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Messages - hmmueller

501
General Discussion / Re: My (new, and long) NWC wishlist
Thanks for comments - especially those regarding scanning and MusicXML: When I have time, I'll certainly try them out ... at least out of interest, but maybe then for actual use!

... for the rest of my and our items, I hope to get from NWC/Eric at least a little by the way of replies ...

H.M.
502
General Discussion / Re: Beyond Bars Lyric sizes
Are you talking about the size of lyrics (so it says in the subject) or about text sizes in general (as you mention "text instructions" in your question)?

First of all, find out what you want or like: Just take a number of printed scores (I'd say at least 20; and preferably recent ones; and of course professional ones), decide which you like for their readability, measure the sizes they use - and there you are.
Most publishers have at least the first pages of scores available on the internet - often with water marks or the like to prevent copying, but that's of no concern to you.
Measuring font sizes is tricky - a standard ruler with millimeter granularity is not fine enough. But I think it should be easy to enlarge a pdf or a scanned page e.g. exactly by a factor of 5 (500%) and then measure the sizes.

Here is what "Behind Bars" says for lyrics (p.438): Regarding fonts, it says
Quote
Place the text below the vocal line, in roman type. Italic may be used to differentiate sounds that are not part of the literary text, such as mm and ah ...
And regarding size, it says:
Quote
TEXT SIZE
The text must be at a comfortable size to read easily. Do not reduce its size to accommodate lengthy syllables for short note-values. A good proprotion for the height of a lower-case letter (such as 'm') is one stave-space.
That's all there is (or I found).

In practice, I found that people in our choir are happy when I increase the font size for lyrics by one point from NWC's default sizes. A recent score of mine has a "staff metrics" of 15.5pt and a lyrics font size of 9.5pt, and no-one complained. Typically, I now go for 10pt for the lyrics size and even 11pt for some pieces, with correspondingly larger staff metrics.

Hope that helps a little ...

H.M.
503
General Discussion / My (new, and long) NWC wishlist
I have written a fair amount of NWC scores in the last 18 years - there are about 2300 .nwc and .nwctxt files on my computer, ranging from a few notes to some 50000 items in the largest ones, and almost all of them contain music sketched, arranged or composed by me - for organ, organ and violin, choir and solo vocalists, brass band, flute ensemble, many many crank organ arrangements (for more than 10 years the main purpose why I used NWC) and very few piano pieces. Recently, I also tried my hand at a few user tools and user plugins. So, I think I'm allowed to sketch a few ideas about what I'd like to see in NWC in the years to come. The ideas are grouped into 3 sections, "score creation", "graphic elements", and "playing".
I would think that these features - which, admittedly, range from quite small to visionary - would make NWC more interesting to a wider audience.


Score creation

C-1. Multi-staff selection would be very helpful. Alt-Shift+up/down are not yet used and are easily reached, but this is of course the smallest problem. One needs a definition of how to select items that overlap the selection boundary on other staffs. My expectation would be that wherever the boundary on the staff selected at first is also present, the selection will begin/end exactly there (so that also items on staffs far apart - e.g. with multi-rest staffs in between) get selected "equivalently". For all other objects, I am tolerant what happens.
I would expect that with such a multi-staff selection, one could at least
  • delete it
  • copy it and paste it somewhere else (with accepted shaky semantics if boundaries at source or target location do not line up exactly)
  • change properties (as with current single-staff selections)
I think it is sufficient to have only multi-staff selection over contiguous staffs - especially if the following feature C-2 is also supported.
Layered staffs are hard - one would probably expect them to be "selected together" - but what should happen if e.g. their copy target is not layered in the same fashion? Maybe copying a selection covering layered staffs is only allowed to be copied to a similarly layered staff group ...

C-2. Moving sets of layered staffs up and down together. A simple checkbox e.g. on the Edit menu could control this - doing Alt-E X to switch the "together/not together" option is simple enough.

C-3. "Overwrite mode" - this is customary in many other score editors: The score is implicitly or explicitly filled with (probably invisible) rests; writing of a note replaces the rest (or, most of the time, part of it) with the note. The main reason for this feature is that notes present later in the staff are not shifted - this is extremely helpful for some use-cases like actually composing pieces. It also mimics the way one writes on paper.

C-4. Extend all staffs (or all visible staffs) with invisible whole rests to the cursor position on some other staff. The reason for this feature is the same as C-3 - "write notes anywhere". >> It might be possible to do this as a user tool.

C-5. Staff splitting and combining: Split a staff into two layered staffs, and recombine two layered staffs if possible. >> I think this can be implemented as user tools.

C-6. Staffsig-copying Ctrl-A: With more and more useful Staffsig plugins, setting up a staff becomes more and more cumbersome or even "magic", especially for newbies. "New staff" (Ctrl-A) should create a new staff immediately below the active staff and copy over all the leading Staffsig items (clef, key, and Staffsig plugins) to the new staff (this could be controlled by an option "old-style Ctrl-A" or, like 2. above, by a sticky "Edit" checkbox).

C-7. Factory templates with useful Staffsig plugins: I do not know what the factory-provided templates look like (I have overwritten all of them), but I would expect them to have a host of Staffsig plugins on each staff: PageTxt, Acciaccatura, CueHeads, and maybe more provide standard features needed for even semi-professional scores.

C-8. Better MIDI import: The MIDI Import feature is too limited compared with modern DAWs. I would expect note lengths to remain as in the original MIDI file even when chords are created; and also that triplets are recognized correctly. >> It seems that a completely separate program could be developed for this purpose - after all, the nwctxt format is open and could be created by an arbitrary program.

C-9. Score scanning - "everyone has it" >> Also here, a separate program is sufficient. One could even consider to write a scan-to-MIDI program, with some encoding of notation artifacts in some extendible MIDI event (like text), so that this could be used by other MIDI-reading programs also. And maybe someone has even done this ...


Graphic elements

G-1. Reduced-size staffs.

G-2. Beams between staffs for keyed instruments are not too rarely used. Not having them is, unfortunately, a "missing feature".

