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Messages - Milton

1
General Discussion / Re: Simulating realistic guitar playing
The NWC files in the GuitarStrum.zip file have two staves, one hidden sounding staff with the arpeggiated chords and Pedal Up and Pedal Down controls and one visible muted staff with the chord notes notated on a single stem.  So all the apreggiation, etc. is already done and the chords have only to be copied and pasted into another NWC file.  The key signature will change the type of chord, major, minor, etc., so the text chord symbol should be changed accordingly.  The process is not automatic, but very realistic sounding results are not difficult at all.
2
General Discussion / Re: Simulating realistic guitar playing
I know this topic is getting a little old, but I thought you might want an easier way of simulating realistic guitar strums than has been suggested, especially easier than using a separate staff for each string.  The chord notes should be written as an arpeggio of 32nd or 64th notes until the last note of the chord, which should be tied to notes making up the remainder of the time duration of the chord.  Place a Pedal Down mark before the first note of the arpeggio and a Pedal Up mark before the next note after the last arpeggiated note of the chord.  This keeps all the notes sustaining naturally while making the notation much more simple than using separate staffs.  Of course, guitarists not only strum down vertically, from low strings to high, but also up vertically, from high strings to low, and a truly realistic strum should allow for both.  Also, guitar chords are limited in their voicings by having only six notes max available and by the tuning of the guitar.  Lots of work.

