should see now flute 1, 2 ,3)
3. delete flute 1
4. rename flutes 2, and 3 as 1 and 2
5. open the Parts dialog or the Export dialog
6. you should see flute 2 (instead of one) and flute with no number. Although in the file they are correctly named flute 1 and 2.

MuseScore Version

4.0.2

Regression

I don't know

Operating system

MacOs 13.2.1

Additional context

Instrument names are displayed inside the:

• score
• Instruments panel
• Staff/part properties dialog.

Part names are displayed inside the:

• Parts dialog
• Export dialog.

[shoogle]

This is tricky to solve because it is often desirable to have parts named differently to instruments (e.g. if the part contains multiple instruments), which means we can't just link the part name to the instrument name all the time.

However, we could potentially implement a partial link like this:

• If instrument "X" is renamed to "Y", MuseScore will look for any parts called "X" and rename those to "Y" as well.
• If part "X" is renamed to "Y", instrument names are not affected.

[amijaishalev]

Otherwise is there a way to change the part name? I couldn’t find it anywhere, it seems that once it is created it’s fixed.

[shoogle]

is there a way to change the part name?

In the Parts dialog, use the three dots button on the right of each part to rename the part.

[amijaishalev]

Great! thanks, I didn't see that.
In this case my issue is irrevelant, since it should be changed from the part section.
Amazing work on MU4 by the way!

[shoogle]

I think it is a valid issue, though obviously not as serious as if the name couldn't be changed at all.

At some point we will improve instrument naming and numbering to make it even more automatic than it is now, although still just as overridable. We should try to do the same for part names as well.

[sammik]

If I remember correctly, this was changed by design, when multiple parts bugs were fixed #14288 ?

[shoogle]

I'm not sure. It looks like names of parts were unlinked from instrument names because the automatic logic was causing problems. But maybe we could come up with better logic, or maybe when the user edits an instrument name we could offer to take them to the Parts dialog so that they can check the part names themself.

[henkdegroot]

In the Parts dialog, use the three dots button on the right of each part to rename the part.

Ì only wish that renaming Parts actually would be possible. Currently it works only when you at least have generated all parts once. If you only go into the dialog and rename the parts, save the score and re-open, then it reverts back to the initial name used. Hoping the name sync'ing gets included in the release as it will make my life a lot easier. Currently have to manually rename all instruments in 3 places...

[oktophonie]

Is there a reason why we can't do the following? (points 4 and 5, at the very least, which are straight up bugs):

1. Parts have a default name, until it is explicitly changed. That name is taken from the long name of the instrument in the score. If that name is changed in the score, then (assuming no explicit change has been made to the part name), the name of the part also changes to match. This change should also happen in the Mixer. If the instrument name is deleted then the long name from the relevant instrument definition is used.

2. Changing the part name, in the Parts dialog, does not affect the score; the name of the part reflects how it's labelled, and could be anything (a list of instruments, something like 'Percussion', the name of the person playing the part, whatever); moreover, what instruments it actually contains can be changed at any time. However, as the part has now been given an explicit name, that name is now fixed and won't change if instruments are renamed in the score. (I wonder whether the UI could reflect whether a part has been given an explicit name or not; maybe that's overkill.)

3. A user can, of course, take an auto-generated part and show additional instruments, and possibly even hide the one that was there originally. Having the name of the part sync'd to the name of that instrument in the score becomes meaningless if that instrument doesn't even appear, but I'm not sure what we can sensibly do about that.

4. If a part name is changed in the Parts dialog then that name should actually be saved(!), even if the part has not yet actually been generated by by being opened for the first time. At the moment, the label will appear to change but will not persist through a save/close/reopen - actually reverting to the instrument definition name. This is an obvious bug to fix, regardless.

5. Once a part is opened, renaming it by changing the text label at the top is similarly deceptive: it appears to change, but after a save/close/reload will revert back to the name in the Parts dialog. Either we a) link these properly so that changing one will change the other, which is preferable, or b) if that's technically problematic for some reason, we should make the text in the part uneditable for now. Also a bug.

6. A newly-created part is called "Part" (as currently). It can't derive from any instrument name since we don't yet know what instruments it might contain. This is to be considered an 'explicit' name. (We could get all fancy and, instead, generate a default name according to the instrument(s) that are later added to it, but this is probably a bit too clever for now.)

[shoogle]

@oktophonie, those points all sound good to me!

4. Probably worth fixing right away.

5. Theoretically, the advantage to editing the part name in the score rather than in the Parts dialog is that the score allows individual text characters to formatted differently to other text characters, but I can't imagine ever wanting to do this in practice (at least not with the part name; it can sometimes be useful to do this with other text like the score title).

   A more practical reason to edit separately is because you want to use names like "Piano (Chappel 1885 layout)" or "Piano (with violin cue staff)" in the Parts dialog, but you want these to be displayed as just "Piano" in the sheet music. That could be solved by adding a part description field next to each part name in the Parts dialog.

   Also, a technical consideration is that the part name in the Parts dialog is also used as the file name of the part, which means certain characters are not allowed and it cannot match the names of other parts stored in the same directory. However, this could be solved by using a sanitised version of the part name as the file name and prefixing it with an ID number to ensure uniqueness.