G-3. Breves.

G-4. Placing arbitrary images into a score.

G-5. Correct sizing of accidentals and performance marks for cue notes (this probably would mean to have cue heads as a built-in feature).

Scanning through "Behind Bars" will probably unearth a few more features that are expected of a modern score editor (like the small rectangle notation of multi-rests, or numbered simile marks as used in brass band voices).


Playing

P-1. An option to indicate that accidentals are not significant on other octaves ...

P-2. ... and an option to treat double bars like single bars for flow control.

P-3. A builtin option when grace notes start to sound (before the beat or on the beat).

P-4. Explicit control about how the playing duration of notes is computed.

P-5. An "artificial player" - what Wallander's NotePerformer can do with Sibelius. Ok - that's a wide leap; but I'm allowed to have a dream :)


That's it. I think all this is doable. C-1, C-3, G-1 and then P-4 would be my favorites.

H.M.
504
Object Plugins / Re: Envelope.hmm (0.8) - supporting envelopes in NWC
Version 0.8 now has an added user tool for shifting envelopes points of a single controller.

I tried the oval presentation for Maestros (thanks Mike!), but I do not use them as I need a clear readability for the Maestro objects (their controller number is important); and as they should typically be on separate envelope staffs anyway, there is no need to distinguish them visually from texts.

And the version should now be 0.8 everywhere :)

H.M.

505
User Tools / Bug (or unfortunate behavior) in nwcItem:Get()?
Calling nwcItem:Get('ControllerName') on
Code: (nwc) [Select · Download]
|User|EnvelopeMaestro.hmm|Pos:-6.5|Class:StaffSig|Bottom:-6|Top:-1|ShowLocation:below|MinValue:60|Pen:dash|PenWidth:0.7|Controller:71|ShowAs:Blend|ControllerName:"Select by number"
yields '"Select by number"' - i.e., a string including the double apostrophes. As these are added by the serialization to the nwc or nwctxt file only for strings with spaces (the string '7:Volume', e.g., is serialized without double apostrophes), I would have expected that this "implementation detail" is not shown when calling :Get().

Also, an embedded \" is returned exactly like that in the string: as two characters, a backslash and a double apostrophe.

Altogether, right now I would have to do some postprocessing on :Get()'s result to get the actual value, wouldn't I?

H.M.
506
Object Plugins / Re: XText.hmm (0.5)
You're welcome.

In 0.5, I have added a justification 'Left and wide' to get left-justification and "preserve width" behavior. However, this shows that with multiline support, there is now an overlapping, or unclear, or muddled semantics for justifications: The "left" and "right" are used for both "justification relative to left side of text block" and "justification relative to plugin position". Therefore, the "left and wide" justification is actually a "right" justification with respect to the plugin's loction. But I'm not going to "correct" this (by introducing two independent "justifications"), mainly because the plugin right now needs all 32 possible properties; but also as there are already enough possibilities to format the text, I think - the workaround for other layouts is, as before, to use standard texts and placing them as needed.

H.M.
508
Object Plugins / Re: XText.hmm (0.3)
Version 0.3 now has multiline support.

It also has a properties dialog that looks like the control panel for a medium-sized nuclear reactor. I hope that people aren't put off by it, but I did not see any other way to get the necessary information.

And, it may be that the size computations are too simplistic - I did not try to learn what "descent" means, and how it should be used in computing the text layout.

Still, happy texting - and feel free to comment on my attempt (but I'd rather go back to the Envelope plugin, which is, as I see it, more satisfying from a musical perspective).

H.M.

P.S. And yes, the Bach is ok now (I'll see whether the couple likes it tomorrow), and the scores are transposed, and the recitative rewritten ... :)
509
Object Plugins / Re: XText.hmm (0.2)
Quote from: Lawrie Pardy –
... multi-line ...
I'll work on it - it's a pure algorithmic problem, i.e., what I like most about programming!

But it will take a day or two, as I have to play organ at three occasions this weekend (a wedding and two confirmations at our church), and that Bach does not yet really work = I need some more practice time today ...; oh, and I have to transpose three scores one  or two semitones up or down for our choir - NWC does it in a snap, but at one place this requires rewriting a recitative, as our solo tenor cannot go even higher ...

H.M.
511
Object Plugins / XText.hmm (0.92)
This is the plugin everyone has needed for a long time! ;)  Seriously, I wonder how I survived without this simple object that simply concatenates texts of different fonts. Here is a real world example:

<Image Link>

The plugin allows the concatenation of up to six texts. Additionally, the justification of the text can be selected. With justifications 'Left' and 'Right', there is a corresponding 'preserve width' option which is triggered by selecting 'Left and wide' or 'Right and wide'. For the non-wide justifications, there are boxed variants which draw a box around the text (if the box is too high, try to set a pinch value on StaffSymbols texts to reduce its height).

Multiline texts are supported: Just insert %br% or | (a vertical bar) in a text to indicate a line break. For some fonts, the line sizes get too large - try to increase the "pinch" value to reduce the size of such lines.

With the StaffSymbols or StaffCueSymbols fonts, a number of abbreviations are useful - they are replaced with the corresponding staff character:
  • dynamics: %ppp%, %pp%, %p%, %mp%, %mf%, %f%, %ff%, %fff%
  • notes: %1/2%, %1/4%, %1/8%, %breve%
  • clefs: %gclef%, %fclef%, %cclef%
  • accidentals: %sharp% or %#%, %natural% or %=%, %flat% or %b%, %##% or %x%, %bb%
  • rests: %rbreve%, %r/1%, %r/2%, %r/4%, %r/8%, %r/16%, %r/32%, %r/64%
  • others: %turn%, %tr%, %coda%, %segno%, %|% or %bar%

It is also possible to specify characters via decimal or hexadecimal codes:
  • decimal codes: e.g. %177%
  • hexadecimal codes: e.g. %0xf123%

Then, one can specify an arbitrary font installed in Windows for each segment by putting it between % and :% at the very beginning (in that case, the selected font class is ignored). This is helpful e.g. to use symbols like arrows from the WingDings fonts - and it does not use up one of the six NWC User font classes. See XTextExamples.nwctxt for examples (they need WingDings and WingDings 3 to be installed).