Fortunately, as a guitarist myself, I have done all that work for you! :D   All the open chords and bar chords with down and up strums arpeggiated properly and Pedal Down and Pedal Up markings as well as instructions can be found in a zip file I uploaded to the Scriptorium Helpful Files several years ago.  The files are in NWC 1.75 but of course it is easy to import them into NWC 2.  Here is the link: http://nwc-scriptorium.org/helpful/guitarstrum.zip  Hope you find the files helpful and make heads turn looking for the invisible guitarist!
3
General Discussion / Re: USE COMPUTER KEYBOARD AS MIDI CONTROLLER
Last I recall, MIDI-OX has such a functionality, but it had a lot of latency (delay between the key being pressed and the softsynth generating the note).  Of course remember to have a blank tempo track in NWC to which to add the recorded MIDI input.  A work around for the latency might be to select the shortest Record note value as quarter note or eighth note (this has worked for me on problematic MIDI imports as well as comp kbd recordings).  I don't know what a Google search for "computer keyboard midi controller" would turn up nowadays.  Seems to me it would be less trouble to buy an inexpensive ($50-$100 US) piano keyboard MIDI controller and be done with it.
4
General Discussion / Re: Deleting tempo
And of course, once one has selected the tempo (or MPC or text item or whatever), instead of deleting it, you can right-click it and select Properties to change the tempo instead of inserting another tempo mark.
5
General Discussion / Re: Latency
Just a thought - do you have Local Control turned off on your keyboard?  If not, just maybe the keyboard synth is not getting the Note On signals immediately from NWC.  Also be sure that NWC is actually using MIDI-OX to the USB MIDI interface instead of the computer softsynth as the Available Playback Device.  Lastly, you may want to reinstall your MIDI interface drivers after closing NWC, then reboot and reconfigure your MIDI-OX input and output ports and confirm again that NWC is using the correct MIDI-OX port and the MIDI interface is connected to a MIDI-OX output port.  You might also want to try not using MIDI-OX but select the USB MIDI interface directly as the Available Playback Device and see if you are still getting latency.
7
General Discussion / Re: How Old are You?
A relative whippersnapper at 52 to be 53 in February.  Using NWC these days to make choral part practice files that can be opened in a browser without a plug-in and with recorded audio from my trusty Yamaha S-YXG 50 softwynth, and sometimes for accompaniment tracks for my occasional solos at church.  My website just cameonline 2 weeks ago - seeandsingchoralpractice(dot)com.
9
General Discussion / Re: How can I "jazzify"?
If you are writing a jazz/swing chart, then the correct notation (by convention) is eighth note pairs instead of dotted eighths-sixteenths.  Dotted eighth-sixteenth pairs do not give the correct swing feel.  But if you are writing more a classical style piece and want the actual dotted eighth-sixteenth rhythm to sound, then Rick's answer is what you want.
10
General Discussion / Re: How can I "jazzify"?
Problem was solved some time ago without having to rewrite eighth notes.  There are a couple of ways to do it that involve a hidden tempo staff that changes the tempo on both halves of the beat.  I like K.A.T.'s way the best: (/forum/?topic=2335.0)  I put the forum topic number instead of the link because I cannot post links.
11
General Discussion / Re: Viewing upper octave?
I can understand flute players not wanting to read a transposed passage.  Reading at actual pitch adds a layer of concentration for guitar music that I would just as soon do without myself.  How does selecting a clef and choosing Visibility-Never make all other clefs hidden for the rest of the piece, Warren?  I have used that technique (of setting Visibility-Never for individual objects) in many of my NWC scores without it making all following similar objects hidden.
12
General Discussion / Re: Viewing upper octave?
Perhaps write the part an octave down with a text marking 8va and a hidden treble clef transposing the staff up an octave (with a small 8 above the clef).  When the transposed section ends, insert another hidden treble clef to return to written pitch (no 8 above or below the clef) and a text marking loco to indicate to play at written pitch.
13
General Discussion / Re: Music lags with the visual
First question would be what operating system is on the computer and what kind of softsynth is NWC using for playback.  Until Win XP/2000, pretty much all softsynths had close to 1 second latency (lag time of audio behind video) unless Active X v.9 or higher was installed, as was the case on a Win98 machine with a Yamaha S-YXG 100 softsynth I used some 8 years ago.  WinXP, Vista and 7 should play most softsynths with near zero latency.  With some op system, softsynth and comp info some of the top techies here should be able to solve your problem.
14
General Discussion / Re: Invalid midi files when notes are muted
One easy fix to stop hung notes is to place an invisible Pedal Up as the very last entry in each staff.  I may be mistaken but I think that will solve your problem and may be a good general practice to soothe fussy synths.
15
General Discussion / Re: "Optional" Notes -- Ossia Segments
Perhaps NWC could implement this wish list capability if staves of 2 diffferent sizes could be layered together?  IIRC the point size of objects in NWC is a global option, but perhaps this could be done in a similar way to selecting different font sizes for different text functions (lyric, staff text, small text, etc.) as is currently possible.  If the color could be different for different sections of such a staff, then the partial staff function also becomes possible by selecting white for the sections one wishes to be invisible.
16
General Discussion / Re: 24th Duration Note
That there are no "24th notes" defined as such simply reflects the ultimate division of music rhythm reflecting the bilateral symmetry of the human body, 2 feet, 2 hands, etc.  The body has either 1 or 2, but not 3, of limbs and organs.  Even compound time and 3/4 time, taken over phrase lengths rather than one measure, arrange their rhythmic pulses in 1's (entire measure of 3/4 or 3/8) or 2's (6/8 measure having 2 main pulses, 3/4 and 9/8 phrasing themselves in 2-measure units).  Leonard Bernstein described this in his TV series years ago, IIRC.  FWIW!
17
General Discussion / Re: Importing a hard copy
euphomate - WRT to manual note entry into NWC of poor quality scores keep in mind that not necessarily every single note and character must be entered individually since one can copy and paste repeated sections just as text in a word processor, as well as copying and pasting rhythmically identical harmonies and using the up or down arrows to transpose selected sections to thei harmony parts with individual note edits taking much less time than individual note entry.  I only mention that because you mention being new to NWC and perhaps all music notation software. HTH!
18
General Discussion / Re: Playback
Some links re: getting Yamaha S-YXG50 softsynth to work on Windows Vista/7:
(* for . since I can't post links)

Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 (may also be called "Windows XP Mode"):
www*microsoft*com/Windows/products/winfamily/virtualpc/default.mspx

Various discussions:

www*cybertechhelp*com/forums/showthread.php?t=196610

www*techsupportforum*com/hardware-support/sound-cards/461362-solved-yamaha-softsynthesizer-s-yxg50-vista-7-drivers.html

geeks*pirillo*com/forum/topics/xg-softsynth-on-windows-7

Includes a VSTi plugin for S-YXG50?  Lots of links here:
yamaha-x-s-yxg50-vsti-plugin-3578983*cooga*net/

Lawrie can maybe give us the details on how to do this from a comment:
Quote
If you're on Vista, even that won't work. However, the other option you have is using the S-YXG50 VSTi with foobar2000. I'm doing this at the moment (being an ex-patriot of Winamp), and it works perfectly. This will work on both XP and Vista. There's also the aforementioned MidRadio player that has XP and Vista versions, and the unofficial SYXG2006LE VSTi which has the same sound ROM as the MidRadio, though both are XG Lite, and lack most of the sysex parameters that the S-YXG50 stuff has.


