I was fortunate enough to be part of the V2.0 beta test team when we communicated with each other on a newsgroup. Can't remember for sure but I think I started with NWC in 2001 or 2002... That was V1.x - I think 1.75... though it may have been 1.70.
Hi Jonas, These things also occur in the NWC file. For completely different reasons sometimes I'm fine with it and sometimes it's an irritation. I forget when this was introduced, and a quick look at the change information available on the main NWC site doesn't seem to say, but I'm sure it wasn't always like this.
I think I would like to see your proposal changed just slightly. Rather than limit it to nwctxt files, make it so that there is an option whether or not to save these positional data at all.
If you want to add complexity, have 2 toggles: one for NWC files, and one for nwctxt files.
As a workaround maybe try to educate your other users to remember to move the cursor to the start of the top staff and press <0> (zero) before saving. This will position the cursor at staff pos 0, current duration 1/4, standard notehead etc. at the start of the top staff. If everyone can remember to do this then the positional data will always be the same. Not a solution I know, and it depends on users being able to remember to do it... Why do I feel like it'd be the same as trying to push a piece of string uphill?
Hey Gust, can you please add a mechanism to the captcha on your website to allow a user to ask for a new one - half the time I can't tell which case some of the letters are and it can take multiple attempts to get in.
Hi Gust, just installed and tried the new version on a file I'm working on - seems to run fine, bu-ut - my changes weren't saved. On clicking OK the program exited and I got the attached error. I tried a simple, single staff file and it seemed to save fine. Then I tried a different, more complex piece and got the missing clef error attached when running the program. It never actually opened. Interesting thing is there actually IS a clef on the staff, but it's not the first element. Next I created a very simple test file using the piano template - just 2 bars on both staves. With clef, key sig. and time sig. of course. This also seemed to work fine although I did get a warning message saying the command was irreversible (I hadn't saved the file at all as it was a test).
On a different tack, there is a typo on the button at the bottom of each channel - the word "Predifined" should be "Predefined"
Would you like me to email you some files that failed?
Instrument lines in a itree file consist of the name of the instrument and the patch number, separated by a "=" sign. The program crashed on a line where the separator was a "-" instead of a "=". I can eventually change the program to skip lines not containing a "=".
Significant parts of that itree include lines that have transpositions, some of which are negative. E.G. Acoustic Guitar (nylon)=24,Trans(-12)
Hi Lawrie, That error occurs when reading the instrument tree. Can you send me the itree file you're using (see Tools/Options/Folders/Instrument Trees/Explore..., and look for the file with the same name as in the title of the window that shows when you click 'Predefined Instruments' in the Staff Properties/Instruments) Thanks
itree attached - it's pretty big and convoluted...
Hi Gust, downloaded and installed, but no joy. Please see attached .png file for error message.
I don't know if it makes a difference, but I installed it into my scripts folder, under the folder where NWC2.exe lives. This being historically where all scripts were installed way back when... NB I have full permissions to this location. When I created the new tool and put the full path in the "Command" field NWC decided to strip off everything except the relative parts of the path. I.E. "Scripts\mixer_board-1.0.exe"
Nuh, when downloading, Winblows (or maybe my browser) offers a numerical differentiator as part of the filename of the second.
? Maybe you mean "uploading"... Anyway I think I saw that effect but I didn't try recently. I can easily be wrong.
Nope - Downloading. I downloaded both the above identically named files (actually, they are the SAME file) and the downloads have different names (added numerical differentiator in parentheses).
V2.75 was released in September of 2015. V2.75a was released in August of 2017 and the V2.75a.2 update in September of 2017- This is the current release version and nothing has changed since then. See https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?topic=9197.0
They are the same, but the page settings are different. In "Page Preview", in the first one everything is on one page, in the second one a second page appears. However it is not important, I will follow your advice to optimize the layout. Thanks.
I beg to disagree - for me they are identical. Single page only.
Hi Lorenzo, I haven't done any examples due to: Some points to note:
When you add the lyrics they will interfere with the measure spacing, so you need them in place first in order to adjust things
you have a mix of 2/4 and Common time measures - they will take different amounts of space - for any given measure, if it's in 2/4 it will take less space than a 4/4 or Common time one.
You have several tools available to you for controlling measures per system:
You can turn off "Increase Spacing for longer notes" in Page|Setup|Options(tab)
Set system breaks on barlines
Set separate system breaks from the "Boundary" tab of Notation Properties <]>
You can use "Spacers" <Ins> - NOTE: a spacer can reduce space used.
You can beam notes smaller than a crotchet (quarter) - old practice was for lyric parts to never use beams - this has fallen by the wayside, use beams!
