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Topics - Lawrie Pardy

1
General Discussion / For AndrewMozley - flow control
Hi Andrew,
quote from your post in the Scripto thread:

Quote from: AndrewMozley –
Please forgive me.
I would like to raise a new question on this website and do no know how to do it  -  cannot see an option which allows that.

It is very basic stuff, but within an NWC file, I have a Master repeat section (Open and C;lose).  And on the last time through, I would like to skip to the end after a few bars.  I feel it must be something to do with a Coda, but I cannot work out what Flow directions / Special endings I need to insert into my NWC file.

But if you can just tell me how to raise a new question on this Scriptorium, that will be a great help.

Andrew Mozley
The best way to see examples of repeat functionality is at the bottom of this post.

Flow control can sometimes be a tricky problem, but in general if you understand the normal rules of flow control in music in general, the mechanisms in NWC fall into place.

We have:
Master repeat Open and Close (Decorated) bar lines and Special Endings.  These function together exactly as you would expect.
  • Use a Master Repeat Open bar line to start a repeated section.
  • Use a Master Repeat Close bar line to cause the repeat to happen
  • Special Endings are used to control how many time a repeat happens (notionally up to 7)
  • Multiple Special Endings are also used to permit different repeats to have alternative notes in them.
  • A Special Ending is indicated by inserting a <S> Special Ending object in the music.  It will continue until it meets a decorated bar line, usually a Master Repeat Close, but it could also be a double bar line, or a section end bar line
  • It is also possible to insert special ending objects whose sole purpose is to continue the boundary line to goes over the bars that are part of the particular ending.  These do not have a Special Ending numerical identifier.

Unique to NWC are "Local Repeats".  These repeat barlines have and open and a close, the closing variant allows you to specify an arbitrary of times through the repeated section.  They do NOT exist in normal engraving.  They can also cause some confusion if you don't understand how they work.  They do NOT understand special endings.

You also have DC, DS, and modified variations like DC al Fine, or DS al Coda. plus, of course Coda, Segno and Fine.

In a special ending's properties you will see a "D"efault ending identifier.  This is used if you need a special ending to be used after a DS or DC directive.

Lots of words - I hope it's helpful.

Examples are here:
In NWC, go to |File|Open you will see an option to Open Sample, choose this and a set of sample nwc song files is presented.  Look for REPEAT1, REPEAT2, REPEAT3 and REPEAT4 and open them to see how things work.


2
General Discussion / Forum maintenance needed?
Hi all,
I don't know about you, but usually when I access the forum I'll right click on the blue quaver pair image that indicates new posts in a forum and open in a new tab.
This has always opened up a list of topics with new posts that I can now right click and open in new tabs.  When I've read each new post I close the relative tabs.

However, recently when I right click on the blue quaver pair on the front forum page it will sometimes take me to a tab that says there are no new posts and I have the option to click a link to open a page with ALL the unread posts.  This seems to take me to all the new posts.

While this isn't really any burden for me, I can't help wondering if the forum database may need some maintenance*.  Especially as I recently discovered a some posts that I didn't get an "unread posts" indication for.  I would have remembered these particular ones as they related to user object updates.

Has anyone else noticed this or should I look for something local to my PC?

* I suspect a re-index would be in the offing.
3
General Discussion / Merry Christmas 2023
Hi all,
It's just ticked over into Christmas Day here in the land of Oz and I just wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year.

I hope you are all able to enjoy this season by sharing it with family and friends.  Great conversations, great meals together, time spent just loving each other and, of course, making wonderful music together.

Later this morning I'll be at a service at my church celebrating the birth of Jesus.  This year our MD has me playing my Tuba of all things :)  Rehearsals have been a buzz, but the real thing today will be a wonderful sharing with my friends and family.

I hope and pray your day will be at least as joyous.

Lawrie
4
General Discussion / Happy New Year - 2023
Hi all,
just wishing everyone a Happy New Year for this year of 2023.

May we all be blessed with health, peace and prosperity in our lives this year.

Lawrie
5
Tips & Tricks / Coloured text from PageTxtMaestro / PageTxt Objects.
Just in case I'm not the only one who didn't know:
I recently had need for coloured text from PageTxtMaestro / PageTxt objects.

My initial thought was to set the color attribute of the PageTxt object which sets the text to be displayed.  Imagine my dismay when this didn't result in coloured text  :o

So I thought to explore a little and discovered that if I set the colour attribute of the PageTxtMaestro object itself then the colour of text printed as a result of subsequent PageTxt objects were the colour I wanted.