Verrry interesting looking!  Purports to be a zip file of a version pre-configured to work in Win 7:
www*getvn*com/8ae/link/YAMAHA+XG+SoftSynthesizer+S+YXG50+Ver+4+23+14+WDM+for+windows+7+zip.html

www*picktorrent*com/torrents/d7/yamaha-softsynthesizer-s-yxg50-4-vista/
19
General Discussion / Re: Playback
Lawrie wrote:
Quote
For myself, I'm still using Win XP so my Yamaha S-YXG50 soft synth still works.  It is a personal favourite and a primary reason why I haven't moved to Vista/Win7 on my daily PCs.
I'm with you on that one for as long as possible!
Last week just out of curiosity (for now, and later for the inevitable future non-XP rig) I did a google search on "Yamaha S-YXG50 Vista 7".  It seems many people feel the same way about the Yam softsynth enough to hack a way for it to work in Windows Vista and 7.  There were varying degrees of sophistication/aggravation in the methods described, but also mentioned was a free download available from Microsoft called (IIRC) Virtual PC 2000.  It was said to allow legacy XP/2000 applications to run in their own window inside of Vista or 7.  I don't know if or how well applications such as NWC in 7 would interact with the S-YXG50 running in Virtual PC 2000 or what anyone's experience with VPC2000 has been.  Anyone, anyone, Buehler?
20
General Discussion / Re: Pitch bend
Quote
What you wrote applies to pitch bend, and that affects all the notes.

Pitch Bend does affect all the notes on the same MIDI channel.  Other channels are not affected.
21
General Discussion / Re: Sound Card for Vista?
I'll throw out an idea I have suggested before.  Get a Yamaha portable keyboard preferably with a USB port (they likely all have one these days) or at least MIDI IN and OUT ports and use that as the "sound card"/MIDI playback device.  For the $100-$200 US range the sound quality is hard to beat and you avoid the Vista compatibility issues with sound cards and softsynths.  If you prefer the sound of your computer speakers to the keyboard speakers, connect the headphone jack of the keyboard to the audio in jack of the computer with a stereo patch cord.
22
General Discussion / Re: Flow bug
Just a thought since I am not at my home computer and also don't yet have NWC2.  Perhaps an invisible set of "To Coda" and "Coda" marks would achieve the desired skip?
24
General Discussion / Re: Max length reached
Also, to keep the bar lines at least where they were originally, wouldn't you keep the note and rest duration the same (rests would likely have to be re-notated later) and change the time signature to 6/4 instead of 3/4?
25
General Discussion / Re: Garritan Personal Orch - has anybody gotten it to work?
arrowsmith, I think many, if not all, of the registry problems and other system issues that have slowed down your computer would be cleaned up by downloading (it sounds like your computer is virus-free enough to do it) and installing Glary Utilities (see my earlier comment) opening the Memory Optimizer and running 1-Click Maintenance followed by a reboot.  Do set Glary main window and the Memory Optimizer separately to load automatically on Windows startup before the reboot.  Try that before anything else and then let us know if you see any improvement.
26
General Discussion / Re: Garritan Personal Orch - has anybody gotten it to work?
arrowsmith, BTW, priceless line:

Quote
I'd just like to have reasonably
good sounds, so that Toci's Beethoven symphonies sound something like Beethoven
symphonies rather than deranged cats in a pots and pans factory.

LOL!!!  Even with correct sound setup, make sure no melodic parts end up on MIDI channel 10, which offers only percussion sounds, which could account for the pots and pans.  Now the deranged cats are another matter...

Reminds me of (can't remember who) an opinion of Wagner's music in Nicolas Slonimsky's Lexicon of Musical Invective, which was very like the following:

Quote
Actually, I like Wagner's music.  But the music I far prefer is that made by a cat suspended by its tail outside a window, trying desparately to hang onto the glass by its claws.
  (And I love cats BTW, and have had several dear ones over the years.)

