Apple Logic Pro 9 - Manual (Page 977)

One solution is to use a staff style with a main voice and a secondary voice. The parameters
for the main voice should be set as you would a nonpolyphonic style. The secondary
voice is set to channel 16, and is displayed without automatic rests:
• The stem, tie, and tuplet directions for the main voice are set to Auto, which is necessary
for the proper notation of unison parts. No MIDI channel is defined for the main voice,
so all notes with a channel other than 16 are assigned to the main voice. As long as no
notes or rests with MIDI channel 16 are used, the score display looks the same as with
a simple, nonpolyphonic staff style.
• For the second voice, the stem, tie, and tuplet direction parameters are set to Down,
and the automatic rest display is turned off (Hide). Only MIDI channel 16 note events
are assigned to this voice.
The following additional steps are necessary to improve the score’s appearance:
• Rests in the second voice need to be inserted manually where needed. The MIDI channel
of inserted rests must match the second voice’s channel (16, in this case). You can edit
this in the Event List.
• In the polyphonic passages, the stems of the main voice need to be forced upward by
selecting the corresponding notes, and changing their individual stem parameters.
See
Using Note Attributes to Change Individual Notes .
An advantage of this approach is that you don’t need to worry about MIDI channels
during recording or input, and notes won’t disappear unintentionally. There is, however,
the disadvantage that the Voice Separation tool cannot be used to assign notes to voices.
Other applications for this method would include the display of beamed grace notes,
occasional polyphony in a guitar part, or the indication of rhythmic accents above or
below beat slashes in rhythm section parts.
Don’t forget that you can add further voices to a staff, to display more complex parts (up
to 16).
Using Mouse Input in Polyphonic Staff Styles
Mouse input into polyphonic staff styles is very easy, if you turn on View > Explode
Polyphony (also available as a key command). This forces all voices to be displayed on
separate staffs, regardless of staff style settings. (The other voice parameters remain valid.)
If you insert a note into a staff style that uses MIDI channels for voice separation, it is
automatically assigned the corresponding MIDI channel (of the staff that you add the
note to). Following input, turn off the Explode Polyphony setting. All voices are displayed
correctly in one staff, as per the staff style settings.
977 Chapter 31 Working with Notation