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Messages - Joseph Roberts

2
General Discussion / Re: Getting NWC Output to SynthFont
Thank you, Lawrie.  I'll look into ASIO4ALL at a later time (leaving for extended trip due to illness in family).  NWC with SynthFont and Midi-Yoke are working perfectly together now, and all's well with access to soundbanks.  That's a major step.

Many thanks again for all the help.

Joe
3
General Discussion / Re: Getting NWC Output to SynthFont
Thank you, Lawrie -- that's got it.

Now for dealing with the latency ...  It's an old Thinkpad T60p laptop here.  Lots of choppy passages and dropped notes in playback.  How I miss the desktop PC with the SoundBlaster Audigy 2, that had plenty of hardware for handling big soundbanks.  It looks like it's going to be software synths from now on.

Many thanks for the help.  It went together perfectly as you described it.

Cheers,

Joe




4
General Discussion / Getting NWC Output to SynthFont
I've searched the forum but couldn't find a solution (that I could understand).  Can anyone help with this?

It's on Windows XP.  Installed is SynthFont, Midi-Yoke, and Midi-OX.

NWC doesn't show SynthFont as an output option (Tools-Options menu).  It does show the 8 outputs to Midi-Yoke.

Midi-OX shows the 8 inputs and 8 outputs for Midi-Yoke.  But nowhere is SynthFont listed. 

All the programs are seen as installed in XP. 

The objective is to get NWC to output to SynthFont.  I'm at a loss for what to do next.

Many thanks for helping.

... Joe





5
General Discussion / Re: Noteworthy Newsgroup
The newsgroup is still open, but seems less active than in the recent several years.

John, it's good to see you online again ... I was worried and wondering.

Joe
 
7
General Discussion / Re: Scriptorium Update
Dear Richard,

I reviewed your wish with my adviser (a.k.a lil' wife, or is it 'advisress'?), and after detailed scrutiny it passed approval without impediment to its implementation. 

Here is wishing you and all NWCers a wonderful year, sparkling with powerful and delightful music.

Joe
9
General Discussion / Re: disabling the color change key shorcut?
Suggestion ...

Low-tech solution.  This is going to sound like a joke, but try it anyway.

Put a piece of sticky tape or a felt pad or some similar object on your  "/"  key.  After a few tactile trials you'll know instinctively when you're about to touch that key, and will avoid it.

Suggestion:  best not to put an upside-down thumbtack there.  It works, but that's an extreme fix.

Cheers,

Joe


10
General Discussion / Re: workaround sport
May I please chime in on this topic?

Humble opinion dept.  It's addressed as well to Eric as to the general forum.

I concur with Leon.

Part of the problem -- and it is a problem -- is that the Wish List is hidden.

Yes, there's the request form.  But where's the list itself, the open items? 

How does anyone ever see what has been submitted to it?   And then much less, ever see what if anything is being addressed?

Yes, new revs are released.  Yes, some of them relate to lingering requests from some time ago.

But with an invisible Wish List there cannot be a consensus, understanding, or sense of priority.  It's just something floating in the clouds until it might -- or not -- show up in a new rev.

Plus -- how does one avoid making a duplicate or redundant request, when one does not know what has already been requested?

Meant constructively, hoping it's taken that way.

Joe
12
General Discussion / Re: Extra fonts in the NWC installation pack?
Excellent!  Well done!

Besides the Viewer ...

Can they soon please be incorporated in the next Composer installation too?

Then we're working with the same fonts consistently for score composition and distribution, without an extra hitch.

Thank you, Eric.

Joe

13
Tips & Tricks / Re: Multi Bar Rests
Not to take up much space  --  Here's a hearty "Thank You!"

Could the PardyPack be included soon in the NW Composer download?

It just gets better and better.

Cheers and well done,

Joe

14
General Discussion / Re: Deleting tempo
When printing parts, the above info as well as rehearsal symbols should be seen by everybody.  Hide the rests and barlines so the part being printed can be layered into the tempo channel.

Yes, indeed.  I didn't mention that because I thought it was covered in Richard's reply (#10 above).

