Assign staff styles to tracks

You can assign a different staff style to each track in the score. Changing staff styles allows you to control the display of individual staffs in the score, and quickly create parts for transposing instruments.

Each track has a default staff style, which appears in the Staff Style pop-up menu in the Region inspector. When you start working on a new project, or create a project template, you can change this setting for tracks that will use a specific staff style, so that regions recorded on these tracks are displayed with the correct staff style with no further editing.

If you choose Auto Style from the Staff Style pop-up menu, the track is assigned a staff style that fits the range of notes in the regions on the track. For example, if the regions consist of notes played below middle C, a Bass staff style is assigned to the track. Two-handed parts (with notes both above and below middle C) are assigned a Piano staff style.

Note: Auto Style can only be chosen in the Region inspector, and does not appear in the list of staff styles in the Score Editor Region inspector.

When Show Advanced Tools is selected in the Advanced preferences pane, you can assign staff styles to tracks in your project and edit staff styles.

When Additional Score Options is selected in the Advanced preferences pane, you can assign staff styles to individual MIDI regions as well as to tracks, allowing you to use multiple styles on a single staff. This can be used to alternate between fully notated passages and “improvised” passages using only beat slashes and chord symbols, for example.

Assign a staff style to a track

Do one of the following:

  • Click the staff in the Score Editor, then choose a staff style from the Staff Style pop-up menu in the Region inspector.

    Figure. Style pop-up menu in the Display Parameter box.

    You can select multiple tracks, and assign the same staff style to all selected tracks.

  • In Linear view, click the clef on the staff, then choose a staff style from the shortcut menu.

Set the track to determine the staff style automatically

  1. In the Tracks area, select one or more tracks.

  2. In the Region inspector, choose Staff Style > Auto Style.

Assign a staff style to a selected MIDI region

  • Select the region in the Score Editor, then choose a staff style from the Staff Style pop-up menu in the Region inspector.