For "negative kerning" (moving the following text to the left), use %---...%. Each minus sign represents a little more than a quarter of a "left-moving" blank. This is useful to create e.g. an "fp" symbol, which can be done with the StaffSymbols text segment %f%%--%%p% (see XText_fp_sffffz_Examples.nwctxt).

Lst, it is possible to "jump back" to the start of a previous text with %-1%, %-2%, ..., or %-6%. This is useful to place text pieces above each other, e.g. for the numbers needed for figured bass or for piano fingering.

The name of the plugin, XText, allows quick selection via keyboard by pressing J X <down> <enter>. The X can be read as "extended" or simply as a reference (and reverence) to NWC's native texts, which are created from the keyboard with a simple X.

As special examples, I have added a score of two measures from Rachmaninov's Prelude in C sharp which is used in the German Wikipedia as a comparison example for score editors (however, the NWC output could not be added there, as only native features may be used, which excludes the "sffff" XText); and an excerpt from Diether de la Motte's "Harmonielehre", which explains the harmonic functions of the final six measures of Bach's famous Air in D. Of course, one can also write degree symbols using similar parameters.

H.M.
513
Object Plugins / Re: Envelope.hmm (0.6) - supporting envelopes in NWC
Version 0.6 has now lost the ".test" status and is fully ".hmm". I have modified all the scores in the previous postings - I hope they do their work. Changes in 0.6 are:
  • Controller selection is now via a drop down list for predefined controllers; and, additionally, by number if one selects 'Select by number' in the dropdown. I think this is a good compromise between pure "magic numbers" and the necessary flexibility for accessing arbitrary CCs (like my 71).*
  • Text fonts are still fixed, but a scale can be used to make texts larger or smaller.
  • Both plugins got useful header comments.**

H.M.

* The source code, however, is even worse now, as I had to copy-paste the enum list into both plugins, plus two additional functions. Is there any way that two plugins can share some code (an immutable list; and two functions) ?? ???
And there is still the copy-paste problem in Envelope.hmm, that essentially the same functions are duplicated for the "draw..." and the "play..." objects - any idea how to improve this?

** Question: Where does one see the comments after @... properties? I knew that once, I believe - but have not found that explanation ...
514
Object Plugins / Re: Envelope.test (0.4) - supporting envelopes in NWC
Here is something you couldn't do with NWC up to now (I think ...):  Changing the value of "Sound Controller 2 (Harmonic Content)" (CC 71).

Why would you (or I) want to do that?

Well, the "Soundiron Olympus Micro Choir" Kontakt virtual instrument allows the selection of two different "styles" for a voice, which can then be "blended together". Two generic styles are "oo" and "ah", and blending them with more oo or more ah yields a more or less "sharp" voice; on the whole, I find the "ah" quite ugly, but the "oo" is too soft, and mixing in some "ah" gives it more clearness. Here is a link to a picture of the GUI of this virtual instrument, with highlights around the style selections and the blend control. And according to the documentation, the blend control can be "automated" (i.e., controlled from a MIDI command stream) via CC71!

Now, I started to compose a gospel (based on Psalm 114), which begins with a long crescendo chord. After that, the basses sing a melody over S+A+T chords. The lyrics interlace so that there are more text lines ("stay in the faith ...", "stay with me", "pray with me"); and therefore the voices need to say their words with some emphasis. I wanted to create at least a little bit of that impression with the simple micro choir, and I found that for the long chord, I wanted more "oo" in the basses, but more "ah" later when they take the melody.

- I have attached the score of the first 7 measures below. If you want to see the envelopes, you have to enable the "Controllers" staffs in "Page Setup -> Contents".
- Here is a link to the resulting MP3 (yes, it ends quite abruptly).
- In this (silent) GIF you can see how the volume (near the upper right) and the blend controls move while playing.

This is also an example of two controller envelopes on a single staff - I could have placed them on two, but I wanted to try this out.
I hope this gives you an additional understanding of why I develop this plugin ...

H.M.
515
Object Plugins / Re: Envelope.test (0.5) - supporting envelopes in NWC
Version 0.5 has a few improvements:
a) It is now possible to show the text below the envelope;
b) The locations where the lines begin/end; and where MIDI emitting begins/ends are now exactly at the start of the next note or rest - this is what one expects.

H.M.
516
Object Plugins / Re: Envelope.test (0.4) - supporting envelopes in NWC
I have uploaded a version 0.4, with some small presentation improvements: There is a short line at the end of a slope which helps if the envelopes are shown in a smal scale; the text shortens itself somewhat if there is not enough space; and the text shows < or >, depending on whether the value increases or decreases.

However, I have spent most of my time on putting volumes into my composition. The user tool for shifting selected envelope ranges up and down would have come in handy, but my mind was not on programming ...
If someone is interested: I have attached the piece's NWC score here, and here are two links to a version with, and one without volume control (just muting the "Controller" staffs produces the latter):


There is one more reason why I think this plugin is useful: The various effects on virtual instruments require lots of experimentation until one understands what can (and cannot) be done with which knob/controller. Typically, one does first experiments via some GUI knobs - but eventually, one has to play around with the controls via some sort of "script", or "score". I believe (but have yet to learn and do that myself) that doing it directly in an NWC score is more intuitive than via some MIDI tools ...

H.M.
517
Object Plugins / Re: Envelope.test (0.3) - supporting envelopes in NWC
Ok - then no implicit color transfer from maestro to players - so be it. Thanks!

I found that I will need some user tool(s) anyway - at least one for the purpose of shifting a whole range of controllers up or down: This does not work in NWC, as only the rests selected in between are shifted - and if there are different controllers on one staff; I would like to shift only one "selected" anyway ...