Tempo symbols like accel, rit, etc can and should be shown in the score for the players or singers on their staves  As Richard pointed out, if there is not a numeric tempo value assigned before/after those controls, they have no effect on the actual timing.  Likewise, fermatas and breath marks with zero numeric value can and should be shown on the various staves for the same reason.  They're there visually for the players/singers to see (and follow the conductor/leader as necessary).

The actual numeric tempo values affecting accel/rit, and the actual timing values of fermatas and breath marks, can be placed all on one staff.

The main point is, keeping all elements whose values affect the control of timing on a single staff simplifies the editing of the score later on.  It's easier to find a drink if there's the one bucket to dip the cup into.

Hoping it helps to explain it better.

Joe

15
General Discussion / Re: Deleting tempo
Another reason for keeping all Fermatas and Breath Marks with non-zero values on a single staff:

   ...  It simplifies the job of running Rick's Fermata/Breath_Mark tool before exporting from NWC to MIDI.

Currently NWC doesn't have a built-in 'smart' export of Fermata and Breath Mark values.  They're ignored in the export.  (It's been requested many times in forums, and is in the Wish List.)  Rick's program converts them to an Expression format which is supported in the export to MIDI.

Keeping them together on one staff makes it easier to do that job.

Joe
16
General Discussion / Re: Deleting tempo
Another suggestion for when writing multi-staff works (orchestral, choral, etc) is to use a separate, single staff for all non-zero tempo controls.

For example, all numeric tempo values, fermatas, breath marks, accels, decels, etc could go on that single channel.  That makes them easier to find for editing.  If channels are in short supply the tempo staff could use for example channel 10.  When saving the finished work, the tempo staff would be hidden.
17
General Discussion / Re: Patch numbers
Concur with Rick here too:  zero based. 

It ought to be consistent everywhere it's presented in the software.

Joe
 
18
General Discussion / Re: I've had it!
Good points by all.

It's just unfortunate that an "I've had it!" thread has to occur involving manually finding out what fonts are missing, versions of Windows paths, unzipping and installing files from a non-NoteWorthy site, when -- just humble opinion -- NWC could lighten the user's load through some additional font availability, or at the least through some font detection and prompting.

I guess it's time to give it a multi-bar rest.

Joe

19
General Discussion / Re: I've had it!
Couple of comments, addressing Warren's and Bill's posts ...

'voltest.nwc' works on this Audigy 2 setup.  It did not work on two previous setups (Crystal Audio and Audigy 1).  

Across a choral ensemble, we can't presume what's available to each person.  Also, the Scriptorium is -- and rightly ought to be -- a treasure and magnet for drawing users to NWC.  We can call files "legacy files", but there is no such distinction to the user at the point of downloading and playing the file.  

If odd-looking capital letters are throughout the score, with notation seeming primitive because of missing dynamics, where's the incentive to continue?  Artistic directors have other things to attend to, besides modifying scores or telling several dozen musicians how to work with unzipping font files and installing them on various Windows versions' paths.  Even a written procedure will produce a can of worms somewhere in the ensemble.  They simply have better -- musical -- things to attend to, and they'll go to a music score they can download and run with.

It's a different environment from this tightly-knit forum community.  We can be 'techie' here, and still messages like the OP's above will probably continue to surface.  What we do not see are people who are musicians, open to a new environment, but who are turned off early because they don't know how to fiddle with fonts, versions and paths.

Regarding the NWC hairpins.  How to handle a swell on a sustained note?

Noteworthy has been empty in those notation areas over the years and various people have produced patches in the form of fonts.  Now the primary score resource -- the Scriptorium -- has all those patches.  Minimally today, both the Player and Composer ought to sense a missing font and prompt the user for what is missing and where it should go (e.g. User1).  That's _minimally_.

Entirely meant to be positive inputs, and hoping they're taken that way.

Joe






20
General Discussion / Re: I've had it!

(snip for brevity, please see Bill's original post.)

