IWBNI there were a utility that could be used to convert rests of a given duration within a selected region to notes for which the notehead has been replaced by a specified rest character.

A pseudo-rest (i.e. a note for which the notehead is a rest, that is used in place of a normal rest) has the following advantages over a normal rest:

• It is possible to attach slurs, dashed slurs, glissandos, bends and tab slides to pseudo-rests. These smart shapes may not be attached to a normal rest.

 
• Stem connections may be defined to automatically control stemlet positioning on pseudo-rests. There is no way to control the horizontal or vertical position of a stemlet relative to a normal rest.

 
• Is is possible to use the notehead position special tool to adjust the horizontal position of a pseudo-rest relative to a stemlet. The notehead position special tool may not be used for stemmed rests.

This could be implemented by adding a menu item called Rests to Pseudo-Rests in the Change submenu of the MassEdit menu. This menu item would display a new dialog box called Rests to Pseudo-Rests that could contain the following controls:

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Rests to Pseudo-Rests Dialog Box
 
 

Rest Duration	Character Number for Pseudo-Rest Notehead
	Unbeamed	Beamed with Up Stem	Beamed with Down Stem
double whole
whole
half
quarter
1/8th		96	220
1/16th		170	222
1/32nd		198	224
1/64th		218	254
1/128th

Pseudo-Rest Notehead Font: [Set Font...]

Use Blank Custom Stems on:
[ ] Unbeamed Pseudo-Rests
[ ] Beamed Pseudo-Rests

Staff Position for Pseudo-Rest: -4

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In the table, one would enter a character number for each type of rest that is to be converted. Rest types for which no number is specified would not be converted. A specified character would be used for the notehead of the pseudo-rest for all rests of a given type. The Set Font button would be used to specify the font from which all pseudo-rest characters would be derived. The Staff Position for Pseudo-Rest control would be used to specify the vertical position of the note that is to be created in place of a normal rest when converting a normal rest to a pseudo-rest. The stem of the note that is created could be hidden by selecting the Use Blank Custom Stems checkbox options.

A similar utility could be provided to convert pseudo-rests back to normal rests.

Created: March 25, 2000
Last Updated: March 25, 2000
Version: Finale 2000b