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Messages - hmmueller

51
General Discussion / Re: The contents of the Meta Data (File info)
Two ideas (not yet solutions), from a programming guy:

(a) Save every file as nwctxt file - this, you would have to do manually (but see (b)). Then, someone (you?) can write a simple program to replace all those Copyrights (I would write an AWK script; but any programming language will do).

(b) There is a tool called AHK - AutoHotKey -, which allows to automate keypresses (and mouse moves, but NWC can be almost perfectly controlled from the computer keyboard). With it, one can write a script to edit those copyrights.

Edit:
AHK can be downloaded at https://www.autohotkey.com/download/2.0/. The download page is very long; what you want right now is the setup file AutoHotkey_2.0.10_setup.exe, way down on the page.

I have attached an AHK script (inside a .zip file, as this forum does not allow upload of .ahk files) that changes the copyrights of an open file and then saves and closes the file. To use it:
1.  Install AHK
2.  Save my script somewhere (by downloading and extracting the ZIP file)
3. Install ("run") the script, by double-clicking it
4. Open NWC and open a .NWC file in it (use a new test file, please)
5. Press "Alt"+"Windows"+C (that's what the !#C in the script means)
- -> the script will change the copyrights, save the file and close NWC.

To modify the copyright texts inserted by the script, edit the SendText lines in the .ahk file (e.g. with notepad). Then, do again steps 3...5. above (you will be asked whether the script should be replaced - just hit enter).
Maybe this is helpful as a starting point.

It is possible to write e.g. loops over files in AHK to fully automate what you want (but I don't know [yet] how to do that). However, I would do it manually file by file, even over hundreds of files - just to be sure that I handle the right files. The process would be:

a. copy all your NWC files to a temporary "working folder" (dont work on the originals ...);
b. mark the first file (by pressing space)
c. hit enter - this opens NWC with the file
d. hit Alt+Win+C - this changes the copyrights and closes NWC; you are now back in the folder view
e. hit space (this marks the next file; for some reason Windows advances the mark to the next file, which is nice for opening all the files one after the other  :D)
... and repeat from c.!
It's really quick - I tried it; about 2 seconds per file.

H.M.
52
Object Plugins / GroupOp.hmm 0.7
The name of this Plugin sounds strange - this is so because it is only a "support object" for copying and deleting larger "groups of items" on multiple staves. NWC cannot do "vertical selection" over multiple staves, yet sometimes it is necessary to copy a segment on all staves to some other score position. Typical scenarios are
  • expanding of verses notated with repeat marks, when later in arranging differences between the verses should be notated precisely (e.g. when the syllable counts differ; or when, for playback, different note lengths - slurs etc. - are desired);
  • during arranging, when a part that has been expanded from a particell or the like should be copied to a repeat.
From version 0.2 onwards, the tools for copying and deleting also handle lyrics correctly, which should greatly improve their usefulness.

With GroupOps, one would do the copying as follows:
  • place a pair of 'Start' and 'End' GroupOps on each staff around the segment to be copied;
  • place an 'Insert' GroupOp one each staff at the target place of the copying;
  • execute the plugin's user tool 'Copy'

Typically, the 'Start', 'End', and 'Insert' GroupOps on the staves will be lined up vertically, but this is not required. Only one 'Start', 'End', and 'Insert' GroupOp should be present on each staff; the 'Copy' tool will ignore all after the first, but it might also produce chaotic output of there are more GroupOps of a type on a staff. The 'Insert' GroupOp can be after, before or even inside the segment to be copied.
The copied result will be shown between dashed GroupOps.

The two attachments BeforeCopy.PNG and AfterCopy.PNG show the setup of a copy and the score after executing the GroupOp.hmm:Copy user tool.

Since 0.4, there is some support for expanding repeat sections with master repeats and endings; for an explanation and an example how to do this, see Reply #9 below.

With the plugin's 'Delete' user tool, it is possible to delete segments, delimited by 'Start' and 'End', on multiple staves. Also here, the 'Start' and 'End' GroupOps will typically be aligned vertically over the staves, but this is not required.
The deletion locations will be shown by newly inserted 'Insert' GroupOps.

Finally, there is a 'Reset' user tool to remove all GroupOps. This is useful if another 'Copy' or 'Delete' is done to make sure that not left-over GroupOps play havoc with the score. The example AfterReset.PNG shows the Copy example form above after the GroupOp.hmm:Reset user tool is executed.

