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Messages - David Palmquist

352
General Discussion / Re: How to run NoteWorthy software on 2nd computer.
Just install it.

Source:  Barry Graham   Online Virtuoso   Re: About the product package...     « Reply #2 on: 25-10-2002, 18:30:37 »:

From the NWC Help.........
"As a licensed user of NoteWorthy Composer , you are entitled to install NoteWorthy Composer on one machine and enjoy unrestricted use of its capabilities. You may also install NoteWorthy Composer on a second machine provided that it will never be in simultaneous use on more than one machine."




353
General Discussion / Re: Any improvemnt on diting slurs?
Quote from: Mike Shawaluk –
I'm not at my NWC-installed computer right now, so I can't play with this... I did know that a hidden grace note could be used to bend a slur upward/downward (i.e. make the arch steeper), but I wasn't aware that they could be used to adjust the end points of the slur. Specifically, if I have a stem-side slur, the anchor points are always just beyond the end of the stems, instead of being closer to the note head. Is there any way to adjust this without the layering tricks?
I didn't say the end-points could be adjusted.
355
General Discussion / Re: Any improvemnt on diting slurs?
Quote
Yes I know that there are a number of messy work arounds, but there should be an easier way to place and edit them.
Are you familiar with this one, which I think came from Rick?  Insert a muted grace note at the offending end of the slur arch and use it to push the curve arc up or down. Make it a headless note and change note properties to stem length= 0, muted and no leger lines.  

It doesn't give you a perfect arch, but it's not hard to do and it is probably acceptable to most.
357
Tips & Tricks / Keyboard malfunctioning in NWC?
In Windows 8 and 8.1, the keyboard settings change at random intervals, and seem to begin using a European layout.  

This means the control key will no longer work in NWC until you change the keyboard back, so some hot key combinations won't work.  

A temporary and quick fix is to click the Keyboard setting at the bottom of the screen in the Windows 8/8.1 status bar - it's probably just to the left of your clock.  It's easy to change back to the keyboard you want, and then the Control key will once more do what it's supposed to in NWC.
359
General Discussion / Re: Staff justification
Quote
All one has to do is press the "end bracket" keyboard shortcut (]) and choose the last radio button in the dialogue box.

Thanks for this tip, Bill, this falls into my 'well, whaddaya know?' category.

A minor clarification:
Start a new page is only available if Force a new system is also selected.

I used Start a new page a few days ago but it never occurred to me to use it to extend a last system.  Users might find this possibly unintended benefit of it if the wording on its label were enhanced.  

Suggestion for Eric:
Replace Start a new page with Start a new page or Extend last system on page


In the help item add the emphasized words.
Quote
Force a new system
When added to the top staff in the system, this instruction can be used to force a new system to be started in the printout. If necessary, it can also be used to force the new system to start at the top of a new page and it can also be used to extend the last system on a page to the right margin.

Quote from: MikeA –
Yes.  The Extend Last System option can still leave absurdly long final bars.  I haven't had a chance to try the suggested way yet, but I'm hoping it won't do that.

Generally I just add a few Force System Break commands to overcome this.  If I have 3 bars on the last line and want 5, an FSB two bars before the end of the preceding line will help.  Using FSB and checking it with Print Preview will tell you if you need to do it on one or two more previous staffs too.  I find you don't need to do more than three or four FSBs on the page to make it look good.

Since it was also mentioned in this thread, you can often avoid printing one, two, or three staffs on a separate page by reducing the upper and lower boundaries in the Visual tab of the Staff Properties dialogue box.  I believe you can do this with Boundary Change too, but I haven't tried.   Another way to make your score use less paper is to adjust Staff Metrics in the Page Setup / Fonts size tab, but you don't want to make the font too small.
360
General Discussion / Re: Trill - a question for the music theorists
Mr. Davies' second paragraph asks "But if you are in a foreign key or are not using key signatures and you want a whole step, how do you indicate it?" but he answered his question with an illustration of a flattened trill, half a tone.

Back to the confusion - a normal trill is from the trilled note to the next higher note in a diatonic scale based on the prevailing key signature.  It can therefore be either a half tone or a whole tone.  Where it's a half tone but a whole tone is desired, the trill is sharpened.   The confusion is because the trilled notes are not in that diatonic scale, they are accidentals.