...
The less commonly used legacy fonts, such as Crescendo, would still be an issue, but a small one; and since there is nothing I am aware of in any of those old fonts that is not now provided by either the PardyPack or NWC itself, it behooves the person who wants to distribute an older NWC file to re-edit it before distribution, and take those old fonts out. Incompatibility with obsolete fonts is at least as much a problem with the distributor of a file as it is a problem with the software that reads it.

In other words: If you plan to distribute a file, update the damn fonts, already!

Not such a small issue with Crescendo.  Before NWC implemented 'hairpins' as controls, they were notated visually as text symbols in Crescendo with the sound handled by hidden MPC-Volume controls.  Even today, if one wants a 'hairpin' cresc/dim on a sustained note, using the current NWC 'hairpin' implementation (read: MIDI implementation) doesn't work.

Life would be straightforward if Crescendo were simply included, both for all implementations in legacy files and sustained-note implementation in new ones.  Or if the need for a font that's missing in the Fonts list were detected by the Player/Composer, giving a prompt to the user and easy instructions for installing it.

Joe
21
General Discussion / Re: I've had it!
Apologies in advance if this offends anyone, but it has to be said.

I agree completely with the original poster.  Please recall the long 'Fonts' thread we had here last year.  No need to recreate it in this thread; it's still there for anyone who doesn't recall it.

It was not resolved.  It merely petered out.  And through his dedication Richard revised _every_ music file's entry in the Scriptorium to list the extra fonts that are required to be installed to view that file correctly, and which are not supplied by NoteWorthy.

Principally -- Boxmarks, Boxmark2, and Crescendo, among others.

As was pointed out in that exhausting thread, and is again pointed out by the poster above, those are not exotic or far-fetched symbols.  They are absolutely standard, routine music notation elements.  In common use.

The PardyPack includes them for recent and new composition work.  But look at the older music files which require use of one or more of the fonts above.

It was suggested in the earlier thread that a solution might have been to simply include them in the standard NW Composer/Player download.  That went nowhere.

And again:  try to tell  _every_  person who is a singer in a 40-voice choir, preparing to use the NW Player, that he or she must also download additional things called "fonts", unzip them, and install them into the proper Windows Fonts folder for his/her Windows version -- just try it.  And again:  they are musicians, not Windows gurus.  And again:  they have never had to do it before; their "other" music notation/player software e.g. Brands "F" and "S" are simply complete.  Load a music file, and it plays.

And in case anyone wonders, I am a dedicated NWC user for 13 years who has done his damnedest to get the NW Player and ultimately Composer in front of local ensembles.  You can only get so far with several dozen individual folks whose "other" software is already familiar, works well for them, and doesn't require talking about add-ons and Windows paths to anyone.

Well prepared for flak if it comes.  But again, those are common, everyday notation elements.

Joe

22
General Discussion / Re: a note on the NWC-keybord/sheet sounds a semitone to high
If both computers are running the same version of NWC, and you are playing the exact same file on both machines, and the playback is different, the problem MUST be with your computer hardware or software (sound card settings, drivers, etc.).

Complete agreement here -- it just raises curiosity. 

How could a computer sound card or other system hardware, or its driver, give a C# instead of a C?

Here with this hardware setup NoteWorthy is spot-on accurate to a digital tuner.  It also agrees with a piano that was professionally, separately tuned (that was also done digitally, of course).

How could a computer system give a sound that's a semitone off?

Joe



23
General Discussion / Re: Glissando
Enthusiastically seconding the positive feedback.  They are clean, easy (and especially, good looking) glissando marks.  Thank you, Rick.

Joe
 
25
General Discussion / Re: Happy Australia Day!
One thing we in the frozen Northern Hemisphere don't understand is, when you refer to a good pal as "mate", how come you pronounce it as if he were a small bug?

 (Paraphrasing Churchill)

   ...  two friendly peoples very much alike, separated only by a common language ...

Congratulations on your happy day!