In effect, this user plugin replaces the PHP user tools I have published in this old thread.

H.M.
53
General Discussion / Re: Pending???
I bought a new license a week or so ago for my new laptop, and it installed immediately - ok, no upgrade .... hm.

H.M.
54
General Discussion / Re: Is this new version designed by Satan or what?????
Well, then ...

First, you should have a backup copy of your installer around, or the original CD.
Second, you could use this webpage of NWC.
Third, maybe someone can give you a copy of his - I dont think many people still need their V1.

However, let me point out that NWC 1.75 and earlier do, to the best of my knowledge, not run on a 64-bit Windows; whereas laptops nowadays are only supplied with 64-bit processors and OSes. So you might have to install a virtual machine that runs an older Windows version for that version 1 NWC.

Still, and finally, I'd bet a complete license price of that version 1 that also then, there'll be problems running the software on the new laptop. There's something else amiss here ...

H.M.
55
General Discussion / Re: Is this new version designed by Satan or what?????
Hm. I bought (again) the newest 2.75a version two days ago, installed it on my new laptop, and everything runs as smoothly as ever.

What do you mean by "getting stuck"? - when editing, when playing, when saving?

Have you opened Task-Manager and watched its performance tab (especially its CPU and Disk graphs) during these bad experiences with NWC? Maybe they help to find whether e.g. a virus scanner, or a hard disk at its limit makes NWC stumble ...

On the whole, NWC uses the most standard Windows input and output methods of any music editor I know; and AFAIK not much has changed from 1 to 2 there. I am quite convinced that falling back to version 1 will not help you - there's something else going on.

H.M.
 
58
General Discussion / Re: Importing a MIDI with Lyrics
3rd posting on this - not nice what's going on in this world (only talking about MIDI  ;) ). I have found a way to put Spanish letters into lyrics and then have them showing up in Van Basco ... but it's not at all nice. Maybe someone else here can improve on it ...

First, here are two things I tried that did not work:
- Saving the music as NWCTXT, converting this from UTF-8 to ANSI (e.g. with Notepad++), reading that in with NWC and exporting as MIDI. NWC gets confused by the non-UTF-8 lyrics and exports ... well, nothing usable.
- Exporting from a MusicXML to MIDI via MuseScore (MuseScore does not save any lyrics in MIDIs).

What works is a chain via Reaper:

1. First, work around the "first syllable not shown" problem of Van Basco (or Karaoke files in general?):
- Add a rest at the very beginning of the NWC file (I use a whole rest);
- Select it, open Properties (e.g. Alt-Enter) and change "Lyrics" to "Always"; press ok.
- Add a first syllable to the lyrics (I use a single period)
==> see attached SpanishLetters1.jpg and SpanishLetters.nwctxt.

2. Export MIDI file from NWC.

3. Import it in Reaper (open new project, drag MIDI file in [hit OK on "Import ... tempo map] - creates a new track)
(For the Reaper DAW software, see reaper.fm website; there's download link somewhere there. Reaper is a huge software - I know only 1 % of it; but no need to get scared  8). It's only free for 60 days IIRC; for me, it was worth the 50 or so $$. Maybe all this here also works with Audacity? - which is free ... edited: No, it doesn't :( - lyrics show up as UTF-8 encodings)
==> see attached SpanishLetters2.jpg

4. Export from Reaper via "File->Export ..."; select a good filename (I take the original one and add _ViaReaper. In the example, that would be SpanishLetters_ViaReaper.mid).
==> see attached SpanishLetters3.jpg

Reaper, who could read in the UTF-8 lyrics from the NWC-exported MIDI, exports the lyrics now in "ANSI encoding", which can be read by Van Bosco.

5. Load the exported file into Van Basco.
==> see attached SpanishLetters4.jpg

It works (mostly; once I only saw a copyright message in Van Basco). But it's cumbersome, error-prone, what-have-you ...

H.M.
59
General Discussion / Re: Importing a MIDI with Lyrics
...How do I edit a MIDI then? Can somebody tell me exactly how to import the MIDI with lyrics correctly so that they end up in the Lyrics 1 tab?
Oh, I see: As far as I can see, the lyrics end up on a separate "layered" staff which has only "rhythmic notes" in it, where the lyrics are attached - see the attached image of my re-imported file.
You can go to that staff with "Page Down" (it will become highlighted - see second attached image), and after pressing Ctrl-L you can now edit the lyrics.