Hope you get the virus and sound setup ironed out!
27
General Discussion / Re: Garritan Personal Orch - has anybody gotten it to work?
arrowsmith, first, my sympathies on the computer/virus woes.  My desktop got a nasty virus a year ago (courtesy of someone who used a flash drive they didn't know was infected on it) that took even McAfee a day and a half and many reboots to clear.  I would advise you to disconnect your computer from the internet while cleaning it to prevent malware from connecting with its host.  Get a friend to download and burn to a CD these two programs:

1. AdAware from www*lavasoft*com .  (Substitute "." for "*", my account doesn't permit links)The free version will find pretty much everything that's out there and remove it entirely.  Updates are also free (Absolutely vital to keep any anti-virus software updated constantly!) and the full paid version with full real-time protection (the free version has limited real-time protection) is about $40 US.  Of course, the full versions of McAfee or Norton Anti-Virus are also about the same price IIRC.

2. Glary Utilities from www*glarysoft*com .  Be sure to skip the large brightly colored ads for non-free software and find the smaller links for Glary Utilities free version.  Also free updates for this software.  Run the 1-Click Maintenance and then run it once a week or so forevermore to speed up your computer to near-new performance.  Also go to Modules-Optimize and Improve and open the Memory Optimizer.  Leave it running constantly to optimize RAM automatically.  Best of all, in both the Memory Optimizer-Settings and Glary main window Settings, check the box to load each automatically on Windows startup.

Have your friend burn the .exe files to a CD and install from the CD on your computer.  Many trojans and malware prevent you from visiting anti-virus sites or downloading their programs or installing them.  Get around them this way.  Reboot your computer and press F8 once a second or so as it boots.  When you get a black screen with white text listing startup options for Windows, choose Safe Mode, then choose (usually only choice available here) your operating system, your version of XP.  At least one of the User Names that presents will be Administrator.  Click Administrator.  If it has not been password-protected it will log in as Administrator, and in Safe Mode most malware cannot operate.  Load the CD, install and run the 2 programs I described above.  Remove (not just quarantine) any malware.  Reboot normally and repeat the whole process in your User Name and any other User Names that exist on your computer.  Malware likes to install itself either only on one user name to hide from the Administrator or on all user names to reinstall itself on a reboot.

Once the mess is cleaned, as Lawrie said, the Yamaha softsynth should install correctly.  If you prefer an affordable hardware solution and don't mind spending about $200 US, try one of the Yamaha portable keyboards that has a USB port.  Install the drivers from the included CD, connect with the USB cable, choose the kbd/USB device in NWC Avaliable playback devices and let the keyboard's synth play your MIDI/NWC files with no latency and great sound.
28
General Discussion / Re: Opening Midi with NWC
If you like the sound of the MIDI file as imported into NWC but the score is a visual mess, you could still have your cake and eat it, too.  Of course, often the messy-looking import also sounds terrible, but if not, try this for a much shorter solution.

Import the MIDI file with the options that yield the result closest to the MIDI playback in Windows Media Player.  In Page Setup, make all these staves hidden.  Open a new blank NWC file and re-import the MIDI file.  This time use the Import options that yield the best-looking notation.  In the 1st NWC import, add 4 blank staves (Ctrl-A) 4 times or once for each vocal part).  One by one, select all of each staff of the good-looking import and copy (or Ctrl-C) and then paste (Ctrl-V) into successive blank staves of the good-sounding import.  Keep these new staves visible but in Staff Properties (F2) under MIDI check the Muted check box.  Now you should have a neat looking score that still has a "human" playback feel.
29
General Discussion / Re: Garritan Personal Orch - has anybody gotten it to work?
Since you say you have a new computer I assume it runs Windows Vista or 7.  But if I am mistaken and it is running XP, do a Google search for "Yamaha softsynth S-YXG50".  This softsynth was discontinued by Yamaha some 7 years ago and is now found free on a number of sites with its registration key that transforms the trial version to a registered version.  Sound quality matches or betters hardware synths costing several hundred dollars, even though the price was $45 US.  IIRC, Lawrie has confirmed that this softsynth will not run on Vista or 7, but will run on Win 2000 or XP.  Just a thought.
30
General Discussion / Re: Cannot connect keyboard to NWC?
When you say a "MIDI to USB cable" do you mean a MIDI-USB interface with some sort of box between the MIDI and USB ends or is this some sort of adapter cable that simply has a USB plug at the computer end and 2 MIDI plugs, MIDI-IN and MIDI-OUT at the other, or is it a generic USB A-B cable?  If it is an interface, there should be an installation CD with drivers that must be installed for the interface to connect your kbd and computer.  Likewise, if your kbd has a USB port and you are using a generic USB A-B cable, the kbd has drivers of its own that must be installed to connect with a computer.  In this case, go to the kbd manufacturer's web site and find drivers and a manual to download.  If you have some sort of adapter cable MIDI-IN/OUT - USB, it's anyone's guess.
31
General Discussion / Re: NWC2 Dynamic Variance
The reason I and others use Expression (via MPCs in NWC) rather than Volume to control dynamics is to keep dynamic changes within a track proportional bo matter what the overall volume of that track is relative to the overall volume of the other tracks.