Joe



27
General Discussion / Re: Forum Profiles
Jacksonville, Florida, USA.

... Named for the guy on the US 20 dollar bill.  Quite a good town for music, with a strong symphony orchestra (last weekend we attended a concert of a Tan Dun work, Dvorak's violin concerto, and the Sibelius second symphony -- huge brass and strings).  This coming weekend, a choral concert.  Lots of impromptu music happening around town.

It's a pleasure working with NoteWorthy Composer.  No other music software has such a supportive users community, together with the treasure of the NWC Scriptorium.

Joe
30
General Discussion / Re: Why do you use Noteworthy?

Years ago I used the "AccuMusic System" in DOS.  Along came other programs in Win 3.1 and onward. 

Then came NoteWorthy Composer on a Pentium II with Win98.  Since then has come a myriad of other notation software, including Mozart, Myriad, Sibelius, Vocaloid, and a score of others.

Each of them has its strengths.  Those strengths reside in two areas:  the effectiveness of the software itself, and the support standing readily behind it to enhance the effectiveness of the product.

NoteWorthy has remained as the music notation software.

Of them all, NoteWorthy scores for two reasons:

... its ease, logical interface, and efficiency in notating and playing music, and

... the support provided by its user community (not the same as its 'official' software support).

The hard nut to crack has been in showing others, notably music groups already entrenched in Sibelius for many years, how much better NoteWorthy can be.

Ultimately the software itself, supported by its users and by the wealth of scores available on the NoteWorthy Scriptorium, gets the point across.

Joe
 
31
General Discussion / Re: Desirable features - list of?
Those looking for product development insight might consider //FORUM/?topic=5483.0]upgrading their community membership. This will enable access to the NWC 2.5 Beta and a wealth of discussion about it.

I'd love to do that, and have tried it, but haven't been able to get past the signup procedure.

I've been an NWC user since version 1.55, and still have the original diskettes.  Their original Authenticity Code (v.1.55) was three fields of 3, 3, and 6 digits.
  
The most recent physical CD in hand is the 1.75b of 2008.  That 1.75b CD Authenticity Code has two fields of 6 and 7 digits.

The 1.75b to 2.0 update was done online, without a CD.  I'm currently running 2.1.

To sign up for the 2.5 Beta forum, the sign-up procedure wants four fields of digits.  None of the original Authenticity Codes works.

What to do from here?

Joe



32
General Discussion / Re: Desirable features - list of?
Re:  Desirable features - list of?

Except that if one has submitted an item to the Wish List, and:

. . . not seen any action on it for years,

. . . not seen even a simple, courteous acknowledgement that anything was submitted,

and one is:

. . . scoring workarounds, wondering whether the next rev will render them obsolete,

then:

. . . one tends to be discouraged.


Not a rant, merely a sad shake of the head.

Joe

 
33
General Discussion / Re: Extra fonts in the NWC installation pack?

[frank_talk]

[kudos]
Thank you Rich and Rick, we all owe you a strong debt of gratitude, and so will future NWC users who are attracted to the software from the wealth of music in the Scriptorium.  It has been a massive task, done by dedicated people.
[/kudos]

[rant]
Eric, you know only too well that this discussion never should have had to take place.  For example, scan the Scripto to see how many files have had to use Boxmarks.  Think back to six years and three newsgroups ago, and the font discussions that were there then.
[/rant]

[/frank_talk]

Joe

34
General Discussion / Re: Extra fonts in the NWC installation pack?
Rich,

(Reply to #27)

Thank you for explaining it in such detail.

What I meant was, with the addition to the fonts list of another several dozen or so files, the person looking for Boxmarks, Boxmark2 and Crescendo would be confronted with an even longer list than is there now.

It sounds like with the hard work on your part, the fonts required for any particular NWC music file can be more easily identified.

Please, I respectfully submit this point:

The main issue is _not_ in finding those three fonts, or even in combining them into one 'zip' file.

The main issue is the installation of the fonts, once they're downloaded.

There is no way non-Windows-savvy people  --  several dozen people, in an ensemble beginning with Viewer for their NoteWorthy introduction  --  are each going to negotiate those Windows paths, and get them consistently right.