A second related problem is to export the NWC file into a MIDI file, and the Spanish accented letters would show correctly. áéíóú ÁÉÍÓÚ and ñÑ¿¡. Any help people? I am like a month trying to figure out how to do this and nothing.
Oh. After installing VanBasco, it seems that it cannot handle "UTF-8" characters - it shows them as some garbled letters (3rd attached image). Hm. Two possible solutions - but both need a little more research:
  • Use another karaoke player that can handle "UTF-8 lyrics";
  • Convert the MIDIs to "local Windows codepage" with Spanish symbols.

I'll look a little into it ...

H.M.
60
General Discussion / Re: Importing a MIDI with Lyrics
As a first "base line experiment", I wrote a short piece with all your symbols, exported it as MIDI and reimported it; and then again exported MIDI and reimported. As far as I see, all the symbols are correctly written and read in - so in principle, there's no problem with NWC-generated MIDIs (see attachments for my files). Also, printing the Spanish symbols works nicely.

To understand more of your problems, could you attach your MIDIs here - all of them in a ZIP file, e.g.?

H.M.
62
User Tools / Re: NWCCONVERTOR
2 wishes:

a) NWCCONVERTOR creates files that make Musescore4.1.1 crash because of this problem: https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore/issues/19322
Although they will change MuseScore to survive that, maybe you could change the converter so that it creates the necessary "stop" element.

b) And would it be possible that invisible notes are not emitted into the MusicXML file? I use especially invisible cue notes for some purposes which should not be visible anywhere - but MusicXML files transport them as normal visible notes, and then they turn up in e.g. MuseScore.
This could of course also be a checkbox in the "Options", e.g. "Ignore invisible notes".

Thank you for this tool - it's always very helpful!
H.M.
63
Object Plugins / Re: PrintConfiguration (0.6)
This object has, for me, certainly proven its value. As a recent example, I have written a full score (4 voices, 5 strings) of Durante's Magnificat in B flat, with its 6 parts, as we needed a number of changes for our choir and strings: SATB > SSAB, rewriting a TB piece as SB, replacing a viola with a second violoncello (so it goes, in real life ... viola players are hard to get around Christmas), with all the consequences - changing clefs, moving notes and lyrics lines to other voices, rewriting a host of measures for range reasons or for better voice leading.

These changes evolve in a "development process" in many exchanges with our conductress, which takes 6 or 8 rounds: After maybe the first 3, the instruments are stable, but the singers' voices (choir and soloists) get more fine-tuning afterwards. And of course, in that process, it is expected (and I expect) that I can produce a consistent set of
  • conductor's score
  • choir/singers' score
  • new cello voice
  • (but, int his case, no other strings and general bass is needed, as we can use bought scores there).
with a reasonable layout - readable, not too many pages, and of course no errors and acceptable formatting - with no manual checking, and a minimal amount of headache.

For this to work, my typical score consists of
  • a top "full score" staff with a PrintConfiguration, which is layered with the first notes staff (typically soprano); it contains the necessary line/page breaks for the full conductor's staff and elements only for the conductor;
  • another PrintConfiguration "choir" staff with a single line that is layered with the first notes staff (typically soprano), with breaks etc. for the singers;
  • the singers' staves; which will only be printed as part of a full or choir score, thus without PrintConfiguration of their own);
  • the strings' staves; which will be printed in a full score; and on their own (e.g. in a larger font and with different line breaks), thus they have their own PrintConfiguration objects.

However, there is one feature that had to be changed: Up to version 0.5, all score properties (title, author, ..., and also both copyright lines) were saved per print configuration ("score"). With the evolutionary process outlined above, it was necessary to mark each version very clearly - for that, I chose the second copyright line (Copyright2) for placing a "version date" on each page. But keeping these dates consistent over multiple print configurations was very error-prone. Thus, starting with version 0.6 Copyright2 is no longer touched by the PrintConfiguration objects and tools, and thus a Copyright2 value is consistently shown in all printed scores (until it is changed in NWC directly, of course).

This is a breaking change ... but I think that no one out there uses this object as heavily as I - or even at all  ;)

H.M.
64
Object Plugins / Re: Trill.ms (2.3)
The playNoteRate array is only used by the audit() method.  ... Since the old object never had a text Eighth value, there's no need to add it to the array for conversion purposes. Does that make sense?
It does - and I didnt look there. Aha!