In practice, if you want several PageTxt objects and only 1 of them is to be different to the default, then you have a few choices, but the easiest would be to:
  • place a PageTxtMaestro object,
  • place the PageTxt objects that are to be the default colour,
  • then place a second PageTxtMaestro object and set its "Item Color" to the desired highlight
  • and finally place the PageTxt object that defines the required text.

If there are several colour changes to be made, then place further PageTxtMaestro objects and set their colours accordingly.
6
General Discussion / 2022 starts
It appears the new year has just started, at leas here in Oz it has ;)
Happy New Year folks.  I hope and pray it's a better one than last year!
7
General Discussion / Favourite/preferred Soundfont(s)
Hi all,
after looking into @Flurmy 's little issue here: https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?topic=10126.new#info_72826
I thought it might be worthwhile if we took the time to share our preferences regarding Soundfonts.

As I'm sure anyone who has spent any time looking for a soundfont that suits them knows, it can be a very long and frustrating exercise, so I thought it could be good if we pooled our discoveries. 

Which soundfonts do you like, which ones do you dislike and reasons for both.

Bear in mind, this is all subjective and should NOT be considered an objective critique as your mileage WILL vary.  My personal priority is for good sounding winds, particularly brass.  Of course my interpretation of good and yours will surely be different.  My preferences are heavily informed by my trombone playing.  If you are, say, a piano player I'm sure piano sounds will be your priority, ditto if you are a string or reed player etc..

Something I've found interesting.  In many cases certain sounds will be identical between very different soundfonts.  I can only assume there has been a lot of "borrowing" going on between authors, or perhaps many of them have used the same sources for some of their sounds.  Because of my bias for brass I have noticed this particularly in the brass sounds.

I'll kick it off:
LIKE:
Merlin_GMpro(v3.15)                                      I really like the trombone sound and none of the other sounds I've used irritate me enough to look further at the moment.
DISLIKE:
Airfont340The trombone sound is terrible and the Bright Acoustic Piano is trying to be a Harpsicord.  Also seems to have playback problems on Acoustic Grand patch
Airfont380The trombone sound is terrible
Several Creative fonts distributed with soundblaster cards I've purchased over the yearsObviously computer generated, just disappointing, though sax sounds seem to work
Roland (various)These are clearly related to the Roland sounds distributed with Windows and we all know why we don't use that!
Around 20 other soundfonts (list below)For most of them the trombone (and other brass) is just plain wrong.  In many cases strings are good, but I've found a few where violin sounds in particular are sub-standard.  In general they aren't awful, I just don't like them.  YMMV
AMBIVALENT:
Yamaha XG SoundSetThe Yamaha S-YXG50 synth was my goto in XP, but the .sf2 implementation is not nearly as good.  No longer a favourite.  Difficult to find and not worth the effort IMHO.
WeedsGM3.sf2Generally OK, but I find the brass wanting
Musyng Kite.sf2/Evanessence2.sf2Both from the same creator, the latter is the predecessor - Generally OK, but I find the brass wanting
Timbres Of Heaven GM_GS_XG_SFX V 3.4 Final.sf2Generally OK, but I find the brass wanting
Titanic 200 GM-GS SoundFont 1.1.sf2Generally OK, but I find the brass wanting
FluidR3_GM.SF2Generally OK, but I find the brass wanting
As you might be able to tell, I'm particularly fussy about the brass sounds...  And they're often very disappointing.

List from DISLIKE table:
053.7mg Taiji Generation V6.66 Bank.sf2
38.1mg the atomic soundfont v1.0 bank.sf2
61.9mg_Jurgen_GM_GS_Bank.sf2
65.8mg music man gm gs v1.0 bank.sf2
8Rock11e.sf2
Airfont_340.sf2
airfont_380_final.sf2
Arachno_SoundFont_Version_1.0.sf2
Creative (emu10k1)8MBGMSFX.SF2
Creative Labs 2M GM_2gmgsmt.sf2
Creative Labs 4M GM_4gmgsmt.sf2
CrisisGeneralMidi3.01.sf2
CT2MGM.SF2
CT4MGM.SF2
Hyper-VSC SF-GS v2.sf2
OmegaGMGS2.sf2
Roland SC-55 50 MB by Trevor James.sf2
Roland SC-55 54 MB by Trevor James.sf2
ross.sf2
sYnerGi 200.sf2
sYnerGi 200LE.sf2
sYnerGi-8Mb.sf2
sYnerGiGS.sf2
SYNTHGMS.sf2

Disclaimer:
To the best of my knowledge all of these soundfonts are freely distributed by the authors with the exception of the Creative ones which I progressively acquired as I purchased various Creative sound cards over the past several decades.




8
General Discussion / Is anyone using a Windows environment to run NWC on a MAc?
Hi peoples,
a buddy of mine is interested in a notation product and has indicated an interest in NWC, BUT he only has a Mac.

