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Topic: When you wish upon a ......... (Read 4547 times) previous topic - next topic

When you wish upon a .........

I wish that I could control which items are affected by the persistent note tool. For example, I would like to lock in the stem direction and not sharps or flats.

Re: When you wish upon a .........

Reply #1 –
I agree that selective control over tool persistence would be useful. However, the example you cite doesn't require this -- the note direction buttons are already persistent, remaining in effect until you change them.

Re: When you wish upon a .........

Reply #2 –
Yes, the ubiquity of persistence can be a pain sometimes!

For example, you rarely want dots or accidentals to be persistent, but if you turn persistence on for some other reason, you have to remember to turn them off every time. For this reason, I rarely use the persistence tool.

If we're on the subject of wishes (and it's sort of related to persistence), one useful trick that would save a lot of time would be the ability to define note-length "patterns". For example, music written in compound time (e.g. 6/8 - that is the right term, isn't it?), frequently has the repeated pattern crotchet, quaver (or quarter note, eighth note for you Americans). It would save a lot of time if the step editor automatically alternated the note lengths.

Mind you, that's a fairly esoteric request. What might work nearly as well is a method I liked in a sequencer I had on my Atari ST. There, if you tapped the space bar while holding the note down, the note length increased for one note only. A boon for us useless keyboard players that have no hope of recording in real time.

Re: When you wish upon a .........

Reply #3 –
How about this as a proposal for persistence handling: hang onto only the items that have been selected when invoking the persistence tool. So if you have, say, accents (only) selected when clicking the tool persistence button, then you'll get a series of accented notes, with all other attributes (accidentals, dotted time, etc.) only in effect for the current note.

Re: When you wish upon a .........

Reply #4 –
I like that idea even better. A sort of 'fluid' persistence.
Robin,like you I don't record in real time, but tap away at the (computer) keyboard. I find it easiest to Cut/paste most repeating rhythms, then go back and change the pitches. Unfortunately, if the rhythm is a triplet containing chord note, you have to delete an individual pitch if you want to change it, or its accidental. Now, here's the rub...
You have to "un" triplet it before you can add the note back in,then "re" triplet it. It's enough to give you Chalfonts!

Re: When you wish upon a .........

Reply #5 –
Alternating patterns and triplets are good candidates for a macro - enter as a series of same duration notes then invoke the macro to change the durations/beam/tripletize whatever!
(Why ever did $soft drop the macro recorder for Win95)?

Re: When you wish upon a .........

Reply #6 –
On the subject of macros, I use a very useful shareware program called Macro Magic, to be found at www.iolo.com.

It's far more powerful than the old MS recorder (which I found unuseable). I haven't tried it with NWC as yet, but that's only because I never thought of it.

Re: When you wish upon a .........

Reply #7 –
I found macros really really useful for composition.
I gave up on M$ recorder when I went to Win 95, (though the 3.1 recorder does actually work, sort of).
I sometimes wish NWC would have its own macro recorder for keystrokes etc. But a third party recorder would probably be just as handy.

Re: When you wish upon a .........

Reply #8 –
Hey, Art!

Stem direction is NOT, repeat NOT controlled by the persistent note tool! It is persistent by itself, when activated - unless we don't have the same version of NoteWorthy...

As for the persistent note tool, it would be nice to have a selective option for each selection; for example, if you want legatos, or grace notes, or marcatos for a long time, and NOT accidentals caught with them, well, if there were two options, say "," for staccatos, and <shift>+",", or (') for persistent staccatos, it would just be an improvement, without fracturing your skulls over macros!

Opinions?...

P.S.: Art, I totally agree with you, as for the triplet chord members!!!