For a version number, the going rate here is quite low - purchasing another one ... well  :))

Edit: Also, the complete thread would like to get a subject update to Trill.ms (2.3) - or 2.4?  ;)

... I know I'm, hm, getting irritating ...

H.M.
65
Object Plugins / Re: Trill.ms (2.3)
... small hiccup: The help text for the Rate parameter still says that the minimum is 16.
Also, there's a playNoteRate array (whose purpose I don't see on my quick glance) - would it now like to heave an Eighth entry?

H.M.
66
Object Plugins / Re: Trill.ms (2.2)
A tiny change suggestion: In the attached score of Durante's Magnificat in b flat, the trill should play in eighths.
The piece is notated alla breve, the tempo is about half=105...110. In more modern times (starting around Haydn), this would of course be notated in common time and quarters, but it isn't so here. So, I think the minimum trill rate of 16 should be changed to 8 (I can do that locally, of course; but why not change it for all  :-[ )

H.M.
67
General Discussion / Re: how to make short measure
You must insert that break on each staff. Your successful example shows the same whole break also on the second staff.

(Your successful example also has a tempo mark on the second staff. This should be avoided, i.e., tempo markings should only be on one staff, typically the topmost one. Otherwise, searching why some tempo is wrong becomes cumbersome. For example, in your successful example, if you replaced the topmost "750" with e.g. "250" - for whatever reason -, this will not change the tempo, because immediately afterwards, the 750 on the second staff will come up and override the 250).

H.M.
68
Tips & Tricks / Re: smaller notes
I would assume (and do it like that if playing):

- On first page: Foot stomping.
- On second page: Play with right hand, if you can do it (pedal for long sounding notes, maybe using left hand for a note on upper staff).

H.M.
69
General Discussion / Re: MIDI output not working
The windows media player seems to have stopped, I can't hear sound from a youtube video but I can get sound from PBS streaming
"Windows Media Player" is a specific software that can play MIDI files (what plays a Youtube video is your browser, and a few pieces in the Windows operating system). Try to start Windows Media Player by pressing the Windows button on your computer keyboard (the button with the sort-of window on it) and then typing WMP, pressing Enter and then pulling a MIDI file into its right-hand pane ... and then making it play.

H.M.
70
Tips & Tricks / Re: smaller notes
Hard to say, from this small snippet - I'd need to see the complete score to understand this.
How to recreate them: With the Cueheads.ms plugin.

H.M.
72
General Discussion / Re: two problems
Here is my "practical" attempt, with standard NWC means (no Beam object) and Rick's Markup for the line.

H.M.
73
General Discussion / Re: flip a tie upside down
I use it quite often, actually.

My last example (last 4 measures in Downslurring2) shows why one might think "it does not work (often, or always)":

- The slur in m.9 apparently is pushed up by the flat sign;
- but just putting a low marker before the flat, as in m.11, apparently "does nothing".
- The reason is the slur is also (almost) touching the second note, so the single marker in m.11 does not work - but also a single marker before the second note changes almost nothing in m.10.
- Only both markers together, as in m.12, move the slur visibly.

A visual hint showing why a slur looks as it does would be helpful  :P

H.M.
74
General Discussion / Re: flip a tie upside down
Hm - it does work in quite a lot of other situations - see attachments (I have never tried those cases before ...). But I have no "set of rules" on what it really does ...

H.M.
75
General Discussion / Re: flip a tie upside down
You can place markers anywhere along the slur, but the ones between the ends can only increase the curve from the default, they cannot flatten the curve, you can only do that from the ends.
This is not true, AFAIK - markers can flatten slurs. Attached is an example where NWC typically creates a high-arching slur to avoid the flat signs; if you want to lower that slur (e.g. if it intersects lyrics on the staff above), you can force the slur to go through the accidentals by adding two low-lying markers at the two intermediate notes.

H.M.
76
General Discussion / Re: MIDI files
Your posting motivated me, after years and years, to install a soundfont for VLC. I use chorium.sf2 (can be found at many places on the internet, AFAIK), and installed it like that.

- If VLC then plays your MIDIs audibly, all is well (more or less: You'd have to find out why WMP no longer makes sounds ...).
- If VLC is also silent, it's the sound system that doesn't like you.

Don't know whether this is of any (tiny) help ...

H.M.
77
General Discussion / Re: Is this software dead?
The software being "dead" is, IMHO, different from no longer maintained: NWC can be used as it is on Win 10 and Win 11 without any problems.

