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Messages - GrahamH

3
Object Plugins / Re: Breve.hmm (0.6)
Hi
I've just been using the Breve object plugin for the first time - and it seems to work very nicely for notes that are on the stave.
But for notes on a leger line (Middle C in particular) the right hand end of the leger line is missing!
This is with the default (round) notehead and happens with both single and double bars.
Am I doing something wrong?
Graham
6
General Discussion / Re: Custom Templates in NWC 1.75
To Lawrie and Flurmy - thank you, guys, for your input.

I created a unique template name as suggested by Lawrie, but I couldn't do the stuff with Windows Explorer and I couldn't make any sense of FileSeek  :-[
HOWEVER, using the Windows 10 Folder Search tool, I manged to track down the templates that are not in C:\Program Files (x86)\Noteworthy Composer\Template\Custom.
They are in C:\Users\fghar\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\Noteworthy Composer\Template\Custom !!
Heaven knows what governs the choice of destination for the template!
10
General Discussion / Custom Templates in NWC 1.75
Could somebody please tell me where Custom Templates for NWC 1.75 are hidden in Windows 10?
I would like to delete some templates that I no longer use.
Thanks
Graham
11
General Discussion / Re: Velocity might be the issue
If I wanted to convert a NWC performance to mp3, I would normally play back the NWC performance and record it using Goldwave (but the freebie "Audacity" would work equally well).  Then I would save the Goldwave recording as an mp3 file.
One Christmas I did this with a bunch of carols.
I also exported the NWC performances as MIDI files for playback on a MIDI controller keyboard and gave them to a friend who converted them to mp3 format using a MIDI-to-mp3 conversion app.
His mp3’s sounded significantly different from mine.  His sounded “stripped-down” to the extent that some of the parts were missing whereas my mp3’s sounded just like the original NWC or MIDI performances.
It sounds to me like your conversion app is ignoring the dynamics.
GrahamH
12
General Discussion / Re: MIDI exporting bug?
Quote from: Mike Shawaluk –
Hi Lawrie,

I downloaded and installed the free program MidiEditor which appears to show notes and messages from all channels. However, for some reason this program numbers the channels from 0 to 15 rather than 1 to 16.  This is the program which I used to confirm my "64th rest" workaround. The program appears to work on Windows XP and later, although I only ran it on Windows 10.

This is quite common with MIDI stuff - they start counting at zero instead of one - and it can be quite confusing!
Graham
13
General Discussion / Re: MIDI exporting bug?
Thanks for the warning!
I guess it won't happen with straightforward material like hymn tunes.  But if I get a bit more ambitious and try to sequence some voluntaries, as I did several years ago, it might become an issue.
Graham
14
General Discussion / Re: MIDI exporting bug?
Many thanks for all your replies.
If nothing else, starting this thread has made me look more carefully into what is happening and, as I said in my earlier post, I now realise that the problem is not that version 2.75 does not export MIDI files correctly (as I thought) but rather, version 2.75 does not handle a string of Instrument Changes in the same way as version 1.75 does.
For generating “ordinary” MIDI files, where there is typically only one General MIDI instrument patch per track at any one time, version 2.75 is fine.  But for my scenario which involves strings of instrument changes on one track, neither NWC files nor MIDI files created using version 2.75 will work.  On the other hand, NWC files and MIDI files created using version 1.75 both work perfectly.

@ Lawrie:
Since my stop list consists of only one “bank” containing fewer than 127 “instruments” the default Bank Select parameters (0,0) are fine.
My old NTWPATCH.INI is attached (in a zip file).  It won’t tell you anything more than the itree  that I already posted does, but it might enable you to see what’s happening in Noteworthy v 1.75.
The file that I posted two days ago works with v 1.75, but I am attaching to this post versions of the same new NWC and MIDI files (created yesterday with the aid of a template) for v 1.75 and v 2.75.  Those saved from v 1.75 work; those saved from v 2.75 don’t.

@ Mike
I made a similar “SWAG” to yours when I first encountered the problem several years ago, and I tried inserting rests between the instrument patches.  However, I found that the rests needed to be bigger than 1/64 ths, and even then they weren’t entirely reliable.  Also, while it was practicable to insert rests in the initial string of program changes, it was not feasible to do so at later points in the score, where a pretty rapid change of registration is called for.