You can change the staff metrics in Page|Setup|Fonts(tab)
If you want blank space at the bottom of the page, turn off "Justify printed systems vertically in Page|Setup|Options(tab)
I'm not sure why you're insisting on a set number of measures per system. Often the lyrics make this hard to impossible and in this case the mix of 2/4 and 4/4 (Common Time) measures makes it pretty much untenable
Hey Lorenzo, can you post an image showing the problem please? I think I understand, but a picture really is worth a thousand words.
Part of what your saying seems to be how I would expect NWC to behave, with staves that fill from left to right margin, but then there seems to be a part that makes me think you're expecting a "ragged right" layout which makes no sense to me except possibly for the very last staff, but that makes no sense in a context of 48 bars across 6 staves.*
Confused...
* are you printing in landscape? 8 bars across seems a lot to me - it would make the print very small.
In NWC, select the "Notes" menu item. From there open the "Persistent Tools..." dialogue. Within the dialogue you will find "Augmentation Dot" (it's the 3rd one from the top) - make sure this is checked.
Hi Warren, while I have no idea what "2 ped" means, Google seems to be our friend. Try here.
Quote
both pedals In composers like Debussy & Ravel, "2 Ped" is an abbreviation for "les deux pédales" or in English, "both pedals" - meaning to depress both the sustain and una corda pedals. As above, the pianos they used typically did not have the middle or sostenuto pedal, so "both pedals" were all the pedals there were to use.
As for "Muted Violin" I assume you mean patch, not channel... This is going to depend on your synth/soundfont. However, patch 64 is supposed to be Soprano Sax, which doesn't really seem consistent with a muted violin to me... In the soundfont I'm using* patch 40, the violin, has some edge to it so even with the channel volume down it doesn't really sound muted, just quiet. However, patch 41 (viola) and 42 (cello) are both progressively more mellow so a low volume setting with one of these patches might help.
It's also possible you can find a synth or soundfont or perhaps a VST instrument that implements a proper muted violin.
* My preferred soundfont is the "merlin_audigy(v1.14).sf2", but I've modified it as the one I found online had a percussive flute... I managed to bumble my way through fixing it with the Vienna soundfont editor lo, these many moons ago.
<edit> it appears Flurmy posted while I was typing stuff...</edit>
Both Sibelius and Dorico have subscription and perpetual licence alternatives. From what I've been able to gather, it seems that about 3 years of annual licence fees is the same cost, thereabouts, as a perpetual licence. BUT, I think that updates then cost extra.
Conversion is likely to be a nightmare for many of them too. Gonna HAVE to go via MusicXML.
Due to proprietary file formats, products like Dorico can't legally have the ability to open Finale files (or any others for that matter).
Buddy of mine got screwed over on his Sibelius licence recently and was looking into exactly this. Except he couldn't run his Sib at all 'cos the licence got messed up after a hard drive failure. No backup of course (D'oh)
Hi Frank, I didn't pay attention to any other staff when I heard and spotted the percussion from "Suara 4". What I said earlier still holds, unless you actually want the percussion sounds...
It didn't help that you have the top 2 staves muted and it seem the 2nd (bass) staff is the one you're unhappy with. If you check the MIDI properties of this staff it is set to patch/instrument 91 which is a "Pad", actually "Pad 4 Choir". Perhaps you might change it to patch/instrument 0 (acoustic grand piano) the same as staff 1.
Hi Frank, If you press <r> for score review and look at the MIDI channel for ID 7 (Staff-5)* you will note it is on channel 10 - this is the percussion channel. As it is obvious you want a voice rather than percussion you need to change the channel on this staff to something else.
Go to the staff and press <Alt+Enter> to access the properties, select the MIDI tab and change the channel to something other than 10, then set the required instrument on the instrument tab. It's usually best to select an unused channel (score review <r> will show you what's in use)
Hi Frank, this will most likely be something to do with either your NWC file or your synthesizer configuration. I'm guessing it's the NWC file.
One thing you can try is to press and hold <F6>. This will result in a Popup dialogue asking if you want to do a full MIDI reset - Click Yes and retry.
Another thing you can try is to press <r> for Score Review. When the popup appears check how many staves you have, which channels they are using and the patch number. (The patch number refers to the instrument being used. E.G. 58 is Trombone, 41 is violin etc.. Perhaps look for 55 (Orchestra hit, or 48 to 51 which are String Ensembles, or perhaps 61 which is a brass section. There are other possibilities too.)
If this doesn't help please post the NWC file so we can investigate it.
Hi Frank, the problem is that the notes on the Tenor/Bass staff have mostly been set to |Lyrics|Never
In order to allow lyrics to appear on these note this should be changed to |Lyrics|Default or |Lyrics|Always
I suggest using Default unless you need a syllable to appear on a note that is the destination of a tie or slur.