For maintenance, my honest take is this (being a software architect in a medium-sized special-software company - not a product manager, but knowing lots about writing and delivering software):

a. The expected level of features of a typical music editor (like NWC) has grown significantly over the last 10 years: Part creation is of course necessary; also roughening out usage weirdnesses from old times; creating apps for at least listening, maybe assembling play lists or the like; but the most important thing is a modern sound rendering engine with qualitative initial sound configuration, and of course the ability to connect to all known sound rendering standards.
MuseScore, with its 4.x rewrite, and Dorico are two baselines against which small(er) music editors need to position themselves, IMHO.

b. As I know NWC from long ago, I'd guess(!) that the organization would need quite some overhaul to make it fit for the features under a. - mainly because you need specialists in a few areas for this. MuseScore, as an open souce project; and Dorico at Steinberg can do that: Tapping deep-knowledge personnel from nearby areas. I would doubt that "an enthusiast" is, as of nowadays, easily capable of that.

I dont want to cast deathspells on anything; and I quickly returned and return to NWC for most of my work after learning MuseScore 4, with a real course, and "even" writing a few scores with it. For actual composing and arranging, there's nothing better than NWC. Yet, I'm now setting up tool chains (e.g. with Opagust's NWCConvertor) that embed NWC in a somewhat larger ecosystem to compensate for missing features, especially in the sound rendering area.

H.M.
78
General Discussion / Re: Changing the key signature
Anyway what do you mean by lower or higher one third, is it one third of an octave?
A third = 3 notes, e.g. from C to A (downwards); or from B to D (upwards).

With some singing in ("warmup") before a performance, all the "singing muscles" relax, and it is then possible to reach more notes - like in sports  ;D Extending the range by a third is possible - no big deal, just "oiling your voice" a little before the performance  :)) Then, you might not have to shift the song up or down!

H.M.
79
Tips & Tricks / Re: Slurs or ties direction
If I understand you correctly, then what you can do after you have entered all notes:
  • Select everything on the staff ("Home", then "Shift-End"),
  • open properties Alt-Enter,
  • there will be a few/many tabs - go to the "Notes" tab (you might have to scroll with the small arrows at the upper right),
  • and now you can set the Slur and Tie direction for all notes at once.
  • "Ok" closes the dialog and saves your selected directions to all notes.
Now, all existing ties and slurs, and also all that are added later, use your selected directions.

H.M.
80
General Discussion / Re: Changing the key signature
Hi Frank - can you do "singing in" before the song is performed? - because if you do this - just some relaxing and then singing a few triads up and down the scale -, the range of your singers can be extended by at least a third, I'd say. That's why choirs do this :-)

Regards
H.M.
81
General Discussion / Re: Final variant
Hm, I would contradict that "all is possible" ... but much, yes.
And that modified XTextShiftable is not an official version I will support or publish - it's just a hack for trying this  ;D

H.M.
82
General Discussion / Re: Final variant
...The scenario I've had difficulty with is positioning text at the start of a staff (for example, the text "Refrain" or "Verse 2"). I would like the text to be left aligned with the automatic clef at the start of the staff, ...
You want, on the second or a later line, to appear a text that is left aligned with the clef there, i.e. the text starts at the left side of the clef reliably? I think one can write a user object that helps with that, which simply shows a text left-shifted by some inputable distance. The width of a automatic clef, key signature and time signature is known (to us, at least), and also the distances between them are stable. Thus, one can add them up and use this as the shift distance.
In the attachment is a hack of my XText object with added shifts; and an example for its use. It places the texts quite nicely, I think ...

H.M.

85
General Discussion / Re: Oblique lines between two staves
...I only partially understood your observations on what concerns the correctness of the composition and harmony ...
Here is an NWC file that shows the buildup of the segment from its four voices; and tries, colorfully, to show my three concerns - 1) that the bass line consists of quarters; 2) and 3) whether the gb is part of the bass, and whether it is correct. But this is just for amusement for those of you who, like me, like to nitpick around a little about this and that musical segment  :D

H.M.
86
General Discussion / Re: Oblique lines between two staves
Those are "melody indicator lines" (my name, don't know whether there is some official name).
This piece, if you listen to it, has four melodic lines - I list them here in logical order, not in the order of pitch:

a) the top or main melody ("soprano"), which consists only of d-flats (with grace notes).
b) a bass line, going g-flat, a-flat, f | g-flat, f, e-flat, g-flat | ... (but see remarks 1) and 2) below!)
c) counter-strikes below the bass line = all the d-flat eighths in the left hand;
d) and finally a "bass parallel line", which almost completely runs a third above the bass line: b-flat, c-flat, a-flat | b-flat, a-flat, g-flat etc. This line is - for whatever reason; it's not actually necessary for playing - split between the right and left hand: from the a-flat in the second measure onwards, it is played by the left hand; starting at the c-flat in the third measure, the right hand plays it. Now, these oblique lines indicate this, to show the pianist that this is to be played as one continuous "inner melody".