Different synths produce different relative balance of volume between tracks, therefore it is desireable to use Volume once at the beginning of the track (in NWC adjust it in Staff Properties rather than adding a Volume MPC) and use it as one uses the Volume or Gain controls on the channels of a multi-track mixing board.  If Expression MPCs are used for dynamic changes, then the dynamic levels increase or decrease proportionally with the overall track Volume setting.  If Volume is used for dynamics, to adjust the overall track volume, one would have to adjust the volume setting of each individual dynamic change.  Otherwise one might try to cut the initial track volume setting by, say, 25%, but at the first dynamic change the volume will revert to the previous levels for the rest of the track.
32
General Discussion / Re: Webpage to create a guitar chord
Warren, are you wanting to insert a fingering diagram for the chord, spell out the chord in standard notation with guitar voicing, create a realistic strum, or some combination of these, or none of the above?

The arpeggiation function is better than nothing for strummed guitar chords, but an arpeggio with uniform rhythm spread out over the chord and no differentiation between down and up strums will not give a realistic-sounding guitar strum.  This may or may not be useful for your purposes, but I made a NWC 1.75 file of strummed guitar chords in open and barrred voicings arpeggiated as a guitarist (myself, for instance) would play them.  It can be found on the NWC Scriptorium's Helpful Files as GuitarStrum.zip at:
http://nwc-scriptorium.org/helpful/guitarstrum.zip

The zip file includes both fast and slow strums (guitarists spread out the arpeggio slightly differently at different tempi) as well as a Read Me help file.  HTH!
33
General Discussion / Re: NWC Newbie Presents...
I don't know of a plug-in for NWC 2 or 1.75 that will sing the words.  The closest thing I know of is by Myriad Software, a plug-in called Virtual Singer that works with either their Melody Assistant or Harmony Assistant (the more full-featured version).  It does a decent job, and in your choice of several languages, too, though still a little robot-sounding.  I don't remember the web site offhand but Google "harmony assistant myriad" and you should find it.  The free trial version will allow you to try all the features to make a fair evaluation.  I found it anything but intuitive, though, even though you can choose to use keyboard shortcuts from a number of other music software applications, including NWC.  The full registered version of Harmony Assistant, last I checked, was $65 US.
34
General Discussion / Re: A tempo?
I don't think there is one as a single command.  Use a text expression to print and a Tempo or a MPC Tempo with the same value as the beginning or previous section and set Visibility to Never.
35
General Discussion / Re: Location of files in history list
Don't know if NWC2 defaults to saving files in SAMPLES as NWC1 did since I haven't used NWC often enough lately (too much other life stuff getting in the way) to justify upgrading to NWC2.  History doesn't care where you saved the file, only how recently you opened it last.  It will quite happily find any of the last 10 NWC files you opened and go back to wherever it noted they were stored and open them again.
36
General Discussion / Re: No "Remove Posts" in This Area
Srine E., you are an EVIL person!  Now I MUST click on your Remove button or I'll NEVER know what will happen!   Let me take a few deep breaths, gather my nerves, collect my thoughts.  OK, here goes!

"Click"


Hey, is this some kind of a joke?  I clicked the Remove button, I've been waiting for almost a minute now and noth "Poof!!!"
39
General Discussion / Re: How do you transpose a portion of a staff?
Quote from: Rick G. –
It is unwise to confuse shifting with transposing. In an octave, there are 7 shifts and 12 semi-tones. Not a good match.