Now I'm well aware that NWC is Windows only, BUT I also know that there are users out there using wine to run under various linux flavours.

My question is are there any users that have had any success with NWC in any of the Windows environments that exist for Mac.  Not looking for things like bootcamp, or any other dual/multi boot solutions, just an environment along the lines of wine.

Thank you,
Lawrie
9
General Discussion / Staff scaling
Hi guys, I know the basics of this have been kind of discussed elsewhere in the forum before but I thought it might be worth revisiting, if only to quiet the little voices in my head  :D

  • Often in commercial piano/vocal scores we see the vocal staff is smaller than the piano staves, something on the order of 75% or thereabouts.
  • In the text entry dialogue in NWC we now have a scaling option to allow control of the text size beyond the font size parameters

My questions is: given the ability to scale text, does the rendering engine of NWC also allow for the possibility of a new staff parameter to specify a scaling factor that would affect the entire staff?  Or even significant parts of it?

Now I know the vast majority of us will have absolutely no idea, so I guess this question is really aimed at Eric and Mike Shawaluk.  Given that I cannot recall Eric ever letting the "cat out of the bag" about the coding behind NWC I guess this means Mike is the most likely respondent seeing as he seems to have some pretty good insights into the internals of NWC.
10
General Discussion / MIDI 2.0 spec finalised and adopted
Hi all,
interesting article - a little sparse on detail, but enough to ask a few questions...
https://www.musicradar.com/news/midi-20-spec-confirmed-the-biggest-advance-in-music-technology-in-decades

While I certainly can't see any reason to rush into things, I can't help wondering if/when we'll see MIDI 2.0 support in NWC.

I'm especially interested in the bidirectional comms facility and the new Universal MIDI Packet (UMP) format that can be used in any digital transmission medium - think MIDI over Ethernet; Wired, Fibre Optic, or WiFi - I especially expect WiFi, or maybe Bluetooth, to have serious advantages.

Consider communicating with a hardware synth via Ethernet - no more MIDI interface within your PC, no need for a USB to MIDI converter etc., just talk directly to ANY MIDI 2.0 instrument or controller using, say WiFi or Bluetooth - no need for messy cables!

I imagine there will need to be a driver of some kind, but this will be standardised and may well be able to be incorporated directly into NWC as it won't be vendor specific.  This means that it doesn't matter what mix of vendors your MIDI arsenal comes from you can talk to ALL of them with a single interface.  One that's potentially built right into NWC.
11
Tips & Tricks / User Object suggestion: filesystem metadata with option to be a watermark.
Hi peoples,
I've just read the update from SEBC in this topic:
https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?topic=9684.0
and it got me to thinking.

Is there anything in the lua environment, NWC libraries, the user object environment, or any other method to allow one to extract file system metadata?

If such a thing is possible then it should be possible to create an object that can print selected metadata.

I envisage such an object would allow the user to print selected info, like the filename, last modified date and time, maybe even file size etc..  I also see this object being able to be selectively printed as a watermark, with user controlled scaling to enable coverage up to the whole page and at a selectable angle.
12
General Discussion / Win10 problems in scrollboxes
I've gone to the dark side...  Actually the VERY dark side...

After 12 years I've had to retire my XP laptop, so I bought a new Dell (G3 17) with Win10  ARGGHHHH

I'm not a fan of Win10 and I'm not real happy with the trackpad on the Dell but I can live with both.  The real problem I'm having is with scroll boxes in dialogues.

E.G. if I open the staff transposition dialogue and try to click an arrow by tapping the trackpad (my normal habit) in the "how many semitones" scroll box it will seem to click twice - every time - I have to actually put the specific number in via the keyboard.  Clicking pressing down the lower left corner where the actual button switch is located and making it operate the switch seems to be OK

Same thing applies pretty much across the board, like setting the transposition or the pitchbend range in the staff properties dialogue on the Instrument tab OR and instrument change dialogue.  Actually, it happens in EVERY numeric scrollbox I've tried.

Does anyone have this problem on:
  • a different model Dell running Win10
  • a non-Dell Win10 machine?
  • a Dell running any version other than Win10?
  • any machine running any version other than Win10

Any clues would be appreciated - very unhappy camper here  :'(
13
General Discussion / Problem with online object sync.
Hi people - is anyone else having trouble with the online object sync?

You know, the <Ctrl+J>, Online Synch... (button) - firewall/AV warning - OK process
Currently results in "Unable to connect" for me.

Is the sync. site misbehaving, or have I suddenly developed a problem that I haven't had before?