If you, and anyone, is a little surprised that a piano piece can contain 4 "voices" or "melody lines", even if there are only two hands: The only thing I can say is that's how music works - it consists of many more interwoven elements that one might expect on the surface (there are quite a number of other interconnected patterns even in this small segment ... but I'm not going to blabber along about them ;D ).

A pianist should, if playing well, play all these lines differently, mainly with different volumes and different articulation, so that they are (even if subconsciously) communicated to the listener - therefore, it is customary to indicate "more unexpected" ones of these lines.

There are, in my opinion, two or maybe three errors in this score:
1) In the first measure, one can see that the bass line (b) above) is accentuated by having it played as quarters - the additional upward stems in the left hand. As this line continues in the second and third measures, the upward stems must go down to the bass line notes - see attached image. In NWC, this can only be achieved with a layered staff, AFAIK.
2) In the third measure, there is no note for the bass line on the fourth beat. The c-flat, as indicated by the line, is part of the "bass parallel line"; but there is no quarter note that would continue the bass line.
3) The low g-flat in the left hand below that c-flat seems out of place harmonically; it introduces a pedal tone, which was not present before ... but as I dont know the rest of the piece, this might be intentional; still, I, as a composer, would include this strange note in the bass line and stress it, again (at least) by making it a quarter note.

H.M.
87
General Discussion / Re: Exported MIDI Malformed
The MPC in the lower staff has still Time Offset 127! ... and I get the feeling that you do not really know how MPCs work? - then, please, just delete them. The tiny decresc. at the end is not worth the hassle, I'd say  :D

Especially with your selection of instrument, Pad (4) choir / patch 91, this seems unnecessary: As one can hear in measure 4, there is a decresc. for longer notes built into that instrument anyway; so the additional effect in the last measure is not really audible.

But if you want them, some guidelines:
- The Initial Time Offset is practically always 0 - i.e., the effect starts at the point where you place the MPC.
- A typical MPC only works if at least Setting 2 is checked - otherwise, there is no target value.
- Linear Sweep, and a Sweep Resolution of 1, are typically selected. Other values here need to have a special reason.
- Typically, I limit the effect of a MPC to a single measure. So, in 6/8 piece, I would set "Time Resolution" to "Eighth", and "Setting 2 | Time Offset" to 6 (at most).
- Also, for a decresc at the very end, I'd set the "Setting 2 | Controller Value" to 0, i.e. total silence, to make the effect really audible.
When I do all that in your score, it does exactly what it should - a nice decresc at the very end, and a play time of 0:36!

H.M.
88
General Discussion / Re: Exported MIDI Malformed
Interesting  :)
The reason is in the MPCs: They have an "Initial Time Offset" of 127 = their behavior starts about 127 eighths after the end of the piece. Playback and MIDI export seem to take this literally and extend the file up to that point.
Please note that playback lasts also for a much longer time (1:21) than until the final chord of the piece (about 0:36).

H.M.
89
Object Plugins / StrokeHeads 0.1
For noteheads that look like pen strokes, I have quickly assembled this user object. It's maybe useful for rhythm notation. I didn't look whether something similar is already available, I confess.
StrokeHeads.hmm is essentially a copy-paste of Mike's CueHeads.ms object (thanks for that one!), without the possibility to change any size. See examples.

H.M.
90
General Discussion / Re: Page view
No, I do not think so.