Which is why I also stated that the appropriate key signature must be inserted as well.  So of course to transpose, for example,  F major up 3 semitones one would note that 3 semitones up from F is Ab, 2 letter names up.  Ctrl-Shift Up arrow twice, insert Key Signature of Ab major.  Requires only slightly more thought than Staff-Transpose-No. of Semitones.
40
General Discussion / Re: How do you transpose a portion of a staff?
To transpose only part of a score, for each staff:
1. Select the measures to be transposed.  Do this just as you would select text in a word processor.  You can click-drag with the mouse or position the cursor at the beginning of the section, hold down Ctrl-Shift and tap the Right arrow key once for each measure in the section.
2. Hold down Ctrl-Shift and tap the Up or Down arrow key once for each staff line or space you wish to transpose the section upward or downward.
3. Insert the appropriate key signature at the beginning of the section in each staff.

If the verses and chorus are presently written out only once with repeat signs and several lyric verses, then this will become slightly more complicated.
Fore each staff:
1. Select from the measure before the key change to the end of the chorus.  Ctrl-C or Edit-Copy to save the section to the clipboard.
2. Insert a Special Ending the measure before the key change.  Check the boxes for all the verses minus one of your arrangement.
3. Tap the End key or position the cursor after the repeat sign at the end of the last measure of the chorus.  Ctrl-V or Edit-Paste to paste the last chorus from the clipboard.
4. Insert a Special Ending in the first measure of the section you just pasted in.  Check only the box for the last number verse and uncheck all others.
5. Apply all 3 steps in the first set of instructions above to the section you want to transpose.
6. Adjust any staff lyrics necessary.
41
General Discussion / Tied notes into and across special endings
I think there is a very brief silence between non-slurred or non-tied notes when no performance style is selected.  That silence lengthens to half the note time value when staccato is selected, somewhat less in marcato or detache, and is either entirely or nearly eliminated in legato.  I haven't tried to fine-tune NWC's default settings but I know that, for instance, Band-In-A-Box has that silence between notes adjustable along with several other attack, sustain, and decay parameters and anticipating the beat for jazz styles.
42
General Discussion / Re: sustaining notes across measures
sagnet, your wording is slightly ambiguous.  If you mean how do you slur 2 notes of the same pitch across a bar line then Rick has the answer.  If you mean how do you prevent the 2nd note of a slur of 2 different pitches from having an attack sound, whether this is possible depends on the instrument assigned to that staff.  A violin, for example, should slur the notes with no attack.  But a piano will produce an attack on all slurred notes.  Lawrie can confirm that the trombone cannot slur notes in the same way as a trumpet since not using the tongue would produce a portamento except for lip slurs between notes using the same slide position.  Most trombone slurs are actually very softly tongued notes with a quick slide position change.

You could force, say, a piano to slur notes with a Pitch Bend MPC with the slurred note's Visibility set to Never and tied to another note of the same pitch.  Just don't audit bar lines in that case!
43
General Discussion / Re: MIDI Delay - Windows XP
And now a serious (though not grim) question:

Re-reading your previous comments makes me unsure whether you are describing:

1. A delay in playback beginning when F5 is pressed (or Play is clicked), after which the notes sound in sync with the note chase with no delay (latency - usually about half a second for softsynths, just as you mentioned noticing), this occurring when F5 or Play are called after NWC has sat open and idle for some period of time, or...

2. Notes sound in sync with note chase the first time F5 or Play is called after NWC is opened, but after NWC has sat open and idle for some period of time, the sound lags behind the note chase all through playback.

If scenario #1 is the case, this is likely normal behavior.  My guess (and it is only a guess) is that the MIDI parameters for the piece have been pushed out of RAM and NWC must load them again on playback after an idle period.  Scenario #2 seems less likely, that the softsynth would display latency after being idle, but not on first playing a file.  Again, only a guess, but could your system be placing MIDI processing and/or digital-analog conversion on a lower-priority processing thread after an idle period?
44
General Discussion / Re: MIDI Delay - Windows XP

"Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth."