It just isn't going to happen.

All those 120-odd fonts could do all sorts of good things, helpful to exotic, whatever their creators meant them for.

But three fonts are crucial to viewing older NWC files because they contain the standard music symbols that were missing from NWC when that music was written.

We _must_ be able to view arpeggios, tremolos, glissandos, and text hairpins in the older scores that existed before Lawrie's 'Dings' became available.  

There is no way Viewer will be accepted in an ensemble with multiple people, some (if not most) unfamiliar with their current Windows version's paths, unless Boxmarks, Boxmark2, and Crescendo can be as easily installed as Lawrie's 'Dings' are.

NWC has already acknowledged the need for those symbols -- minus the text hairpins -- by hosting Lawrie's 'Dings' suites in a painless EXE installer.

That takes care of recent NWC music files.  But not the older ones.

NWC needs to do the same thing for the older ones -- host Boxmarks, Boxmark2, and Crescendo, in a painless EXE installer.

Just the plain fact.  Not meant to be offensive to anyone.

Joe


35
General Discussion / Re: Extra fonts in the NWC installation pack?
Ay, ay, ay ...

Then we're nearly back where we started, perhaps even a bit worse off --

It sounds like, instead of having Boxmarks, Boxmark2, and Crescendo on a page with about 20, they'll be in a list of dozens more.  The searcher only has the fact that they're near alphabetically to help in finding them.

Finding was the first task.  Then comes the rest of the job.

Pick a font.  Download the zip.  Unzip it to a folder.  See notes about a Beta release and Windows 3.1.  Then (we have different individuals here, with different versions of Windows, and often minimal Windows expertise), try to navigate this particular PC's Windows root path, clicking to view it in My Computer in case it's been defaulted to Hidden, finally to get into a FONT folder.  Then find a menu having "Install New Font" and go back and highlight the TTF file in the original download folder, and install it.

That got Boxmarks done.  Repeat for Boxmark2.  Repeat for Crescendo.

You can be gentle and upbeat on the telephone, and you must be, while helping someone through this.  But no serious musician who's already comfortable with Sibelius, who has a busy schedule, has a chorus to consider for distributing NWC music files for use with the Viewer, where each of those Viewer users must go through the same steps, is going to put up with that nonsense.

NoteWorthy just falls off the spectrum.  We tried so hard to get the Viewer updated, and now it is spectacular.  It just can't read some 'legacy' files, now on the Scriptorium and of superb value in getting the message across, without really goofy looking capital P's and D's and other stuff showing up in the scores.  And no arpeggios or crescendos or decrescendos.

I don't know what was in those 120 font files, but Boxmarks, Boxmark2, and Crescendo were vital.  They gave hairpins at a time when they were missing in NoteWorthy.  And they give arpeggios, tremolos, glissandos, turns, duplets, and more that are still missing, in music files that existed before Lawrie's 'Dings' suites came into being, and exist today.

With deep respect all the way, humble opinion:  just putting all three fonts into a zip file that still leaves the user -- including multiple users, in the case of an ensemble  --  with three manual installs, is not enough.

If the Scripto can't host a single EXE that simply installs all three:  Boxmarks, Boxmark2, and Crescendo, then NoteWorthy ought to host it.  And make it easily visible.

Joe


.
36
General Discussion / Re: Extra fonts in the NWC installation pack?
...

I think I will try and find as many of the 120 as possible and put them on the Scriptorium in some form or other.
There will be some that can't be found and also some that can be found but can't be stored on the Scriptorium because of copyright reasons.

That sounds like a massive job.

For starts, would it be possible to put three fonts  --  Boxmarks, Boxmark2, and Crescendo  --  together into a single EXE for one download and installation?

They have the arpeggio, tremolo, and text hairpin symbols, used in 'legacy' scores before Lawrie's Dings suites.

Also, any way that one can help?

Joe

 
38
General Discussion / Re: Extra fonts in the NWC installation pack?
Folks,

... Truly, I'm trying to not saturate this thread by 'harping' on the same point.  It might look otherwise, but I mean it.