H.M.
518
Object Plugins / Re: Envelope.test (0.3) - supporting envelopes in NWC
I hope this is not too shameless a plug if I get a little bit excited about this plugin: I started to try it out on a choral composition I wrote (and am still writing) - here is an experiment I did this morning with the first few bars, for the first soprano.
First, here is a score image of this voice  - I have added two volume envelopes, for experimentation (of course, when playing, only one of them is unmuted - the other is muted and does not send any MIDI commands):

<Image Link>

And here are three renditions as MP3s:


My setup, by the way, is:
  • (free) loopMIDI as virtual MIDI cable
  • Reaper 5.80 as VST container
  • (free) Kontakt Player 5.0 as instrument container for the choir; (free) sfz player for SFZ soundfonts
  • Soundiron Olympus Micro Choir for choir voices
  • (free) Sonatina Symphony Orchestra Keyboard sound for piano

And here are two renditions of all four voices (the score is in the attachment). The Olympus choir voices are not at all bad out of the box, but ...:


... don't you agree that that soprano crescendo on that last "stärkt" but one is much more "elating" (or "creepy"?) in the latter MP3?!

Of course, the same effects could also have done with a standard volume MPC - but I have to tell you I would not have had much fun playing around with that many controllers for an hour; whereas moving up and down those envelope objects is so quick ...

H.M.
520
Object Plugins / Envelope.hmm (1.0) - supporting MIDI envelopes in NWC
Introduction

I have a dream: That I can work with NWC as easily as with a DAW to create music that is fun to listen to.

In these times, this means - I believe - that one can control one or more virtual instruments from NWC, like simple sfz players, a Kontakt container with embedded Kontakt instruments or some standalone instruments. Besides the notes, such instruments need additional control to produce realistic sounds, which is accomplished by the following means:

a) velocity of note-on and note-off;
b) a few predefined commands like "pitch bend";
c) bank selection - I will not talk about this here.
d) 128 MIDI controllers, which can be used to send some arbitrary data to the MIDI channel (and hence the instrument). Some of these have a predefined semantics, like "volume" or "damper pedal", but many others are simply labelled "general purpose" or even "undefined" in the MIDI standard; and especially these are used more and more by virtual instruments to control "breath", "pan", "blend" and whatever terms the instrument designers use for various properties and effects. These are essential to capitalize on the more and more realistic sound production capabilities of such instruments.

Controllers can be used to control effects on a very detailed level, e.g. increasing and decreasing the volume of an instrument in a continuous fashion. This finegrained control requires an intuitive user interface, which is typically provided in the form of "envelopes".

Here is a very simple musical piece as shown in the Reaper DAW:

<Image Link>

It consists of a single note, which is presented as a horizontal line; the green rollercoaster below it is the "volume envelope": It controls how the volume changes over time. The important thing here is that 
  • it is very easy to understand the envelope: It is immediately clear where the volume goes up or down, or where it remains constant.
  • Moreover, it is also very easy to change the envelope: In Reaper, as an example, you just shift-click on it somewhere and pull the line segments up and down with the mouse - "direct manipulation".

This is all fine and well, but for those of us who like to arrange and compose via traditional scores, using a DAW for envelopes does not really work. The problem is that arranging and composing are looping processes: There will always be "some more changes" to the score, and all the location-dependent post-processing in the DAW would be lost if a new version comes down from the score software, i.e., NWC. Thus, it is necessary to integrate these additional instructions into the NWC score. Now, NWC does have some support in the form of "Multi-point controllers" (MPCs), but these objects are, in my opinion, too limited: Not all 128 potential MIDI controllers are supported, and usability of MPCs is quite a lot worse than DAW envelopes.

To overcome these shortcomings, I started to write a new object plugin that would provide as much as possible of the envelope functionality.

NWC envelopes

The concept is as follows:
  • At the beginning of the score, an "EnvelopeMaestro" object defines up to 10 value ranges with their own names (this is useful for showing "ppp"..."fff" for a volume controller - see examples) and some presentation parameters for a controller.
  • The value of each controller is set by "Envelope" objects along the score that define the current value and possibly a value step.
  • The value line is visibly shown, like with DAW envelopes.
  • The value and the step are manipulated directly: The value is derived from the staff position (which can be changed conveniently with ctrl-shift-up and ctrl-shift-down), and the span is controlled by the built-in spinner, i.e., the + and - keys.
  • As a special feature, a step can be "inclined" a little so that the value changes not to abruptly; this so-called "attack" can be changed directly
    with the , and . keys.

Here is a screenshot from NWC of a "single note" piece with varying volume:

<Image Link>

The important feature here is that it is very easy to see and modify the envelope - I repeat this because it is the whole point of the plugin: The following change was accomplished by just selecting the envelope object, pressing ctrl-shift-up about 6 times; and + and then . a few times:

<Image Link>

NWC's GUI immediately shows these changes, and they can be heard when playing the score next time.

Here are two pictures that show the properties of the EnvelopeMaestro and Envelope objects:

<Image Link>

<Image Link>

Here are some suggestions for using the Envelope object:
  • Put each controller on a separate staff with a single line. This allows muting of each staff, which disables the controller; and it allows for more graphical control. On the other hand, the "Staff range", "Line Type" and "Line Offset" options allow placing two or more controllers on a single staff to save "GUI real estate". Last, it is also possible to put the envelope objects into a note staff, e.g. by setting the "Staff range" high above the notes.
  • Use half and eighth rests on the controller staffs to allow for coarser and finer spans. Quarter rests take up a lot of space and are visually more disturbing. Hidden rests do not really work, as they huddle together at the left side of the bars and therefore distort the span slopes.
  • When copying envelopes to another staff, make sure that their Maestros have similar range definitions so that the effect rates do not change.
  • Don't use a volume controller with piano, harpsichord, guitar and other instruments where the volume cannot be arbitrarily changed after note started.

A user tool 'Shift' allows shifting a group of selected envelopes of the same controller. The first Envelope or EnvelopeMaestro in the selection defines the controller to be shifted.