Aha!  With this mediocre-sounding softsynth being the only available playback device, NWC no doubt hesitates to play, fearing it will be judged mediocre as well!  ;)

45
General Discussion / Re: insert a two key note?
"without using midi inputs" tells me that you want to enter the note from the computer keyboard, corrrect?  If so, position the cursor to the right of the note head to whose stem you wish to add a 2nd note and key Ctrl-Enter rather than simply Enter.  You can add several notes to one stem this way unless the notes are of different time values, then you are limited to 2 or 3 additional notes (I think).

If you mean playing the notes from a keyboard through a MIDI interface into the computer, simply play both notes at the same time.  If you are adding notes to a previously recorded or key-entered staff from a MIDI keyboard, you need to record the added notes into a new staff, which you can then layer with the previously recorded staff.
46
General Discussion / Re: Microphone recording
The short and absolute answer: No.
NWC does not record audio in any form from any input.  It can only record MIDI data input from a keyboard or other MIDI controller.  One may also enter notation from the keyboard, much like typing text into a word processor, which NWC will playback according to the instrument chosen and other parameters, through whatever synth module, hardware or software, is chosen from available devices.

If you want a great free audio editor, download Audacity from http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ and if you want to export your recordings as mp3 you must also download and install the LAME library from the links provided.

Also, NWC is strictly a Windows or Windows emulation application (WINE under Linux, for example), while Audacity has versions for Win/Mac.
47
General Discussion / Re: Make chord symbols sound
I take it that my first reply was on the right track.  And yes, "diminished 7th chord" is equivalent to "letter of chord rootdim7".  That would be a fully diminished 7th chord, 3 minor 3rds stacked on each other which produces both a diminished 5th and a diminished 7th above the root.  If that made sense and you know then that the note spelling of a Cdim7 (sometimes also symbolized "Co7") is C-Eb-Gb-Bbb then you obviously can make your own copy and paste reference file.  If that didn't make sense then I can put such a reference file together for you with a little time.  I haven't yet looked at the chordcharts.zip file in the Scriptorium to see how close that comes to what you want.
48
General Discussion / Re: Make chord symbols sound
Do you know the note spelling of any chord given its symbol?  If so, you could make a NWC reference file from which the chord and symbol could be copied and pasted into an extra staff.  But NWC has no such native capability and I suspect developing such a user tool (sort of a NWC macro) would be difficult to impossible.

Band In A Box from PG Music may be more what you are looking for if you must have such a capability.  IIRC, it will generate chords when the chord symbols are keyed in on a lead sheet.

If you don't know the note spelling of chords from their symbols, I or a more eager beaver could make a NWC reference file for copying and pasting as I mentioned above.  This weekend would be the soonest I could start.  If you need such a help, post back and also include the type of chord symbols you need (7b9, m7b5, etc.) and I could enter the chord in root position close voicing to give you the sound of the chord types.
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General Discussion / Re: MIDI Import has bug when part rhythms differ: not worthy of Noteworthy!
I will come to NWC's defense, at least to a point, and I welcome correction of any tech misunderstandings I make.

NWC, as any notation software, can notate whatever you key into it and split parts accurately by voice, since you are explicitly declaring which notes belong to each part, not expecting the software make the best guess from a MIDI file which does not declare to which part each note belongs, only to which MIDI channel.  If the composer of the MIDI file has not entered each voice separately, on a separate MIDI channel unique to that voice part (as is frequently the case), there is nothing in the MIDI file to differentiate one voice part from another except the pitch ranges you mentioned.  This is especially problematic in vocal parts, which are often entered not only on the same MIDI channel, but with the same instrument sound, or patch or control change, whichever term you prefer.

If the composer has been so helpful as to assign each voice part its own unique MIDI channel, then it doesn't matter if all voices use the same instrument sound.  Select in Import "Assign each MIDI channel to a new staff" to separate the voice parts.  But for one-channel, one-instrument MIDI files of choral parts, asking any music software, no matter how powerful or pricey, to separate voice parts accurately is like asking it which finger of which hand plays each note in a piano piece.  The necessary information to make the decision simply isn't there in such a MIDI file.
50
General Discussion / Re: Kind off topic...
A search on NWC forum for "Vista" turns up many a tale of woe.  If anyone could get the Yamaha S-YXG softsynth to work in Vista, Lawrie Pardy could, but alas, even he found no way.  Some folks who post here have had success getting Vista to use other synths besides the GS wavetable synth and perhaps they will respond here.