Some ideas have been suggested for what to do in Composer.

The issue, I respectfully suggest, happens _before_ a person begins to use Composer either in its trial or registered version.  It comes in the Viewer.

It's a starting issue in both Viewer and Composer, and an ongoing issue in Viewer.  

In an ensemble, several persons (i.e. section leaders and music director(s) -- note:  I'm trying to work with a group that currently has two directors for different repertoire) -- may ultimately shift from Sibelius and work with Composer.  But they begin with Viewer.

And the Scripto's score resource is a _vital_ part of the introduction to NoteWorthy.

The rest of the ensemble (who will rehearse the music, if NoteWorthy works out), will work with Viewer.

So what needs to get done is have an easy-to-execute way for the user to play Scripto music files in Viewer and Composer.

In the long run it's helpful to talk here about how Composer, in future, could perhaps manage font substitutions, e.g. from Boxmarks or Boxmark2 to Lawrie's SwingDings Serif or Sans, perhaps with a font table lookup to swap from one font to another.

But it's not the primary issue.

Viewer is the start.  It must be a simple download and install, and with minimal total 'setup', and it must play Scriptorium files.

Faithfully, with the arpeggios, tremolos, text hairpins, and other 'legacy' symbols already written into them.

- - -

Keeping it simple ...  

Legacy fonts should be bundled into an EXE  --  easily located, clearly and succinctly explained, with minimal clicks to install.  

They should be shown on a page in the context of _both_ the Composer or Viewer install.

Then it's done, clean.

Just one easily found, clearly explained 'legacy fonts' EXE.  No Windows savvy required, no C: drive, no different paths in various Windows versions to navigate, no eyebrows raised at 'Beta' suggestions or 'Windows_3.1' notes.

Read, see, understand, point and click.  Then focus on the music.

Just install the legacy font pack and read the music from the Scriptorium.  

Rick's concern about copyright issues ought to be examined.  If the fonts are already on the Scripto individually, what's the implication for simply putting them into an EXE for bulk installation?

Would it be better to have that EXE on the Scripto, and/or could it be placed alongside Lawrie's PardyPack EXE on the NWC site?

And as has already been mentioned, font packs ought to be shown prominently in the Viewer and Composer EXE download area.

Joe


39
General Discussion / Re: Extra fonts in the NWC installation pack?
Your points are well taken, Rick.

I'd only suggest that not all Viewer users would be 'casual'.  Some are prospective, quite serious, future Composer users, looking to evaluate the software and moving forward to using it for ensembles.

Humble opinion ... 'First impressions' and 'ease of use' are close friends.  That translates to the new user not having to wade through Windows paths, 'Beta_1' and Win_3.1 notes while trying to manually install some fonts.

NoteWorthy already provides an EXE for installing the PardyPack.  That's painless.

A solution might be to simply provide a separate EXE for installing a 'Legacy Font Pack'.  It would install Boxmarks, Boxmark2, and Crescendo, as painlessly as for the PardyPack.  A short sentence would explain why it's there.

   ...  And to make both the PardyPack and 'Legacy Font Pack' EXEs more easily found when installing the Viewer.

Joe

.
41
Tips & Tricks / Re: Multi Bar Rests
Yes, but it would be off topic in a User Tip dedicated to "Multi Bar Rests".

With complete respect, Rick ...

The thread had already brought up the subject of fonts (and Fear of Fonts). 

It would be good to hear your viewpoint in another thread, if you'd like to initiate one.

Question to explore ...

You're conversing with people who are excellent musicians.  Currently they are happy and comfortable using competitive (non-NWC) music notation/playback software.

They are not well-versed in PCs, and they use several different releases of Windows.

The job is to introduce them to NoteWorthy, and work for a successful transition to NoteWorthy.

It would be done first through the Viewer and the superb (literally, unmatched) collections on the Scriptorium.  Ultimately the goal would be to migrate to Composer and begin using it for their individual and section work. 