H.M.
521
General Discussion / Re: Sending arbitrary MIDI controllers?
Thanks a lot! - I searched for "controller" - not much to find - and "CC" - hopelessly overloaded by that - and some other keywords but did not immediately stumble over something useful. I'll take a look!

H.M.
522
General Discussion / Sending arbitrary MIDI controllers?
Hi -

I wat to go a little bit more into better sound rendering. So I have a purchased Soundiron's Olympus Choir Micro - and there, one can "do some things" with MIDI controllers 71 to 81 (e.g. "blend" with CC 71 or "offset" with CC 78 & 79).

The question is, of course, how can send such commands from NWC?

  • As I see it, the multi-point controller does only support a predefined list of controllers (1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 91, 92, 93, 94, and 95, according to the documentation)
  • So the only way to send a CC 71 etc. seems to be via an object that calls nwcplay.midi(#offsetSPP,'Command',#midiData1,[#midiData2]). The documentation does not indiciate that there are any limits to the sent data, so by using 'controller' as Command, 71 as #midiData1 and some value which the "choir instrument" understands as #midiData2, I should be able to do what I want, shouldn't I?

Is this correct - and if yes, is there already some sort of "generic MIDI controller object" which would support such scenarios?

Thanks for any enlightenment!

H.M.
523
General Discussion / Re: Chord Splitting Plugin? :D
My setup for this very important tool is as follows: For each useful combination of parameters, I have a separate line in the nwc2UserTools.ini file, as follows (the HMM is just the section for my convenience tools):

Code: [Select · Download]
[HMM]
1 Remove Top NoSingle=2,php\php.exe scripts\adp_Parts.php remove top nosingle
2 Remove Top=2,php\php.exe scripts\adp_Parts.php remove top
3 Retain Top=2,php\php.exe scripts\adp_Parts.php retain top
4 Retain Bottom=2,php\php.exe scripts\adp_Parts.php retain bottom
5 Remove Bottom=2,php\php.exe scripts\adp_Parts.php remove bottom
6 Remove Bottom NoSingle=2,php\php.exe scripts\adp_Parts.php remove bottom nosingle

When composing, this looks as follows:

<Image Link>

  • The top staff shows a segment newly composed in "chord notation"
  • The three staffs below were created from it, by first copying in the upper staff (or a piece of it), then selecting (highlighting) some segment, and then execute suitable user tools; e.g. for the middle staff "Remove Top" and "Retain Top" (or "Remove Bottom")
I have written huge scores (25 staffs; and some 100s of measures) with this method.

Good luck!
H.M.

P.S. Editing nwc2UserTools.ini requires Windows admin rights, otherwise you see/edit a local copy of the file, and NWC does not see the added tools. I have been stung by this a few times ...

P.P.S. Ahem ... the image is a little bit of a fake; and so the voices do not correspond perfectly. But you get the idea, I hope ...
524
General Discussion / Re: hiding line
If you put the "Cancel/forbid" in measure 14 past the invisible bar line, it works (at least for me).

In your score, the "very short segment" between the "Cancel/forbid" and the bar line is visible, so NWC has to print the whole staff.

H.M.
525
General Discussion / Re: new computer recommendations
Quote from: SEBC –
But I think my laptop is bothering my shoulders and back because I’m using it as a desktop since the battery is toast and the power cord keeps falling out.

Buy a new battery? Not that cheap - but cheaper than a new laptop, and does not need new setup, new learning curve, new whatever ... if you can live with the old one some more time.

H.M.
526
General Discussion / Re: Silly notation
I agree - if the grace note would also be an e natural ... (and the B grace note could even get a courtesy natural, if this part "feels" like F ...).

I also do not see why one would not also change the key signature, even for 4 measures or so - the whole passage is in F (or maybe C), after all. But this "very sticky key signatures with many "hand-drawn accidentals" have been a tradition since Beethoven, it seems - I just read through some part of a symphony of his which is ugly (for me) to read ...

H.M.
529
General Discussion / Re: Fixing Transposition Playback Issues
Quote from: William Ashworth –
... are Rick and I the only ones who use Score Review?...
Well, I don't use it - but I wouldn't know what for. The mention above is the first time I saw a useful application - but my transpositions dont get mixed up ... MIDI/instrument assignments and, most of the time, muting remain totally fixed for my scores; visibility can be seen in the Contents tab; bar count - what for? Thus, I don't seem to have any use for it. What do I miss? - enlighten me (and us) :)

H.M.
530
General Discussion / Re: Quick rest insertion/note deletion and lyric placement
Re your first question - just a quick answer without really reading all your details: Would the adp_parts user tool with option nosingle do what you want? (I have it configured as
    Remove Top NoSingle=2,php\php.exe scripts\adp_Parts.php remove top nosingle
)

Re your second question:

Solution (a): Instead of adding millions of _, and guessing their number, you can just select the notes/chords and then in their property window (Alt-Enter) set "Lyric Syllable" to "Never" - all the notes have now "vanished" with regards to lyrics.

Solution (b): Add a million of _; then place your cursor at the note where you want the lyrics to start; and now open (Ctrl-L) the lyrics box and then press right-arrow - your cursor in the lyrics box will be show up at the position corresponding to the note cursor! - so now you can simply remove all the underscores after this point.

Hope this helps, or at least gives you an idea where and how to dig further ...

H.M.
531
General Discussion / Re: Creative process
Nice.

I have a single file on my laptop (with multiple backups) I use to record lyrics I get or invent, also ideas.
But the main "tool" is a musical sketchbook my daughter gave me as a present two years ago (and another one more recently) whch I take with me everywhere. Only since I have this, I started to write down enough ideas!
...both these are for "rough (small and large) ideas and sketches".

My actual process of creating a piece of music is much more focussed and organized - it would take some time to explain it - but essentially I "do" all the "aspects" of music systematically: Form, "harmonic language", "melodic language", motifs, "harmonic rhythm", "small rhythm", polyphony, harmonics, ...., sound/instrumentation, ..., "surpriseness" -  ah, I see I have some terms here I use for me, of which I dont know whether there are any "offical terms" for them - I never learned composing from a composer, so I ended up with that ... much I'd have to explain in more detail, I suppose ... Also, if at all possible, I do it "like work": Even though I hate some parts of it (checking voices ...), I force myself to do it as meticuosly and only with short breaks to get a glass of water. It's a 9-to-5 job.

