A small suggestion with potentially large savings in user effort: if the "override stem length" checkbox in the Note Properties dialog box were to be checked automatically by the program when the user changes the number in the spinner, it would save one mouse click each time this feature was used.
Hi Bill;
Maybe that could be made part of Tools>Options>Editor tab? Default Override stem length = Checked?
Trombone3, I have often wished for something similar to what you describe, but I think it would have to operate a little differently. I think what is needed is the ability to select individual notes in a chord. This would not only allow accidentals to be changed, but note positions as well (if you get sloppy and enter an A in a C chord, for instance, it might be nice to be able to select it and move it to G with <SHIFT><CTRL>). <ALT><SHIFT> plus the forward or backward arrow would be a logical keyboard approach to this.
Bill; From a programmers perspective, using keystrokes for commands is far more efficient. Other programs allow notes to be dragged and dropped, but this takes so much code that it is not worth it. I agree that it is a lower priority item.
Probably tympani is not in MIDI channel 10 because it is pitched percussion and so has a General MIDI patch of its own, #48.
Yeah, that was a goof on my part. I still dont like Tympani; I was thinking more along the lines of drum rolls (both tympani and snare). There simply is no MIDI equivalent to a drum roll. Now, with tympani you can get away with a lot because it is pitched, and from what I have tried, slurring the multiple notes can achieve the desired effect. But not with snare...if you write a series of 32nd notes to get a roll, that is what you hear...32nd notes, not a roll. I am no fan of hidden music; it comes across like 'you want to play this, but you have to write it this way to sound like what you want to play'. Sometimes it is a good thing, though, because you can write exactly what you want to play when the notation is not specific and you have a particular interpretation of the notation in mind. But then it would make little sense to hide your interpretation... Anyway, I have a lot to learn about MIDI, coming to the game late. Thanks for the lessons. NWC 2 is good software; I have seen much more than my share of 'great' software that was no more than bloatware.
Actually, you CAN edit individual notes in a chord - or at least remove individual notes and replace them with others. Place the cursor to the right of the chord, on the same staff line as the note you want to remove, and hit <ctrl><backspace>. The note will disappear. Add a replacement in the same manner as you would enter any other chord note.
Beaming 8ths in one voice and 16ths in another is simply a matter of using different layers for each voice. This isn't a kludge or a workaround, it's the method NWC provides (by design) for creating two or more independent voices on a single staff. Once you grasp this, you will also quickly grasp the huge array of possibilities this opens up, as opposed to trying to fit multiple voices onto one staff. Most of us who use the program regularly are extremely fond of layers. They provide the flexibility to solve numerous notation problems.
As for hidden staves....yes, it would be nice to have drum rolls, trills, mordents, arpeggios, glissandi, etc., as native features. I suspect, as you do, that a large part of the problem with providing these lies with the MIDI standard, not with NWC. In the meantime, I am very thankful for hidden playback staves. Like layers, they vastly increase the flexibility of the program. It's nice to be able to do anything I want to the notation of the visible staves, knowing that playback won't be affected. Opens up all sorts of possibilities.
Bill; It isnt quite the same. I would expect to be able to place the cursor to the left of a note in a chord, press shift, then click on sharp, natural, or flat to make the corresponding note in that chord sharp, natural, or flat. If that could not be done, then might a user tool do it? All I needed to do was resolve a chord by changing one note from sharp to natural. Deleting the note and re-creating it seems to be unnecessary work, especially since the note is already there. When it comes to drum rolls, though, there is no excuse for NWC not being able to natively generate suitable notation to produce the desired effect, hiding such notation, and producing the proper note for a drumroll which I currently get off of another font. Maybe it is the computer programmer in me...I have worked on old NASA programs and currently report to federal and state agencies regarding acid rain. But, in the end, we dont want a top-heavy piece of bloatware. Besides, the way that drums are represented in the default MIDI setup stinks (IMHO), as there is more emphasis on percussive effects than others, esp. on tympani. In the end, tho, NWC is good. I suppose that further development will depend on the developers decision of how much of this stuff is actually needed vs how much is wishful thinking. I dont really need the ability to edit individual notes in a chord; it would, in my mind, separate good from great.
And I fully agree with this too! I'm just finding a way to put XG controls in a MIDI file generated by NWC.
Of course that's an item to be used by "experts", but it seems so easy to implement!