I like Mr. Davies' suggestion of writing the target note just above the trilled note to remove the ambiguity.
363
General Discussion / Trill - a question for the music theorists

I'm transcribing and simplifying a part in D major that has two accidentalized notes marked to trill sharp.

The note progression is
A tr
A# tr#
B tr
B# tr#
C#
D
D#
E

Can anyone tell me whether the two sharp trills should be from A# to B#(C)  or to C#, and from B# to C#, D or D#, please?


364
General Discussion / Re: Tempo setting dialogue
Depends on which order you want to enter the inputs.  I got caught today because I started with the description, Allegro, then set the tempo, 134, and then noticed the Base was a quarter.  Simply changing the base to a half triggered the behaviour, and it wasn't until I was playing back the score I noticed the tempo was 67 instead of 134. 

Had I had several tempo changes in the piece, and/or if I was putting tempos on each staff instead of on a conductor staff, it would have been a real nuisance.  As it was, it was just a minor annoyance, but it could have slipped past me onto a printed part.
365
General Discussion / Tempo setting dialogue
When a tempo is entered, most people will enter Base before Tempo, but sometimes a person doesn't.  If you enter Tempo first, and then change Base from its default, the value in Tempo will change.  

This should not be the default behaviour.  If one doesn't know it will happen and isn't paying attention to what appears on the screen, it's a nuisance to go back and fix it when you finally do your playback.
366
Tips & Tricks / Importing with MusicXML

Caution

If you have a song file open that you plan to use as a template for a number of pages you will import to NWC2 using mxml2nwcc.exe, there is a risk the XML files you drop into mxml2nwcc.exe will overwrite the template in NWC2.

367
General Discussion / Re: Skipping a section of music
Quote
Quote from: NoteWorthy Online on 24-01-2007, 13:39:53
Double bar lines are basically treated as special ending termination points.

Isn't that a flaw?  I'm sure I've seen double bars within first, second and third endings more than once. 
368
General Discussion / Re: Nuisance habit of NWC: ALWAYS selecting "LETTER" size in PDF995
Quote from: Haymo –
This is a plea for help:

Whenever I swap printer, from HP P1102, to PDF995,
I have to re-select A4 paper size.
NWC ALWAYS has "LETTER" selected -
no matter that I've set "A4" at every place in the PDF995 printer setup,
before opening NWC.

Please, there are some parts of the world where "LETTER"- sized paper just is NOT used.

This plea applies to both NWC 2.5.5 and NWC 2.5.1 beta (upto and including 34)

I have the opposite problem - very often NWC is set to A4 no matter how many times I've reset to Letter.  It may be something to do with the language settings in Windows - I prefer English to American spelling, but IIRC, after I changed that setting (years ago), I started always getting A4 as a default.

Haven't figured out how to apply Rick's suggestion but when I finish my current project maybe I'll take some time and figure it out. 
369
General Discussion / Re: PDF vs printer
Yes, but I'm comfortable with what I'm used to so I've not bothered with it.

I also have a third program on my system, PDF24.exe, which is freeware, but I have no idea how it ended up on my system.  I do not recall downloading it. 

370
General Discussion / Re: PDF vs printer
I use PDF Creator, version 1.6.2 (which might not be available any longer).  It's freeware available at http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/files/PDFCreator/.

I have never noticed a difference between what I see on screen in PDF (using FoxItPro REader) and on paper.  My printer is a Samsung ML-1710 black and white laser printer, about 7 years old.  I've printed hundreds of pages of music with that combination.