But I have only written 10 or 15 pieces which I consider "acceptable" - all the rest, from previous years, was more planless playing around, seen from today.

H.M.
532
General Discussion / Re: Proofreading process
Here is my cheat sheet, not only for proofreading, but for important things to do while arranging/composing.
Some entries probably need more explanations - just ask if you are interested.

I use two user tools that are mentioned in the cheat sheet:
(a) "Adjust Performance" (actually, "adjust articulation") to replace articulation combinations that sound better with the standard ones used in print; and
(b) ShowRanges to check whether I used too low/high notes.

(The PDF is a quick translation from my German version - so maybe some terms are not accurate).
(Edit: Re-uploaded PDF with a few corrections)

H.M.
533
General Discussion / Re: Self publishing
... and, times being as they are, you'll have to create acceptable sound renditions: People expect to be able to listen to music on a music website - one reason being that many, even professional musicians will not be able to read (without playing) your scores!!

First, the NWC Viewer idea is, in practice, probably not a good one: It relies on a suitable sound synthesizer on the viewer's computer, over which you do not have any control. Thus, your score might be judged by a bad or even wrongly configured MIDI machinery that you do not know anything about. Therefore, you must provide ready-made sound like MP3s or OGGs.

To produce this, you need a DAW and suitable soundfonts/virtual instruments (unless you have an orchestra+choir who will play your pieces ...), and all the necessary knowledge to get an acceptable sound result - which is very hard and much work, in my experience. For brass instruments, the typical soundfonts are lacking quality - there are virtual instruments around, but they are expensive (and I have no experience with them). For choir, what do you do with the lyrics? - a choir singing "aaah" all the time is not what I, and many, would expect or find acceptable; but the tools out there for making it sing words are either very expensive or do not work, in my experience (anyone knows anything better?); and our church choir ... well, it's quality is not something I'd like to use to promote my pieces in quite a few cases (even though I have done it).

Last, I think that one has to show a "movie rendition" of the score (e.g. MP4) in these days - there is some short thread somewhere here about this: This "hooks up" the listener much much more than a mere sound rendition (say MP3). But this, again, is something to be mastered.

All this I'd like to do ... but, well, job, family, making music, composing all have higher priorities ... so it's a long-term project, at least for me.

H.M.
534
Object Plugins / Re: PageTxtMaestro.nw
Quote from: SEBC –
I have been told by other composers that if I am serious about my work then I should be switching.
Well, if they really tell you that then they are not composers. Mind you, I would never say that the way these people do it is in any way wrong - for them. But:

(a) Composing is, "by definition", assembling music by not playing it (e.g. improvising), but by "constructing it". Finding one's own way of construction is as much a part of composing, as is the actual construction of a specific piece of music. Some people draw diagrams; some sketch scores; some use aleatoric means (toss dices) to create a musical plan (a "score") that can then be performed/"played". So your, or my, way of composing is just as serious as any other way.

(b) Moreover, it must be said that historically, the method of writing a score is the standard method of composing. Just because there are now other means (like assembling bought loops on a DAW) does not mean that the standard - and still taught - method for composing is in any way obsolete or "not serious" (even though photography came up, painting never got "not serious"). Anyone who does not see this does not have any idea about the history of music - which, in my humble opinion, means that he/she is not that serious a composer ...

(c) I have watched a few people on youtube who compose e.g. music for video clips: Their setup is typically a keyboard, hooked to a DAW; and they play track after track on this keyboard, with about the final sound. The results that I have heard were all "short-winded", so to speak: The tension would last maybe for 5 seconds, in some very good examples maybe for half a minute - but none of these composers came up with any sort of construction that would span say 5 minutes or longer. Yes, they might repeat their short ideas and then increase volume, "chorus", tempo, instrumentation - but all that are obviously trivial things. If their listeners do not favor more complex patterns and are happy with "fast food music" (even though it might sound pompous), so be it - also many 19th century military marches or 20th century operetta melodies were short-span-attention pieces, which were probably invented directly on the piano and immediately written down. But like that old method, also the "new" DAW method certainly results in a limited variety of musical output - to suggest that this were "more serious" than constructing and writing classical is, definitely, a little childish ...

(d) I even tried to compose directly on a keyboard. But the result is much worse than if I construct a piece by writing it - writing it first as an abstract sketch (maybe with letters, curved lines, arrows, and some notes thrown in), then as a rough score (which many pieces missing, repetitions only indicated), and then, in a process that tries out much and throws much away, iterating towards a finished piece. In the same way that I build furniture - also there, a significant amount of time goes into drawing sketches (views from outside, construction step, sectional views), and only after the whole "abstract plan"is satisfactory, I select the wood and start up my table saw -, also composing starts lng before the first concrete chord is placed in time and relation to other sounds. At least for me.

... getting a little off topic, ain't I (resp. aren't we)?

H.M.
535
User Tools / Re: Is it possible to scale down some of the staffs in a score?
Quote from: SEBC –
I was wondering if there was a way where we can put two different scores on one page.
What I would do:
Write them separately (two NWC files), open Preview in each (Alt-F-V) and copy them (Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V) to one's favorite document editor ... where one can position and resize and modify them in arbitrary ways.
Or one can save the scores as .emf (Windows Enhanced Meta-) file (click on the 3 horizontal bars in the upper right of the preview dialog and select "Copy ..." there - it will open a small dialog), which can be included in documents. This might (I have never tried it) allow for a simpler re-import in case the scores change.

It boils, it seems, down to the question: Is one creating
  • a "text document with some [possibly many] musical staffs in it"
  • or a "musical score with a few text parts"?
The former gives you more possibilities to format all the pieces (text, scores, images, table of contents, ...), but of course it is more work because of the necessary "assembly work".

