I've doodled at the keyboard - fortunately caught by midi - a melody line which I would like to make the basis of a larger piece. It extends to some 42 bars of raw midi in 4/4 at about 120 bpm. But the key building blocks(phrases) are all 5/8; and the pauses between phrases are often 3/8 or 6/8; and then there are, late on, a couple of more elaborated runs which (if barred as entities) would probably be 11/8 or 13/8 or something.

It seems to me I've got 3 options:

1. force it all into the straitjacket of a single metre (and maybe expect to exercise some rubato)

2. analyse it by main stresses, and accept the constant shifting of time signature/meter that throws up

3. treat it more like plain-song - i.e. have as few bar lines as possible, and allow the pulse (moving between quarter notes and eight-notes) to reveal itself, maybe slightly differently in different playings.

I'm inclined to the third option; but (and this is the point of this posting) I'm then in the hands of Composer's outer parameters.
I.e. it looks to me as if Composer will not allow more than 20 beats of any denomination per bar - is that right ?
And when I tried 20/2 (as being apparently the largest allowable bar) it registered it in the score - but wouldn't play it.

I would be grateful if anyone could confirm the default limits of what Composer will allow. And also any work-rounds that might apply.

Sincerely

Ian G.