Empty bars shift-b rest

[Gareth_Glyn]

As I orchestrate a vocal score imported via MusicXML, and therefore doing a lot of copying, pasting, reducing, exploding and the like, I’m continually having to show bar rests using Shift-B>rest. This is no great imposition (though it’s not confined to bar rests: I’ve just had to temporarily shorten a tied note which left a minim ‘gap’ to make room for the command at the start of the bar), but I’m curious to know whether this behaviour - where empty bars appear where there were bar rests before the paste operation - is confined to MusicXML imports, and am wondering what is the exact operation I’m using that creates it. It seems to happen most often when I change a pasted downstem note into an upstem note in the same voice.

[Lillie_Harris]

Here’s a similar thread that might be useful -

Default Empty Bars Rests Missing In Some Staves

I’m copying and pasting notes from an xml file into a new score. Some empty bars in staves following the end of the copy and paste sections now have no default rests in them whilst other empty bars in some staves have them. I’ve checked that “Show bar rests in empty bars” in all options are selected in Layout Options. The only way I can get the default score with rests in empty bars on all staves is to delete all the following empty staves then re-add them which results in all empty bars in all…

Especially Leo’s reply -

Default Empty Bars Rests Missing In Some Staves

This is a fairly common problem specific to MusicXML imports. The first note of each flow will have the “Starts Voice” property turned on, and the last note in the flow will have the “Ends Voice” property turned on. The solution is to find the last note or rest before the bar rests disappear, select it and turn off the “Ends Voice” property. Then find the first note/rest after a period of no rests, select it and turn off its “Starts Voice” property.

[Gareth_Glyn]

Many thanks for the explanation, Lillie, and to you, Leo, for your solution.

[pianoleo]

For next time, it might be worth going to Preferences > MusicXML Import, scrolling down to the Rests section and unticking the Rest Visibility setting. I’m pretty sure that this controls the behaviour.

[Gareth_Glyn]

Oh wow, that’s a game-changer. Thanks so much.