If you do choose to download PDF Creator, be careful; last time I tried to upgrade to version 1.7 it downloaded a whole bunch of nuisance-ware as well. 
371
General Discussion / Re: set distance between title and music
I generally just stick with the title the way NWC produces it.  However, when I need to add titles, such as for a second page, I do that after printing the file to PDF.  My PDF program (FoxItReader) allows for adding text, and it's easy to do that on each page of the PDF document.  I don't know if Acrobat does that too, I simply started using FIR when I couldn't, for some reason, get Acrobat to install properly some years ago.
372
General Discussion / Re: Shift treble cleft down 8 for TTBB ?
Hi Bill,
I agree three of the replies are just about Win 8, so I agree they could be moved. I'm not sure how important it is; they aren't the first messages to stray within a thread.  Just as my reply is off-topic (grin). 
BW
David
374
General Discussion / Dotted notes and playback note chase with blank notehead, zero stem length notes
(I don't know if this is unique to 2.51 beta 29)

Drum parts often have dotted-eighth/sixteenth patters repeated measure after measure after measure.  It's customary to use a single bar repeat sign.  I use Lawrie's SwingDings \ character as a text entry, and either set the notes in repeated bars to stem-length=zero with blank noteheads, or simply set the notes to visibility=never.  

If I use zero-stem length and blank noteheads, the dotted note dots still display. They shouldn't.   

On playback, the coloured note chase on playback follows notes set to visibility=never, but not notes that are set to stem=zero/notehead=blank.

While stem=zero/blank notehead is used for things that visibility=never isn't, the note-chase and extension dots should be the same.




375
General Discussion / Re: Orchestral Scores
I notate for an older group of musicians in a 16 piece jazz rehearsal band.  We play one to a part, and we don't have to stand as we might in performance.  Despite middle-age and old men' s eyesight, size 16 seems to be adequate.  However, we usually play in good lighting conditions.  I find size 16 allows me to economize on paper - important when you tote 16 folders around with 100 charts in each.  Most charts are one or two pages, a larger font would add an extra page to most, making the folders harder to put in my library box, and making the box that much heavier to tote around.

I always print to PDF - and print hard copy from the PDFs. The advantages are being able to see and fix mistakes without  wasting paper, and always being able to print a new part without reopening NWC, selecting the appropriate instrumental staff, tinkering with margins and print preview to get it right once more.
 
My printer setting is for letter size paper.  Letter, legal and tabloid (11 x 17) are the sizes sold at my local office supply store. Legal is too long for our folders, and tends to flop on a music stand, and my printer can't handle tabloid.

Generally I print on recycled multi-use 20 pound white paper, brightness 96, but I've also used 30 pound. I don't know if recycled paper would be good for inkjet printers; it's great for a laser printer.

I tape the parts together with a store brand invisible tape similar to Scotch Magic Tape.  It doesn't last more than a couple of years before it begins to tear down the seam. I have also used adhesive (surgical) cloth tape and masking tape.  The labels Rick uses look like a good idea, and that isn't a bad price.

Something I I'm may also do is load all the pdf charts onto my e-reader. That would allow me to hand that over to a player who can't find his part in his folder - this happens because the guys often swap parts around.

I don't normally need to make scores since I already have them.  However, on the few occasions I've done them, I think the easiest way to package them would be in a 1/2 inch three-ring binder, which would work best with two sided printing.
377
General Discussion / Re: NWC files converted, by error, to Adobe Acrobat Document (.nwc) files
Quote from: Philip de Crez –
.........why NWC removed itself from my desktop icons in the 1st place is a mystery.
It's just Windows screwing you around. I don't know about Win7 or 8, but WinXP Pro allows you to right-click a file name to open it with a program that is not currently the default.  When you choose the program you want to use, you have to be careful to  NOT check the box that says "Always Use The Selected Program..."   I suspect you had it checked by mistake.

Once you've (inadvertently) picked that "Always Use..."  option, many programs such as Adobe will change the icons on all the files on your system that have the same extension, in this case .NWC

You can usually undo the mess by again right-clicking any file with your NWC extension, then choosing NWC as the program you want to open it, and this time, selecting "Always Use..."



378
General Discussion / Re: trouble with my sound card
My laptop came loaded with Windows 7 Home Premium and won't run many of the programs I use with Windows XP.  Apparently I need to buy an upgrade of Win 7 to get a feature that will run XP stuff.  I haven't done that yet, but it might be the same problem you're experiencing.    Kiss a hundred dollars or so goodbye, if the solution is to upgrade.


380
Tips & Tricks / Re: Using a Programmable Keypad (was: "Remapping Numeric Keypad")
Hi Omar,

While I don't see myself wanting to change from what I'm used to and prefer, your idea sounds interesting.  I have a couple of questions you might want to work through if you think others will want to adopt your idea.

