Please, would someone make a note font with note heads scaled at 60%? Since we can control stem length , that is all that is needed to give us cues.
Until then, I'm using the diamond heads for cues.
Carl
G'day Carl,
umm, this is a good idea I'm thinking... Would it be a problem if you lost the diamond head altogether? This way I think I could replace the diamond head with a cue sized oval head... Not sure what to do about solid vs. hollow though - may need to think about this for a bit. It would be easier if we could specify multiple notation fonts but...
Better still to have proper cues - the scaling code must be there for grace notes so I'm not sure what else is needed to use it...
A modified system font doesn't really solve the problem. You need a smaller head for whole, half and normal heads. Easier, and more complete method is to add text heads to 'blank space' notes as I did here:
https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?topic=6347.msg43012#msg43012 (https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?topic=6347.msg43012#msg43012)
But this is still just a partial solution. Flags, leger lines, articulations and accidentals need to be downsized as well. But the biggest problem is beams. These can't be downsized.
One of my most important uses of NWC2 is to combine piccolo and flute parts for my wife. Cues are vital for piccolo work as few things are worse than a fortissimo piccolo in the high register entering at the wrong time.
NoteWorthy Composer is true to its name. It is invaluable as a composing/arranging aid. For ensemble work that has to be played with little or no rehearsal, the lack of cue support often forces me to use other notation software.
Another thing that needs to be downsized is the staff itself; not for cues (at least, not if you place them directly in the part), but for ossia, spelling out ornaments, descants, showing the solo against the accompanist's part, and most other uses of small notes. Basically, we need to be able to use dual scaling in a single score: either just the notes (for cues on the same staff as the main part) or for one or more complete staves (for just about everything else). Since dual scaling is already available for grace notes, this would seem to be a relatively small programming task....although some of the uses of small notes require short sections of a staff rather than a complete staff. That might be a little harder to arrange. Being able to mark sections of staff lines as visibility: never would go a long way toward solving that problem.
Bill
Not so easy as one might think. To be useful, control over which staves appear in each systemic line would be needed. For ossia, you would need finer control than that. Major interface expansion. Major upgrade to page layout routines which, at present, are fairly dumb (no insult intended). I'll take real cues first.
Real cues - then add the "=" character from the NWC2STDA font which is a 5 line staff element - just tried an experiment with grace notes but I can't seem to get a satisfactory scaling of the "staff" and appropriate alignment with the grace notes - DANG - almost had ossia!
I see that my idea won't work. Tant pis.
Agreed - and I agree that it would be more difficult than it appears. But control over which staves appear in each system is on the wish list already, for other purposes (e.g., layout of orchestral scores that have long passages in one instrumental choir, or in a solo instrument). So this is an improvement that would serve more than one purpose. It's been suggested in another thread that this could be accomplished by building controls into barline properties that would allow layering to be turned on or off for subsequent measures. This wouldn't help much for ossia staves if they were in a smaller metric, but it would be a start. Add control over the distance between systems (which might also be built into barline properties, and would also have other uses) and the ability to render staff lines invisible, and the elements would all be there. Maybe not so major after all.
But I'll also take real cue notes as a start.
Bill