Re: Question about non-standard time signatures

[David Kastrup]

mclaren <address@hidden> writes:

> Okay, here's the deal -- I've been using non-standard time signatures in
> Lilypond. They work fine as long as everything is in the same time
> signature. Here's an example using the meter 657/66:

[...]

> Anyway. What I want is to have 657/66 in the top staff in the time of
> 888/221. But when I try to do that, both time signatures wind up turning
> into 888/221:

[...]

> That's not right and I don't get why Lilypond is not working
> correctly. I put in \time 657/66 for the top staff and \time 888/221
> for the bottom staff.  Why doesn't this work?  It works fine with
> regular time signatures, for example \time 5/4 in the top staff and
> \time 4/4 in the bottom staff.

No, it doesn't.  Please check out
<http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.18/Documentation/notation/displaying-rhythms#polymetric-notation>
for the necessary code in various polymetric situations.

> And please don't tell me "It's because you need to use
> \scaleDurations."  No I don't.

You will not be able to avoid producing output equivalent to
\scaleDurations, and \scaleDurations is the simplest way to do it.  So
there is no point in not using it.

> All I need is to use \tuplet 6/5 and \tuplet 11/9 for the tuplets in
> the top staff and \tuplet 13/11 and \tuplet 17/11 in the bottom staff.
> \scaleDurations is completely unnecessary because you only get those
> weird time signatures because of the broken tuplets combined with
> regular quarter notes.

I am afraid that you will have to make up your mind on whether you want
to learn or to lecture about LilyPond when discussing your problem on
the user list.

-- 
David Kastrup