I would select the whole staff ( <Home>, <Shift+End>, <Alt+Enter>), and change the Lyric Syllable parameter to Default
As for lyrics in multiple languages I'm not sure. In the past this was not possible, but with Unicode font support and ANSI encoding now in place this may have changed. I really don't know and other users that need/use non-English or multilingual availability should be able to help.
Hi Frank, you attach an NWC file the same way as any other, drag and drop. You just need to make sure you click the "Reply" button at the bottom right, just under this message, instead of using the "quick reply" dialogue.
The only thing I can think of is whether you enabled a lyric line in the lyrics dialogue: <Ctrl+L> | Line Count: (drop down) | set it to 1 lyric line However I'm sure you wouldn't get this wrong considering how much you've done in NWC.
Another possibility is the Offset parameter in Staff Placement, make sure it hasn't gone to some stupidly high number. It would normally be 0.
I think I'd prefer to see 4 in a bar for most of the 9/8 sections and 3 for part too, following the beaming patterns, which in this case would also mirror the piano left hand. I'd certainly be unhappy trying to follow a conductor beating quavers at that speed.
Maybe it's helpful to understand how beat patterns or beat counts arise (Lawrie's post says, I think, the same): They are not so much part of the written music, but part of the performance - and therefore, when there is a conductor, a decision of the conductor. Our choir conductor, after going through a piece with more complex time signatures, often pairs with me, and we have a talk like: "I could give halves here, but then change to quarters in the faster part" or "these 10/8 is actually a triplet+triplet+2 quarters feeling, so I'll conduct it like a 4/4 with a longer 1 and 2 - let's try this" etc. <snip>
Then there's the scores where the beat pattern is actually specified by the composer*. Not to mention changing beat patterns within an unchanging time signature section, sometimes bar on bar, plus changing time signatures, also sometimes bar on bar.
Fortunately these things don't happen that often, but they do happen.
It will be interesting to see what Opagust eventually comes up with.
* It's not uncommon for a conductor to ignore these directives depending on the orchestra/band skill level but they're rarely that much better, if at all.
I have one more question before I can finish the tool: does an anacrusis always have to have an integer number of beats? If not, it wouldn't be easy to process it correctly.
No.
For instance, there are plenty of songs with single, or three quaver anacruci (sp?) in 4/4 time. E.G. "Don't Get Around Much Any More" has a 7 quaver anacrucis, though it is normally written as a full bar starting with a quaver rest.
Perhaps your tool could analyse the starting bar and ignore it if it isn't full.
Then you have the problem of unusual beat patterns.
In one of the concert bands I play in there are pieces that have, for example, a 5/4 section where the beat pattern is in 4 I.E. dotted crotchet, dotted crotchet, crotchet, crotchet. Also compound time pieces where, say, a 7/8 piece has a beat pattern that changes bar on bar: 2,2,3 then 2,3,2 or 3,2,2 (where each beat is made up of the number of quavers shown). It becomes non-trivial very quickly in those contexts.
The only problem with using Channel 10 is that it may already be being used in the original piece. <snip>
Shouldn't matter. I use channel 10 up to around 40 times in any single score, depending on what percussion sounds I need.
This works because typically you only need to assign one "Instrument" to the channel, and each percussion sound is accessed via different "notes" on the percussion staves.
One of the ways this works for me is I can notate a drumkit using standard staff positions for each sound by putting each drum/cymbal/etc. on its own staff, spacing as necessary with rests (which I move off the page using Global_Mod) and layering. The other thing that's needed for this to work is each staff needs it's own transposition.
There is a lot of work using this method, but you end up having a printable part that both looks correct to the player and sounds correct on playback. Attached are 2 examples. One for a drum kit, and the other for a full Concert Band implementation with notation exemplars at the start of each stave/instrument.
All staves use channel 10, all at the same time.
The only real drawback is every instance of a staff using channel 10 will use the volume setting of the last instance encountered by NWC on playback, usually the bottom percussion staff unless there is an Instrument change somewhere that changes the volume setting. To get around this I generally set all staves to a volume of 127 (the default) and if I need to compensate for differing volume levels I cheat and use "Print|Never" dynamic markings to get my desired result.
<edit> Another technique to consider for concert band (orchestral?) percussion is the use of instrument changes - if you're using a single staff (often single line) for some, or even all, of your percussion, then when there is an instrument change you can use a transposition in the instrument change element to get your preferred note location on the staff for that instrument. Next instrument change, different transposition. </edit>
Just position the cursor before or after the anchor and press <Shift+Arrow> to select it. Fast and easy. For the most part, it's much, MUCH easier to ignore the mouse in NWC and just use the keyboard. <Ctrl+Arrow> moves a bar at a time <Shift+Ctrl+Arrow> selects a bar at a time, repeat the <Arrow> press while holding <Shift+Ctrl> to select multiple bars... Keyboard shortcuts are in the help and the manual.
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