There are actually 6 zoom levels (1/6 = full page is visible, 2/6 = about a third of the page, 3/6...6/6 = not useful except in very rare cases). Paging behaviour in 2/6 and higher is also strange as a PgDn/PgUp does not reset the position to the top/bottom of the newly opened page, but remains at the same relative location. But I can now live with it as follows:

"Going down enlarged":
  • Opening: Alt-F V + and immediately 5 up-arrows
  • Going down: down-arrow
  • Next page: PgDn and then immediately 5 up-arrows
"Going up enlarged":
  • Going up: up-arrow
  • Previous page: PgUp and then immediately 5 down-arrows

After rehearsing this like a new piano piece a few times, you do it automatically and end up about where you want  :)

H.M.
92
Object Plugins / Re: BarCounter.hmm 0.5
Hu - thanks for suggestion - I'd have to look into it. I use the object extensively (also the checking option, after having delivered voice prints with "slightly differing" measure numbers - all hell broke loose  >:( ), so I should have enough test cases. But may take a few weeks, as ... too much to do.

H.M.
93
General Discussion / Re: Good Tie
Hi Frank -

your arrow points at a slur, not a tie - it slurs the notes f#-g-f#. Therefore, a slur with additional markers to position it should be helpful. Also, the slur in the upper voice can be made more beautiful with markers - see attachments!

Also a happy new year around the world!
H.M.
94
Object Plugins / Re: Tremolo.ms (2.1)
Hm - I just tried it, and it worked - see the attached image: Left measure shows the initial notes; when I mark both of them and then run the Tremolo plugin's user tool, I get what ist een in the next measure: Both the notes and the rests are dotted.

H.M.
95
General Discussion / Re: alternating number of verses
Easily done: In "Special text", enter the numbers (or even other text) you want to see separated by spaces. See the attached example where I needed verse numbers 1., 3., and 6.
  • I added "1 3 6" in "Special Text";
  • I kept the dot in "Punctuation", so the numbers become 1., 3., and 6.
  • The "Start Verse Number" entry is irrelevant in that case - even through I selected "5" there, this does not show up anywhere.
I hope that helps.

H.M.
96
General Discussion / Re: vertical line
... just as a demonstration, here are four examples from our Lutheran church's "songbook with more modern songs", with three where a separation line is in the middle of a bar. German "Strophe" is "verse", "Kehrvers" means "chorus".

The first two examples (ChorusSeparationExample1.png and ChorusSeparationExample2.png) are of standard verse-chorus songs. One can see that a double bar line is used to separate verse and chorus in the middle of a measure:
- The first song (numbered 091) is in common time, the double bar is after 3 beats; the chorus starts with an anacrusis of two quavers.
- The second song (069) with alla breve meter has the double bar line in the middle of the second beat.
In both cases, the double line could be placed at the end of a line - I did not find an example where they put one that is in the middle of a bar in a running line; but there are multiple examples where a double line is used to separate verse and chorus at a measure boundary, see e.g. ChorusSeparationExampleInLine.jpg (0117); I see no reason one couldn't use this also in the middle of a bar.

The fourth example (ChorusSeparationExampleChorusFirst.png, 048) is a song that starts (and ends) with the chorus. In such cases, a standard end line ("Section Close" in NWC) is used, also in the middle of a line and even in the middle of a bar.

H.M.
97
General Discussion / Re: vertical line
It is a line indicating that some "segment" of the piece is ending here (as also indicated by the fermata on the previous chord). In your case, it is the boundary between the verse and chorus parts of the song (it says CHORUS above).
Today, this would be written as a "Double" barline (in NWC, with "Exclude from bar count" set, so that the bar numbering is not confused by it).
In that case of an older score, the printer seems to have opted for a "somewhat thicker line".
If you want to show this (but this will confuse readers! - it is not used nowadays; use a "Double" bar line, or even a "Broken Double" line), you can put in 3 or 4 normal barlines - NWC will then print a thicker line - see attachments.

H.M.
99
General Discussion / Re: What is this?
My own "wild guess" is that it's some form of shorthand for a tied chord, maybe intended on a handwritten score, where the composer didn't want to have to write in all of the notes for tied chords. It seems like an intuitive (albeit nonstandard) way of showing tied chords that would take less time to write and be a little less cluttered on a multi-instrument score.
All of us think the same - but it looks very "locally custom-invented" ... Is there no explanation at the bottom, top, back, ... of the score?

H.M.
100
General Discussion / Re: Key signature
Is it possible those are not sharp signs, bur instead are double sharps?
No, these are standard sharp signs. They look like "ours", i.e. like "hash marks" #, just angled at about 45°. This was the custom way to write (or rather, engrave) them for a long time.

Edit: Attached are two examples from a famous Mozart sonata - the second image shows the beginning of Alla Turca.

H.M.