H.M.
536
General Discussion / Re: Performance Notes
Quote from: Lawrie Pardy –
I assume you know that the performance notes as shown could have all been placed at the start for the staff ...
I confess I didn't think about that - I started with the boundary objects to "clear the weed" and then just placed the PageTxts for the notes near them. Here is the improved version where the PageTxts are in the first measure. I still did place them  a little later towards the middle of the measure, because otherwise they cover the "mp" and "Presto" indications during editing.

H.M.
537
General Discussion / Re: Performance Notes
During my break at noon, I composed a little piecy for trying out a "playing instruction" footnote - see attachment. I think this works perfectly, like that:
  • While writing the piece, the footnote should be added to the first measure; it will end up "somewhere" on a printout, but one has to beautify the score anyway after completing the piece: There are so many things - location of slurs, hairpins, dynamics, texts - that need proper placing that one understands why score-setting is an art. So, no need to move the footnote around while composing (one could keep a small text reminder at some "hook" place near where the footnote should go in the end).
  • In the final tidying up, place the text at the footer, with two large boundary objects to make space for it.
Certainly much easier (because of the %br% feature) than doing it with multiple text objects, as I did it up to now - so, once again, I've learned something!

H.M.
538
Object Plugins / Re: PageTxtMaestro.nw
Quote from: SEBC –
... with things are obvious to the rest of the world.

Ah - you can be sure that many of these things were not at all obvious, at least for me, when I started writing scores, and even a long time after! (and I am sure there are many things I still don't know, or do more cumbersome than is necessary ...)

My advantage over you might be that I have written at least 500 NWC scores over the last 18 years (I started with NWC in 1999), among them (more recently) some large ones where I had to think about, and learn, many advanced aspects. You wouldn't want to know how many times I have rewritten my templates for these larger scores - it was certainly more than 20 times!

So please, continue to ask: The answers will, hopefully, not only help you, but also be helpful others who search (and sometimes stumble) through these forums ...

H.M.
540
Object Plugins / Re: PageTxtMaestro.nw
Quote from: SEBC –
Well I thought about suppressing them but that seems like it is more work to put in all those different objects rather than dealing with it in the one big file information box.
First, there seems to be a misunderstanding: You can and do still enter all the score information in that "big file info box", even if you use PageTxt objects to place the information on the printed score. There is no difference here! - as the PageTxt objects pull the information from exactly that file info box.

Therefore, what you should do: Set up the templates you use so that they contain everything you need - either by modifying NWC's templates, or- preferably - creating new templates in a separate folder (and then point Tools-->Options-->Folders-->Templates to that folder).

The best way is to write a score and add all the necessary objects as you like them; then, afterwards, copy this score to the template folder and, there, delete everything after the first clef - but not all the carefully set-up objects at the staffs' beginnings. As an example, I have attached one of my smaller templates (for piano+violin) - as you can see, it has a few objects already predefined on each staff; and the "Title Page Info" unchecked in "File-->Page Setup-->Options" (and I would say that, as of now, there is no longer a need for this method of printing file info; rather, all the NWC standard templates should be updated to use the much more versatile PageTxt objects).

H.M.
541
General Discussion / Re: It's that time of the year...
Quote from: SEBC –
I was trying to remember how I managed to get it as a NWC score but I can't.
Probably by downloading the file I attached to my posting  ;)

Quote from: SEBC –
I am interested in learning about orchestration so I saved it as a file to study later.
I am not sure my scores are a good starting point - I am myself trying to learn the first steps of orchestration (after about 9 month of having a teacher, I think, or hope, I start to grasp the first principles ...
Quote from: SEBC –
I listened to the MP3 and it sounds great. It's a really fun piece! I love the Mozart "mash up." Has an orchestra performed this?
Thanks :) - and no - my teacher said "you'll need quite a capable group to have this performed" - which is not really possible here where I live (I am not - see previous remark - the great composer everyone wants to play on the spot  ;) )
Quote from: SEBC –
Sorry, I know that's not helpful, and I am sure the problem is on my end of things.
With Reaper, I could help you to make it sound (and I think you need to invest in a decent audio workstation setup if you are interested in instrumentation anyway).

H.M.
542
Object Plugins / Re: PageTxtMaestro.nw
Quote from: SEBC –
Yes, exactly! It would be great to be able to do this within NWC.
But why? ??? - it would certainly be much more work than doing it with your favorite document editor (be it OpenOffice or Microsoft Office or whatever) and PDFCreator.

Why it could be attractive to put this into NWC:

a) "NWC should be the one-stop solution for everything with music scores" --> I think that would be very wrong: We should prefer dedicated tools for separate things. This is, on the one hand, a "philosophical" question, but on the other hand a commercial one: For the price of NWC, you cannot expect "everything".

b) "I want some score pieces in the introductory text" --> it is easy to place such pieces into office documents.

c) "I want only one file per score" --> there is probably always more than one file for a finished score: NWC file, setup file for instruments (e.g. sound font assignment) for acceptable playback, resulting PDFs for conductor and players/singers, NWCs for multiple movements etc. Therefore, it is useful anyway to organize scores either in (*) a separate directory per score or (*) with a good naming convention or (*) by placing the files of a score in a ZIP file and only extracting them to a working directory when working with them - and then, it is no problem to have more than one file for a score.

Therefore, I, personally, would not spend any time on putting work into a "new (NWC-affine) solution" for this already easily and nicely achieved feature ... I hope that's understandable now.

H.M.

// Edits in case c) ...
543
Object Plugins / Re: PageTxtMaestro.nw
Quote from: SEBC –
...
Also, if I wanted to make an entire separate front page of text with performance notes and background info, what would be the best way to go about it? (Not necessarily with this plug in if there is an easier way to do it within NWC.)
Like what I did in the PDF linked in that posting?

I do not use NWC for this, but write separate documents and combine them to a single PDF with free PDFCreator (a common and standard tool for creating PDF files).
In that case, I wrote the first page separately (in Microsoft Word) and then used the "Merge" feature of PDFCreator to first print the front page, then do "Merge", then print the NWC score (from NWC to PDFCreator as printer), and then "Merge All" to create a single PDF from it.