I never tried; perhaps you're right. But I hate Win95 for it's too buggy and uncomfortable. Win98SE is far better. Anyway now my "music" computer is a (wow!) pentium II running Win2000, so I can use NWC2.
Now the 486 is just for some low-level hardware-fiddling programs I made long ago.
Hmmm. I thought that the difference regarding how things should sound was addressed by sound fonts (at least partially). But any way to improve the output would certainly be beneficial. Having said that, though, I wouldnt want to make NWC2 so feature-heavy that it became a monster. A lot of the beauty of NWC2 is in its simplicity, which in itself allows more flexibility than other (more expensive) notation programs.
Flurmy: I started NWC on Win 95. I now use it on Win 2003 Server (2GB RAM, 700+ GB HDD), but my soundcard has finally seen its last days (the old SoundBlaster Pro). NWC works in Win98SE, but better in Win XP. I am still not convinced about Vista, tho
A few things I would like to be able to do: 1) Edit a chord. After a chord has been entered, I would like to be able to change individual notes rather than have to rebuild the entire chord. 2) Beam everything together. If I have a measure where the soprano part sings 4 16th notes while the alto part sings 2 8th notes, if I try to beam (both the 16th notes and the 8th notes selected to beam), only the 16th notes are beamed. The 8th notes are not. 3) Not have to rely on hidden staffs for accurate sounding and display of drum parts (or, for that matter, for any part!). I am tired of writing 32nd notes for snare drum rolls. I am well aware that this may be a shortcoming of MIDI. Still, if one can add vibrato to a note, then one would think...well, that is the programmer in me.
NWC is good. But as I am constantly being reminded in the orchestra by those who use a different product (to remain nameless) it is cheap, and you get what you pay for.
Post script. I have downloaded from this link and the product is apparently a copy of the original software supplied with SoundBlaster Pro on two CDs It is applicable to Win3.1, Win95, Win98, Win98SE, WinME, WinNT3.51, WinNT4, Win2000, WinXP, Win2003
Yep, thats the one. I remember buying and installing the CD-ROM for that one. The link doesnt work, but that is ok.
Ok, I found out exactly what sound card I have. An OLD one. A SoundBlaster Pro. Thats it. Not an Audigy, nothing like that. Got this card way back when... So it most likely doesnt support sound fonts. The External MIDI sounds interesting, but 1) expensive and 2) takes up too much room. I dont want a keyboard; I just would like good sound, namely, when I score for a trombone, I would really like the result to sound like a bone. Now, when I score for a piano, that is not a problem. I am not going for orchestral or pipe organ sound here. Latency is not a problem as I would be reading my sheet music while the score is playing, not looking at the monitor. If I can get good sound using s/w, that is fine. It is an old card anyway, and on its last legs. For that matter, I would be interested in suggestions on a new card...
Here is what I know about my sound card: Yep, it is a SoundBlaster, but I do not have the SB software anymore. When I upgraded to Win 2003 server, that stopped working, and SB doesnt make drivers for Win2003Server for this card. I do not hold out great hopes for this card; it was originally purchased over 10 years ago and was used as a game card then to play Flight Simulator. I would literally have to pull the card out of the machine to find out what type/chipset it is. As it is, this might all be moot, as the jacks on the sound card are messed up; right now, I only have one channel working. When I get the $$$, a new sound card will be coming. My original concern was the OS. I want to be able to have sound that actually sounds like a trombone, not some sort of clarinet on steroids. I use Windows 2003 Server as I am able to do some of my work from home, and that work requires that OS. When I upgraded to this OS, the OS did not recognize the card as a SB but a generic sound card. Right now, this is what the OS uses: CMI8738/C3DX PCI Audio Device The only MIDI playback device available is Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth. Unlike many of you, I do not use NWC to compose but to practice. I just want it to sound better than something out of a video arcade.
I use NWC for a variety of reasons. My wife is in choir (sings alto), and she likes to hear her part. So, I enter the music (for our use only) and play it so that she can learn her part. Me, I play trombone, and occasionally I run in to music that is rather difficult or different. For example, I have played music in tenor clef...yeesh. Anyway, I have Windows 2003 Server 1gb memory and an old SB sound card. The quality of the music is poor; I got better from Win 3.1, but same sound card. Any hints at how to improve MIDI on Windows 2003 Server?