They are all kind human beings, but of course there are differing personalities and differing time availabilities.  Their focus, personally, and through familiarity with their existing playback/notation software, is on the _music_, not on navigating C: drives, folders, Windows font paths, or Windows menus.

First impressions often stay with people.  Ideally, first impressions with NWC should be effective.

Some of the scores they'll see have arpeggios.  Been there in the Scriptorium for years.

How would you handle it?


Joe


.
42
Tips & Tricks / Re: Multi Bar Rests
I should have added:

Include Lawrie's 'Dings' too.  One should not have to hunt for them.

Even if a future release of NWC incorporates native handling of the symbols in Lawrie's 'Dings' suites, Boxmarks, and Boxmark2 (as has been done for Crescendo, with NWC's hairpins) ...

... What about all the music files currently up in the Scriptorium?

Should the authors of those files be told to pull them down, re-score them, and then put them back?

Plain.  Lawrie's 'Dings' suites, and Boxmarks, and Boxmark2, and Crescendo need to be included in the NWC and Viewer installer downloads.

Joe

43
Tips & Tricks / Re: Multi Bar Rests
I agree with including the Pardy Pack if possible.

Agree here too.

The rest below may sound OT at first, but it's on the point about fonts in the next NWC release.

Last weekend I spent three hours on the telephone helping a person to install fonts, so they could try the NoteWorthy Viewer with some scores from the Scriptorium.  It was agonizing.

Those scores on the Scripto are several years old.  They use Boxmarks, Boxmark2, and/or Crescendo.

The Crescendo was there because the scores preceded NWC's incorporation of hairpins.

Boxmarks and Boxmark2 were there because they show string tremolos, still not supported natively in NWC.

So there was no other way, at the time, to notate those scores.

The person on the other end is a superb musician, lovely soprano voice, and is one of the directors of a music group.

But  (Eric, note hard)  --  that person, like so many others, is _not_ a Web or Windows guru.

You are talking to a superb musician who _already_ is using Sibelius with Scorch.  You are trying to introduce her to NoteWorthy.

So for the start you get her to download the NW Viewer, and install it.  No problem. 

She's already done something like that for Sibelius.  Familiar territory.

Then you get her to download some music files from the Scriptorium.  No problem. 

She's already done something like that for Sibelius.  Familiar territory.

Now comes the problem.

The NoteWorthy scores will have nutty-looking symbols splattered throughout them.  Visually horrible, no other word for it.

So the next job is to get BoxMarks, Boxmark2, and Crescendo installed.

You help the person to go to the Helpful Files page on the Scripto.  And download BoxMarks.zip.  And download Boxmark2.zip.  And download cresc.zip.  And tell her to disregard the notice about 'Beta1'.  And then unzip the files.  And disregard the instructions for Windows 3.1.

And then use 'My Computer' to find her WINNT\FONTS folder.  And make sure that left and right clicks are not ruining anything in her PC.  And then in that folder, navigate to one of the folders where a font was extracted.  And then highlight the font file.  And then back in the FONTS folder, click 'File' and then 'Install New Font'.

That is all alien territory for the person.

- - -

Eric, I am a _faithful_ user of NWC for more than twelve years.

That episode was embarrassing.

All the musician -- with other viewer/composer software experience -- wants to do is download an EXE and install it.  And then focus on the software's playback of the music. 

NOT to navigate to two web sites, read several ReadMe files while wondering about Window 3.1 notes, then navigate around in Windows.  And then to install files that are _required_ to view and play the score but are not provided in the viewer and player.

You have  _got_  to support some of the key, major 'legacy' fonts by making them  _native_  and embedded in the NW Viewer and Composer installer executables.

It was a degrading experience.  It was handled gently and with kindness at the time, far more than you read in this rant.

How do you think I will _ever_ convince them to convert to Composer for future work?

Some folks are computer 'savvy'.  But the NoteWorthy target audience, I beg to suggest, is _not_ amenable to downloading a series of zip files, navigating two web sites, navigating the C: drive, and installing a series of additional fonts simply because that is the  _only_  way to view the major existing collection of NWC music files.

Embed and include the damn things.

