The default gap between adjacent noteheads in different voices is too large for my taste, and it’s value of 1/16 spaces does not reflect the actual gap. In this screenshot, the value has been set to 0, which is still too large for some situations:
If you drag a stem to the “wrong side” of the note, it seems that when the gap is set to 0 the two stems are touching, so the gap really is “0”.
Should it should be possible to make the stems lie on top of each other?
Thanks, Rob. It does appear to be an optical illusion brought on by the angle of the notehead.
Even so, this illustrates the need for the ability to set a negative values for adjacent seconds in different voices. The ‘adjacent noteheads’ option, which clearly is supposed to cover all intervals, really isn’t appropriate for this. Also, it does in fact allow for negative values in the dialogue, but below 0 it doesn’t do anything, which seems a bit inconsistent.
In general we don’t allow negative values for these kinds of options. Probably the dialog shouldn’t make it seem that such a value might work. The way the processor that uses this value is structured, it wouldn’t be trivial to allow negative gaps, unfortunately.
Thanks, Daniel, that’s both interesting and disappointing. Does this mean that anyone wanting smaller gaps for seconds (or other intervals for that matter) would be dependent on a different music font with less angled noteheads?
Leave this one with me. I’ll see if there’s something we can do to allow negative values to be used without upsetting the rest of what the processor does.
Thank you very much, Daniel!
May I just add that a dedicated option for this particular case is an appropriate addition to the Engraving rules, since it requires a different setting than notes in different voices placed at a unison or crossing intervals and in different colums.
Sorry, I missed this question. Yes, many publishers do this, at least when the nothead angle is pretty steep.
Finale also overlaps seconds slightly, to make the stems perfectly aline.