  • My numeric keypad only has 17 keys, and they are not placed at all like the ones in your keyboard map.  Your keyboard map shows 21 keys, but you say there are 24.
  • Does a user need to buy the Fentek keypad to use your macros?  If so, where from and how much does it cost?  If not, what are the hardware needs?
  • You show how to insert p and pp dynamics.  Can your system also do ppp?
  • Does the insert dynamic function avoid collisions between dynamic marking and notes below the staff?
  • Is the key in the upper left corner a slur or tie?  NWC needs both.
  • You have two keys with periods on them, and you have two with minus signs that may be tenuto/legato lines.
  • Will your keypad handle articulations that use two symbols?  For instance a staccatto dot may be combined with either a legato or marcato
  • Any provision for clefs, time signatures, key signatures?
  • While you have explained note augmentation, what about note values themselves (quavers, semiquavers, etc.) and vertical placement (pitch).
  • Can the keyboard be used for other things such as bar lines, repeats, special endings, etc.?
  • Do you see this functioning as a way to input music notation into NWC, or as an alternative, to say, an electronic keyboard for making live music?
381
User Tools / Re: Problem with obj_NWC2PlayContext.inc (5,258 byte version)
The jargon is over my head. 

What's Lua?

I almost asked the same thing about Github, but I clicked the link.  I see it says Github doesn't support older versions of IE.  While Rick touched on this, he didn't mention this will likely be a problem for those of us with older older operating systems.  When last I checked, I could not instal Internet Explorer 9 because it isn't compatible with WinXP.  Please don't send us to websites if there's a strong possibility we won't be able to go there.
383
General Discussion / Re: Piano - Left Hand in Treble Staff
Quote from: Flurmy –
...And, by the way, I wrote "right click", not "center click".
And not the "windows" key but the one between the (right) "windows" and the (right) "Ctrl" keys.
Thanks!  My mouse is configured differently, I don't have a setting for right click - the left button is double-click, the right button is single-click and the wheel is Context/Alternate Select.  There's another button too, but it is set to give me F5.

Re the other key - Son of a Gun!  I have it too!  10 years on this keyboard and I've never noticed it nor pressed it by mistake. 

I'm happy now...
384
General Discussion / Re: Piano - Left Hand in Treble Staff
Quote from: Flurmy –
Well, the one we are talking here is the local menu.

You can get there via a mouse right click or pressing that odd key on the right of the space bar. The one between the "windows" and the "Ctrl" keys.
Thanks,Flurmy.  The prOperties open when I centre-click the highlighted feature.  The Windows key beside the spacebar doesn't have any choices with O underlined, though.  Maybe it has it on newer operating systems or other keyboards (I use XP Pro and a Natural keyboard).
386
General Discussion / Re: Too many beats in the measure
Quote from: Al –
...conceptually I don't know what you did. ...  I will somehow figure out what you did and apply it to the rest of the song.
...I thought music was supposed to be fun and easy. I bought a Yamaha keyboard and a guitar, and so far I can't play either of them equally well. When does the fun part begin?
The concept is just that NWC counts the beats in a bar with chords by only counting the shorter notes (or rests) in each chord.  The invisible rests added by Rich allow NWC to ignore the longer notes that were causing the problem.  There's a fairly comprehensive discussion of how to make chords in the Help section (press F1, and look for "Chord Member Command")

As to when the fun starts, it's when you start making music that sounds good to you.  Taking a few lessons from a real music teacher will help you get there. Don't use online tutorials, they can't see what's wrong with your playing.  With a competent teacher, you will learn how to play your instruments well, and learn about music too.  He or she will identify and correct problems you have - sometimes it's just a matter of posture or hand postion; if they're wrong you could end up in pain.

Mastering your instruments will take time, but you'll get a lot of pleasure along the way.
387
General Discussion / Re: Piano - Left Hand in Treble Staff
Son of a gun!  I too usually use [{Control}{E}] but I knew [{Alt}{E}] works too.  I didn't realize I could use [{Alt]-[Enter}] instead.  

With a Microsoft Natural keyboard I find [{Control}{E}] is the easiest, but it's nice to know the alternatives.


The jig's pretty. 