Eric? 

End of rant.

Joe


.


44
General Discussion / Re: chord insert (OT)
(OT)

There's a classic one, going back to the 1960s:

The old saying, "Out of sight, out of mind" ...

Computer rendered it as:  "Invisible idiot".

Joe

45
General Discussion / Re: Special Endings
Good suggestions ...

   ...  Still, an issue ought to be noted ...

Optional font suites like Boxmarks, Boxmark2, and Lawrie's excellent 'Dings' suites (Sans and Serif) are not native in NoteWorthy.

That's a serious issue.  They add symbols that are not in the native NWC font, but are required in scores.

They ought to be native.

Consider the new NWC user or prospective user.

A new user installing the software, being just introduced to Viewer with a hope of being attracted to Composer, is not likely to know of the need for 'extra' font suites early on.  There is plenty of else to do, to get started.

Their focus is on reading and hearing the music.  Technical complexity is a turn-off.

A first view of an NWC score, without those font suites already installed, can be discouraging.  That's putting it mildly.

Today those font suites have been used in many NWC scores over the years. 

But to the new NoteWorthy user, they're extraneous, extra downloads.  Not a single notice shows during the Viewer or Composer trial download that they might be required to view the music  --  including the user's favorite score that attracted them to NoteWorthy in the first place.

It's a hole in the ground.

And for Lawrie's 'Dings' suite, the user can't even find it directly in the NoteWorthy site's 'Search' field.  It's an obscure search path.

It's 'way too much to ask a new user to stumble upon, by eventually looking at NWC's 'Fonts' tab, that he or she should have already loaded some other font. 

Early on, the new user sees screwy text characters that have nothing to do with music.  They look like notation errors.

Instead of a smooth, gradual welcoming introduction to NWC Viewer and Composer, there is complexity.

- - -

People to whom I try to introduce NWC scores are  _not_  tech-savvy download giants. 

They want a music score and a viewer to begin with.  (I hope to graduate some of them to NoteWorthy Composer).  And they want to go right to the music.

So very many NWC scores use those font suites now.

It's high time to bundle them into the Viewer and Composer downloads.


Joe

46
General Discussion / Re: O.T. Theebrett?
That suggests it might be a tuned instrument (like Jamaican steel drums).  Maybe different tea-tray sizes give different pitches.

Joe
47
General Discussion / Re: Printing, publishing the music sheet...
A program that might bear looking into is  "image2pdf".

It can take multiple JPGs and create a single PDF file from them, or it can convert each JPG into its own PDF.

It's freeware and found in a Google search.

Hoping it's helpful,

Joe

48
General Discussion / Re: Alignment Question
Hi Doug,

Happy to help, but I'm not sure what you mean by "accurate tempo alignment".

Do you mean visually, as in "do the notes line up vertically", or in audio playback, as in "do they sound together as scored"?

You can use such controls as extra note spacing to make a score more easily readable visually, but that doesn't affect the timing of the notes when played back (the same as in a live performance).

Joe

49
General Discussion / Re: better midi rendition
To these ears, clarinet is better in the Airfont 340 font.  I've used Merlin Vienna and Merlin Audigy, but neither seemed to handle a clarinet slur very well -- the notes still came out separated.  The Airfont 340 is better at it.  A Google search shows several sites for downloading.

Also, flute and oboe are quite good in the Airfont (to these ears).

Hoping it's helpful,

Joe

50
General Discussion / Re: Boxmarks Questions
One hopes that Eric has noted this thread.

Again:

   ...  Notation symbols like arpeggio, stem tremolo, glissando, portamento, turn, up_bow, down_bow, and the like aren't rare or exotic.  They're standard.

   ...  Why bury them into an optional download action and executable that's hidden from the main NoteWorthy home page and search field?  Where they can only be found if a new user _already_ knows of the existence of the term "pardypack" in advance?  C'mon.

   ...  Why aren't those common notation symbols, i.e. the "pardypack" font suite, simply included in the NW Composer and Viewer installer executables?

Eric?

- -

Joe