Since I have now discovered that it is possible to run both v 1.75 and v 2.75 on the same computer the obvious “solution” is to use v 2.75 for printing scores and generating “ordinary” MIDI files, but to use v 1.75 for generating custom MIDI files for controlling the organ.
Actually, because I prefer v 2.75’s “itree” system which attaches the stop names to the instrument patches, and since I have also discovered that v 2.75 will export v 1.75 NWC files (Has it always done so?), the work-around that I favour is:
Create the NWC file using v 2.75
Export it as a v 1.75 file
Open it using v 1.75
Save it from v 1.75 as a type 0 MIDI file   –  which is how I produced the attached files.

(PS - All this arose because of Covid-19 and a request to record organ music for virtual services!)

Best regards
Graham
15
General Discussion / Re: MIDI exporting bug?
Trust me - it works!
Swell manual responds to Note-on/off messages on Channel 1.
Great manual responds to Note-on/off messages on Channel 2.
Choir manual responds to Note-on/off messages on Channel 3.
Pedal-board responds to Note-on/off messages on Channel 4.
Expression pedal responds to CC (Foot Pedal) messages on Channel 1.
Stops and Couplers respond to (are toggled on or off by) Program Change (Instrument Change) messages on Channel 16.
You can see which stop responds to which message from the itree that I attached.
My Hauptwerk organ at home is configured to behave exactly as the Church pipe organ which has a solid state console with MIDI in and out ports.
Hope this dispels the confusion!
16
General Discussion / Re: MIDI exporting bug?
Thank you Mike and Rick for your speedy responses.
@ Mike:
I looked at the thread you mentioned, but I don't think I can get my head round the content of it!  The MIDI implementation of our organ is much less complex than that of an Allen.
When I was using NWC v 1.75 I edited the NTWPATCH.INI to include the organ stop list.  With NWC v 2.75, I created an itree of the stop list.  So in either case it was easy simply to insert Instrument Changes into the Noteworthy score.
@ Rick:
Since starting this thread, I have just tried controlling my organ at home directly from Noteworthy Composer 2.75 rather than using a MIDI file.  I had done this in the past with version 1.75 and I knew it worked.  I thought it also worked with version 2.75 - but I've just discovered it doesn't!  The same thing happens as with a MIDI file created using version 2.75 - only a fraction of the stops are activated.
So the problem is not that version2.75 does not export MIDI files correctly (as I thought) but rather, it does not handle a string of Instrument Changes in the same way as version 1.75 does.
Attached is the NWC file that I have just been experimenting with.  It was originally created (and works) with version 1.75 but it doesn't work when played using version 2.75.
With version 2.75, only one or two of the initial bunch of stops are activated.

17
General Discussion / MIDI exporting bug?
I first started using Noteworthy Composer in December 1998, and when version 2 came out, I switched to that and found it to be a big improvement as regards creating and printing scores.  It is also fine for creating regular Type 0 MIDI files that will be played through a General MIDI keyboard or the GS wave table synth of a computer sound card.
But for creating custom MIDI files to control our church’s pipe organ, version 2.75 does not behave like version 1.75.  In particular it does not correctly export the *.nwc file as a *.mid file, and to get round the problem I have found it necessary to continue using version 1.75.
Basically, the problem is this:
Controlling the registration (changing the stops) on the organ is achieved by means of program change messages on MIDI channel 16.
At the start of a piece, several stops need to be drawn, and several stops may be changed simultaneously at intervals during the piece.
To achieve this, I insert strings of program change messages at the appropriate places on the Noteworthy stave that is configured to MIDI channel 16.  The program change messages then toggle the corresponding organ stops at the appropriate points in the music.
In the case of Noteworthy 1.75, the strings of program changes are accurately exported to the final MIDI file, but in the case of version 2.75, only some of the program changes find their way into the MIDI file, resulting in rubbish registrations.
I have tried inserting short rests between the program changes, but this doesn’t really fix the problem and in any case it is not always practical.
Some considerable time ago, and again more recently I wrote to Noteworthy Support about this, but never received a reply, so I am raising the matter here in case any of you guys can offer any advice or perhaps simply confirm that it is a “bug”.