388
User Tools / Re: Appoggiature
Rick, let me also say thank you for the Project Gutenberg reference.  Cool!
389
General Discussion / Re: Repeat bars symbol in NWC2?
There isn't one built into NWc, so you need to make a text entry to fake it.  

Start at Page Setup/ Fonts, and instal Lawrie Pardy's MusikDingsSans  http://www.noteworthysoftware.com/uc/pardypack/  as a user font.  Set it to a fairly large text size, perhaps 16 or 18.

Put something in the bar -since you probably want to hear the bar, just copy the preceding bar into the target bar and make the visibility characteristics of all the notes and rests in that bar "hidden."  Alternatively, make the notes headless with a stem length of 0.  The latter preserves the spacing.

Now, go to the middle of the bar where you want the sign, and enter a backslash ( \ ) as a text entry set to MusikDingSans as the font.

MusikDingsSans has the 2-bar repeat sign as well, activated with the question mark ( ? ).  You need to place that at a bar line, centered on the bar line, and add a 2 above the bar line.

Put something in the bar -since you probably want to hear the bar, just copy the preceding bar into the target bar and make the visibility characteristics of all the notes and rests in that bar "hidden."  Alternatively, make the notes headless with a stem length of 0.  The latter preserves the spacing.

Lawrie's font chart also shows the ASCII code for these symbols if you're using a keyboard that is not laid out like the ones used in the USA

If you've made all the notes and rests in the target bar "hidden," then you should set the backslash to "preserve width."  If you did the no notehead and zero stem length, instead, just put the text entry in front of a note in the middle of the bar.




390
General Discussion / Re: MMR for coupled staves
I hope Eric will find a way to implement the conditional logic, because it would seem to fix your issue.  The only wrinkles I can think of are:

  • whether or not some instruments are commonly notated with three staffs?  Maybe a pipe organ, for instance?
  • would we want it to apply to instrumental groups which we might connect with a grand staff, as might be the case in a jazz score for reeds, trumpets, brass and rhythm?

Perhaps the conditional logic could be subject to a user control to toggle it on or off for the entire song.

391
General Discussion / Re: MMR for coupled staves
Could this be resolved with an "if" type of statement?  i.e.,
 
If staves are connected by a grand staff brace, the MMR logic should treat them as one staff.



393
General Discussion / Re: MusicXML to Noteworthy converter
Quote from: niver –
Unfortunately, not anymore.   The online version can't run on your desktop, and the desktop version can't be used online. And I won't maintain two different versions of the software, I already barely have time for one.

I am grateful for the old desktop version of your program; I have used it quite often and always been very pleased with the results. (Did I remember to say "thank you?")

While I expect I will find the new, online version very acceptable as well, I would like to ask if you can see your way clear to leaving the old, downloadable version available, perhaps in the Scriptorium, so it can be downloaded by those who don't already have it.  

The reason it is desirable is that some people may want to load the downloadable version onto a portable computing device (laptop, notebook, I-whatever, etc.) if they expect to travel someplace where they won't have internet access.  It works fine and would not need to be maintained; you could add a disclaimer to the hyperlink saying it is an "old version which is no longer supported but some might find it useful."

Of course, those who might want the downloadable version may already have it and could simply copy it across, but hard drives do crash and people do upgrade their systems.  I doubt that many people back up freeware...

 

394
General Discussion / Re: alteration in parentheses
I like your way, Warren, and often do that in pencil on my band parts, particularly when the notes are crowded.  I like to put brackets around these when I pencil them in.  Don't know why, just habit I guess. 

395
General Discussion / Re: alteration in parentheses
Quote from: lawrroc –
...I fear that if you give me simple and clear instructions for applying your suggestion will not know use of it. thanks

Since your key signature is C minor it includes a B-flat.  Your half note accidental B-natural only lasts for the duration of the bar it's in.  The next B (the sixteenth note) will be flat according to music theory and the NWC program will make it flat automatically.  What you call an alteration in parentheses is also called a "courtesy accidental," and the bracket is often the way it is presented.

You can set the fonts up in your song file by going to Page Setup, Fonts.  You might set Userfont 1, Userfont2, etc. to whichever font you have on your system.  One could be from Lawrie's set of fonts referred to as Purdy fonts.