6. It's certainly feasible to make the default name "Part" if there are no instruments, or the long name if there is an instrument. If there's more than one instrument then it becomes more tricky. We could combine the longs names somehow, or just use the name of the first instrument that has a full size staff. We could also use this algorithm to solve (3), where instruments are displayed or hidden after the part is created, including for parts that were automatically generated.

[mdeluca70]

I was directed over to this thread from a question I posted in the online forum - my apologies in advance for the length of this note, and I hope that these thoughts are helpful:

From what I can see, there seem to be a couple of different issues with how staff lines and parts are named in MS4.1. The first may be the use of the name "part", which appears at the top of the interface screen to open the "Parts Dialog", and also when right-clicking on a staff line to select "Staff/Part Properties". Because of this, there can be confusion when the word "part" is used - for these comments, I will use "staff line" to refer to a single instrument line that appears in the main conductor score, and "part" to refer to what would be printed for individual players in an orchestra. For clarity, today right-clicking on a "staff line" allows you to open the Staff/Parts Properties window.

While there is a clear connection between staff lines and parts, today they are named / modified using two different interfaces. The thread above proposes ways to automatically populate one field when manually changing another, etc., and also points out that there may be circumstances where the instrument name on staff line (in the main score) would be different from the name given to that Part. But this situation is further complicated by the fact that there really can be two different types of "parts" - parts directly associated with a staff line ("Staff Parts"), and parts that manually combine two or more staff lines, such as making a percussion part that includes Bass Drum, Cymbal, and Triangle ("Multi-instrument Parts").

Here's a proposal that may allow this to be managed in a more integrated way:

As there is today, let there be a one-to-one relationship between staff lines and staff parts. For every instrument that appears in the main score, a Staff Part is created. But the option to rename the Staff Part would move into a new input field in the Staff/Part Properties dialog (in addition to the long and short instrument names that appear there now). This would allow users to modify all of this information from a single location - when you add an instrument, you can change how the instrument is named on the main score (viewed by the conductor) as well as the part viewed by the individual musician from a single location.

In addition, the Staff/Part Properties dialog could add a second new field to modify the name that appears for this staff line in the mixer. I have been unable to find a way to change / override this name today, and adding it here would again consolidate these inputs to a single location.

For the Parts Dialog screen, these Single-Instrument Parts would be listed as they are now, but could only be deleted by deleting the instrument from the main score. In addition, it would not be possible to add additional instruments to the Single-Instrument Part - it's always 1:1. Instead of selecting "Rename" for the Part, this option would say "Staff / Part Properties" and would point to the Staff/Properties window discussed just above.

The Parts Dialog screen would, however, allow you to create Multi-Instrument parts - parts that include two or more instruments. (There's no need to create single instrument parts, as they are always created when a new instrument is added to the main score.) This could operate very similarly to the current Parts Dialog - create the new part, add two or more instruments, rename, etc.

As noted above, the key benefit here is that this scheme allows users to modify all information associated with an instrument (how it is named on the staff line in the conductor's score, how it is named in the mixer, and how it is named in the part) from a single location, while preserving the ability to create and appropriately name multi-instrument parts for distribution.

Lastly, I know that work is underway to allow voices in a staff line to be "exploded" into separate staff lines, or for separate staff lines to be "imploded" to a single line - so you could start with separate lines for "Horn 1" and "Horn 2", but then combine to a single line for "Horn 1 & 2" (as often appears in conductor scores). As I am not familiar with the specifics of this work, I can't comment on how this this proposal would work (or need to be modified to work) with that new feature.

[toto-polo]

Same problem here. Instrument name, if renamed doesn't match the mixer name. When you attempt to do some mixing with several instruments, that's pretty difficult to do so.

2 possibilities :

• Link instrument score name to its mixer track name (as in all DAWs),
• Let user to manually rename tracks in the mixer;

Thanks for all work developpers are doing !

[hypehuman]

is there a way to change the part name?

In the Parts dialog, use the three dots button on the right of each part to rename the part.

This doesn't work for me, using OS: Windows 10 Version 2009 or later, Arch.: x86_64, MuseScore version (64-bit): 4.2.1-240230937, revision: github-musescore-musescore-d757433. When I rename the part as instructed, the name on the Mixer does not change. Furthermore, when I save and reload the score, the Part name gets reverted to what it was before I renamed it.

It looks like this is a separate bug, reported here: https://musescore.org/en/node/360213
There is apparently a partial workaround that allows the Part name to update, but not the Mixer name:

Henk De Groot • Feb 5, 2024 - 17:09
I believe there currently is an issue with the part names and how they should sync/when they should update.
What works, at this moment, is to rename the part name (in the Parts dialog) and then click Open All.
The Open All causes the names to update and saved into the file.
After this, save the score.
You can now close the parts if you don't want to see the extra tabs.

Perhaps the Part and Mixer name not syncing is yet another separate bug?

[cbjeukendrup]

As recently discussed in #21839, Mixer names are (completely unrelated to part names and) separate from instrument names. Mixer names are yet another set of names, and currently the UI to edit them is nonexistent.