H.M.
544
General Discussion / Re: It's that time of the year...
Quote from: SEBC –
Quote from: hmmueller –
Ah ... maybe someone likes this (I sent it to free-scores.com's "Concourse de Musique", but did not get past the last round of eight):

Jingle Bells Overture - PDF
Jingle Bells Overture - MP3

Is this supposed to be polytonal? Or is my playback messed up? Its quite impressive!

Mhm - no, it's supposed to be completely standard harmonies - and, if you listen to the MP3, then I fear, also your playback is not messed up. Rather, I think, that the too loud trumpet soundfont somehow creates wrong notes or harmonies which I do not hear (because I know the score) ...
Or it this only the case when you play the NWC file - now, this will not really work, as I set up the instruments in Reaper, and so I do not at all care what it sounds like when I play it via NWC and e.g. Microsoft's standard synth.  Where does it sound "polytonal" to you?
545
User Tools / Copy corresponding parts of multiple staffs
There was a question about this in the General Forum; and I have felt the need for this also quite a few times. Of course, NWC does not have the concept of a "vertical selection", and it would be hard to define this in general, because there are no obvious "vertical lines" in NWC (and also not in music in general).

What my tool, therefore, does is to place the burden on the score writer: One has to add markers on each staff that delineate the segments. In practice, this can be done very quickly by putting the marker on the top score, copying it with Ctrl-C, and then repeating PgDn and Ctrl-V for all staffs (I do this with rehearsal markers and various dynamics for 2...4...8...20 staffs all the time). Of course, if one hits a "non-aligning object" (an extrem case is a multibar rest), the marker will - and all below - will suddenly land more or less offset to the left or right - that's just as it is. But markers near bars tend to align vertically nicely.

So ... the attachment contains the user tool and an example file. The user tool should be added to nwc2UserTool.ini with three lines, as follows (of course, you must replace the path so that it points to the directory where you store the user tool):

Code: [Select · Download]
C Copy segments=14,php\php.exe C:\Private\MyMusic\MusicalHelpers\hmm_CopySegment.php copy
D Delete segments=14,php\php.exe C:\Private\MyMusic\MusicalHelpers\hmm_CopySegment.php delete 
R Reset segments=14,php\php.exe C:\Private\MyMusic\MusicalHelpers\hmm_CopySegment.php reset

Usage is as follows:
  • C copies the segment; two texts .S and .E delineate the segment; .I is the point where the segment is copied to (only the first .I is "seen" by the tool). When the segment is copied, it will be marked with .O at the end (in the same font/color as .I). The script is still a little buggy if the segment is copied to the left of its insertion point - the markers get confused
  • D deletes the segment marked by .S and .E
  • R removes all the markers (.S, .E, .I, .O)
The idea is that you can make the markers really stand out (see the example), so that you do not get confused afterwards what went where even if the segments do not longer line up well.

Unfortunately, Ctrl-Z does not work over the boundary of a user tool (even though NWC recognizes that the score has changed) - if the copying creates something wrong, one has to go back to a saved version.

What do you say? Might this - or something along these lines - be a solution or at least acceptable crutch until NWC gets "vertical selections and copy/pastes" somewhen?

Harald M.

// Edit: Rewritten script in OO way ... now seems to be bug-free  :D
546
General Discussion / Re: Cut and paste all staves
This evening's small project: I wrote a user tool that "does this". Before I present the result here, I open a new topic in the user tools subforum to discuss my solution a little - it has its merits (I hope), but also drawbacks ...

H.M.
547
General Discussion / Re: Recording video and sound from NWC playback
I'm quite happy with the free Debut versions from NCH Software. They are adware, so they will try to convince you to upgrade to some "Pro" version quite often - but they are easy to work with and do what I need. An example is here - which shows a few problem: Scrolling is bad; and I had to record this from NWC, (not NWC player, because I need two MIDI devices for the two orchestras playing), therefore one sees a "raw score", with all the hidden elements in light gray.

// Edit: And for the audio, I only use Reaper - it costs some $50 and is a full-fledged audio workstation (cheap and perfect - just like NWC); with the free Sonatina Symphony Orchestra sfx soundfonts, one can get some sort of idea what a piece would sound in real life ...

I could explain details of my setup if you or someone is interested in them ...

H.M.
548
General Discussion / Re: File and Project Organization
Quote from: Mike Shawaluk –
If you view File Info (File > Info... or Ctrl-I) you'll notice that there are Copyright Notice 1 and 2 fields ... such as a score date ...
When working diligently, I do exactly this, using a format like date1/date2(info), where
  • date1 is the "major version"; if it changes, the result is no longer compatible with the previous on;
  • date2 is a "bug fix" where e.g. some instrument/voice or some text changed, but everything is still compatible with the date1 version.
Example:
     Copyright © 4.6./1.10.2017(T) Harald M. Müller
is an arrangement from June 4th, where the tenor was changed on October first. If I do not forget it, I record the change in the Comments field.

I put the copyright on every page (with PageTxt) - only then can I be sure in our choir which version someone has in his or her hands, possibly claiming that "this must be the most recent score!" (implying all others, some 30 people, of course do have the wrong version).

With "creative/explorative work", there is no such linear bureaucracy - there I scribble notes into some text file (or on some paper which I scan afterwards) and hope that when I restart I can disentangle what I wanted to do ...

H.M.
549
General Discussion / Re: no specific instrument; I hear an oboe
Quote from: Flurmy –
...so it keeps playing with the last used for that channel.
Therefore, it is more or less always a good idea to select an explicit instrument under Staff Properties->Instrument (either via "Predefined instruments ...", or by manually checking the "Send Patch" checkbox and select a patch number; 0 is for piano, 53 for voice ...)

Also, be careful: If you have more than one staff going to the same MIDI channel (e.g. left-hand+right-hand of piano; or visible and hidden staff for same instrument), then both should specify the same instrument - it is not clear who "wins" if they are different.

H.M.