Nested Tuplets Panel

Choose Tools in the menu bar.
Choose Nested Tuplets Panel... from the Tools menu.

The Nested Tuplets panel displays controls that allow you to alter or add nested tuplets to selected notes. Nested tuplets are rhythmic groupings in which a tuplet (such as a triplet or quintuplet) is contained inside an existing tuplet - for example you might have a triplet rhythm with one element of the triplet also being subdivided into a triplet.

In order to use the Nested Tuplet Editor, enter the notes with the correct rhythmic values already calculated, then select the images so that they are loaded into the editor. Adjust the main and secondary groupings and assign the tuplet values you want to appear above the groupings. The durations are not modified -- just the appearance of the image is altered.

Since this is a somewhat complicated series of steps, it probably makes sense to go through a detailed example. The rhythmic passage I want to create is the following:
A series of quintuplet eighths were the first and last eighths are (nested) triplets.

In order to create a tuplet group, all the notes must be entered with their correct rhythmic values. In the example above, we have to calculate the actual rhythmic value of the nested tuplet groupings - since there are 3 sixteenth notes in the time of 2 sixteenth notes and the eigth note value is (itself) 5 in the time of 4 eighth notes, we multiply the values together to get (5 X 3) / (4 X 2) to give us a rhythm of 15/8 -- if we entered constant 16th notes thoughout this figure there would be 15 notes in the time of 8. We select the variable tuplet checkbox at the top of the score and adjust the increment buttons until it reads 15 in the time of 8:

We enter the 3 sixteen notes, then switch to the quintuplet check box (since the middle three notes are 5 in the time of 4 - they have no subdivisions) enter the 3 eighth notes, then switch back to 15 in the time of 8 to enter the last 3 sixteenth notes. Tuplets will be formed - though these are all incomplete tuplets...

Select the entire beam group and click on the Load Selected Data button on the Nested Tuplets Panel. The notes will be loaded into the panel with each note holding a different position in the editor (all notes appear without beams).

Now you can set the precise characteristics of the nested tuplets you want to appear. The Base Tuplet should be set to 5 in the time of 4 -- use the increment buttons to adjust the values or, if it is a common tuplet, click one of the numbers to the left of the increment buttons. In this case, clicking on the 5 arrow loads 5 in the time of 4 as the base tuplet.

Next, click on the notes you want included in each nested tuplet and set the values of the nested tuplets. In this case, there are two separate nested tuplets -- both are 3 in the time of 2. Click on the first 3 buttons of the first row of buttons to link those 3 notes and click on the the last three buttons in the second row of buttons to for the second nested triplet. The values of the nested tuplets are already set to 3 in the time of 2 so you don't have to modify them. The panel should now look like this:

Click on the Set Tuplet button to cause the nested tuplet to be set in your score. The Update Display button causes the tuplet display to be refreshed, and the Clear button clears the current tuplet display so a new tuplet can be loaded.

Below is a second, more complex example. In this case the base tuplet is 7 (16th notes) in the time of 4 and there are nested groups of 5 (16th notes) in the time of 4 and 4 (16th notes) in the time of 3. The actual rhythms include both sixteenth notes and eighth notes and there are some rests included in the passage. First, we calculate the duration of the first group -- which is (7 X 5) in the time of (4 X 4) or 35 in the time 16. We enter this value in the variable tuplet fields at the top of the score and enter a rhythm of eighth and sixteenth notes. The second tuplet group contains rhythmic values (7 X 4) in the time of (4 X 3) or 28 in the time of 12. We enter the remaining notes with this duration set. Once the notes are all entered, the passage should appear as:

We select and load this passage into the Nested Tuplet Editor and set the tuplets as below:

In the score, the updated tuplet figure should look like this:

- Remember to include each nested tuplet group in a different in the matrix of buttons below the display. If you have 3 tuplets within the base tuplet then you will need to employ 3 rows of the matrix.

- For help calculating the actual rhythmic values of complex tuplets, you can use the Tuplet pane in the Music Images Panel which allows you to enter both the base tuplet and nested tuplet values and it will calculate the actual duration of the nested tuplet.

- If you need to adjust your tuplet values at a later time, you can select the tuplet and use the Set Tuplet To or Set Outer Tuplet To menu items in the Modify / Tuplet menu. These menu items will alter the tuplet to the values currently set in the tuplet controls at the top of the score.