You insert text from the Insert menu, or simply press X;  the wording, placement and justification are all set in the popdown menu.

Lawrie created several fonts (the Purdy fonts) for use with NWC.  He included symbols for courtesy accidentals that include the sharp, flat or natural signs.  You enter the courtesy accidental as text where you want them.  Vertical placement might be tricky, but you can get close enough in most cases. One drawback is that if you transpose the staff, the text needs to be moved manually, and if you have lots of these text entries, it's tedious.

Rick's clip also used text but took advantage of NWC's ability to force a note to show a sharp, flat or natural sign when it wouldn't normally do so, just by highlighting it and pressing 9,8 or 7 respectively. Rick did that with the sixteenth note B-flat. He then put brackets around the flat sign, using ordinary text:
|Text|Text:"( ) "|Font:StaffSymbols|Pos:0|Justify:Right|Placement:AtNextNote

This means he inserted text, with a left bracket, a space, a right bracket and another space. He made it right justified and placed it "at next note."  His brackets fit comfortably around the "courtesy accidental."  (Rick should not have bracketed the natural sign on the half-note B  because it is a  true accidental.)


397
General Discussion / Re: Adding staves during a repeat
This example uses nested special endings and seems to give the playback you want

!NoteWorthyComposerClip(2.51,Single)
|Clef|Type:Treble
|Tempo|Tempo:300|Pos:11
|Note|Dur:Whole|Pos:3
|Bar|Style:MasterRepeatOpen
|Note|Dur:Whole|Pos:-3
|Bar
|Note|Dur:Whole|Pos:-1
|Bar
|Ending|Endings:1,2,3,4,5,6
|Note|Dur:Whole|Pos:0
|Bar|Style:MasterRepeatClose
|Bar|Style:MasterRepeatOpen
|Ending|Endings:7|Visibility:Never
|Ending|Endings:1,2,3
|Note|Dur:Whole|Pos:4
|Bar
|Note|Dur:Whole|Pos:3
|Bar|Style:MasterRepeatClose
!NoteWorthyComposerClip-End

I haven't tried to work it out with the muted sections on the first three voices.  That becomes more complicated than necessary, and I think it's easier and more reliable to use hidden staffs for the playback. 

398
General Discussion / Re: Adding staves during a repeat
Quote from: BrianP805 –
Thanks David,  I did add the text but what I want is for playback to work correctly.
I think Flurmy's idea could work, but when I wrote my earlier message I had made a brief attempt to work that out and couldn't.

One of NWC's strengths is having hidden staffs that play back, and having visible staffs that are muted.  Just add four new staffs that will be hidden.  Instead of using repeats, write the music out on the hidden staffs. 

The hidden bass part will have 36 bars of notes.  The tenor will have 8 bars of rests and 28 bars of notes.  The alto part will begin with 16 bars of rests, followed by 20 bars of notes, and the soprano hidden staff will have 24 bars of rests, then 12 bars of notes.  Mute the staffs that will be visible and printed; don't mute the hidden ones.

The playback should work the way you want it (if I've counted the bars correctly).  If this 4 bar theme is in the middle of the composition and throws out your bar count, you can set the extra bar lines in the hidden staff to be excluded from the bar count.
399
General Discussion / Re: Adding staves during a repeat
For the printed music, you could use text at the beginning of the repeated section to tell your choir who plays when. 

Use the opening local repeat bar and the closing local repeat bar, with the local repeat count = 9
This text would be something like:
(soprano staff)  "Tacet x1, x2, x3, x4, x5, x6"
(alto)  "Tacet x1, x2, x3, x4"
(tenor) "Tacet x1, x2"

I haven't worked out how to do the playback.  A couple of users will have the experience to offer things that work. 
400
User Tools / Re: Dynamic Placement
Quote from: Warren Porter –
Adding a right justification looks easy enough.
The justification would have to be a variable for the user to choose. 
Quote from: Warren Porter –
If a hairpin is found would I ignore it or tell you about it (syserr [which wouldn't do anything], a popup window, or insert some kind of flag in the score
I think the best bet is to have the routine ignore the dynamic change that controls the position of the hairpin