Rhythmic Subdivisions Plug-in

How to get there

From the Menu, choose Note, Beam, and Rest Editing, and then Rhythmic Subdivisions.

What it does

The Rhythmic Subdivisions plug-in provides a method of easily entering measures of repeated notes. The Rhythmic Subdivisions plug-in will go through all the note entries in the selected region, subdividing those entries into a smaller rhythmic value. The result will be a number of repeating note entries replacing the original entry. If you wish, you may specify that only entries with a certain range of rhythmic durations should be effected by the Rhythmic Subdivisions command.

• All Selected Entries · Entries Within Range of Durations · From · Through · EDUs. In the top half of the dialog you can specify whether the command should be applied to all note entries within the selected region, or if you would prefer only entries within a range of rhythmic values to be effected by the command. You can specify the rhythmic values by clicking on the durations in the palettes, or you can specify any arbitrary number of EDUs by typing a value into the text fields.
• Equal Values · Rhythmic Duration. In the bottom half of the dialog you can specify how you wish to subdivide the note entries in the current selection. If you select the Equal Values Radio Button, each note entry effected by the command will be divided into entries of shorter value. If you select the Rhythmic Duration Radio Button, each note entry effected by the command will be divided into entries of the duration you specify. Note that in the second case, if any entries in the current selection are already of the duration you specify (or shorter), they will not be subdivided.
• OK · Cancel. Click OK to subdivide the selection with the specified settings. Click Cancel to dismiss the dialog box with making any changes.

The two following examples show how the Rhythmic Subdivisions plug-in works. Starting with a selection as follows:

The Equal Durations option, set as follows:

would produce:

The Rhythmic Duration option, with the settings in the following example:

would result in:

Notes:

•  The Rhythmic Subdivisions plug-in beams the entries it creates according to the time signature in each measure effected by the command.
•  Rests are never subdivided. Accidentals are not repeated. Articulation markings and other note details are not copied.
• When using the Equal Values option the smallest subdivision you may enter is 2; the largest is 32. You may enter any whole number in this range. The plug-in will generate tuplets if necessary. The plug-in will also generate nested tuplets properly if the selection contained tuplets before the plug-in was executed and the subdivision value is not 2, 4, 8, 16, or 32.
• When using the Rhythmic Duration option, you can generate tuplets by entering the appropriate number of EDUs into the text field (for instance, 341 EDUs will generate eighth-note triplets). Care must be taken in using this option if the selection contains tuplets before execution, since tuplet markings already present in the document will not be removed. Instead, the Rhythmic Subdivisions plug-in will generate a nested tuplet with an effective duration close to the value you specified.
• Tuplet markings generated by the Rhythmic Subdivisions plug-in are always rhythmically correct. However, in cases where multiple interpretations are possible (for instance, subdividing a whole note into twelve equal values), you may need to adjust the tuplet markings manually according to your needs.
• When using the Rhythmic Duration option, it is possible that some entries in the selection are shorter than the subdivision duration you specified. Simply ignore any other entries shorter than the chosen subdivision duration.