14
General Discussion / A user object request - oversize time signatures.
Hi you guys that have skills in user objects.  A couple of years ago (forum isn't telling me the exact date :( ) I made a request for a decoration enhancement for master repeat bar lines.  https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?topic=9261.msg66135#msg66135

Lloyd graciously came up with a wonderful solution I've been using regularly ever since.

Now I have another request: oversize time signatures.

Occasionally the scores I play for musicals have a time signature that is significantly larger than you would normally expect.  They extend from the centre line the same way that a normal time signature does, but instead of being completely enclosed in the staff (I.E. each number is 2 spaces high), they extend above and below by approximately an additional space to space and a half.  Think scaled by 150% to 175%.  This can be really, really helpful.  Especially if the score is busy.

Ideally the object would detect a time signature, make sure it's been made "invisible" and overlay it with the same characters but scaled by 150% to 175% (scaling perhaps able to be specified).  It may need to default to preserving width too...

See the example attached for an excerpt from a real world score I'm currently rehearsing.
15
Tips & Tricks / Uninstalled Object listing
It's occurred to me that in addition to the Online Synch option in the "Manage Objects" dialogue, it would be useful to have a button that would check online for objects that are NOT installed.

This would be a simple and easy mechanism to find desirable objects that might otherwise be missed.  If the same result window also had the ability to launch your browser with a link to the objects' description thread and examples it would be even better as you could see how the object is used.
16
General Discussion / Merry Christmas
Hi all,
just wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year.

I hope you are all able to enjoy this season by sharing it with family and friends.  Great conversations, great meals together, time spent just loving each other and, of course, making wonderful music together.

For myself, I'm about to go to a short church service where my friends and I will share some time together worshiping Jesus, then back home to lunch with my kids; their spouses; my granddaughter and my wife's brothers and their wives.  Gonna have a good day :)

Lawrie
17
General Discussion / PageTxt.nw object
Hi Eric,
I have a couple of suggestions for possible enhancement of the PageTxt.nw object:

a) could the object be modified to have an additional variable available that permits printing the total number of pages?  Is this data even available?  Surely it would be at print time...

What I'm aiming for with this is to be able to set the object with the "Text" of:
%Title% - %StaffLabel% - Page %PageNum,1%/%TotalPages%
(Italics to indicate proposed new variable.) which would allow the printing of "Page x/y" or perhaps "Page x of y"

b) can the object be modified to optionally NOT print on the 1st page.  I know I can achieve the same result by putting the object somwhere on the second page instead of the first, but it is easier to position the objects at the start of each staff instead of having to figure out where the second page starts for each instrument.
18
General Discussion / Not able to create backup on save...
I have this , umm, unusual problem, and it's probably one for Eric to consider.

Due to circumstances I prefer not to go into I've wound up with 2*Novell single server networks with separate eDirectories  (Novell's directory service - think AD, 2 different ones, if you're a MS person) that I log into concurrently.

Some machines default to one, others to the other and my main workstation running Win7 logs into one then maps a drive onto the other (thus requiring a second login that I manage automatically in the login script) - this seems to be where the problem stems from.

My primary storage of NWC files is on one server while my backup files are configured to be stored on the other server for this machine.  If I open a file on the same server as the backup location all is fine, BUT if I open a file from the other server I get a dialogue that says:

File: filename.nwc (whatever I happen to be working on)
Unable to create a backup for this file.
Save anyway?

with Yes and No buttons.

The file saves just fine, but I cannot get a backup.  If I move the backup location to the same server as the file I'm working on all is OK, but this is not a good solution for the particular circumstances I'm working under.

I'm more interested in determining if this is a general networking issue (don't have multiple AD's or MS Domains to test with as a comparison), a specific issue related to eDirectory or even some kind of multiple server issue.  Maybe it would even happen when storing files on one PC and having backups on another on a Workgroup - I can test that one, but not just now.
19
General Discussion / GlobalMod Issue with PageTxtMaestro
Hey Eric,
I've been using these objects quite a bit lately and I LOVE 'em :D  You have a very happy boy here.

BUT (you just knew there was gonna be one didn't you?) I've discovered that the contents of the "Text" field of the PageTxt.nw gets corrupted by Global_Mod.

E.G. I have a template that has this object on every staff.  The contents of the Text field are:
%Title% - %StaffLabel% - Page %PageNum,1%

As you know, I'm a big user of Global_Mod, and it seems each time I run Global_Mod on a staff the contents of the Text field of PageTxt.nw objects gets a double quote or apparently escaped characters added at each end so this:
%Title% - %StaffLabel% - Page %PageNum,1%
becomes this (changes in red to stand out):
"%Title% - %StaffLabel% - Page %PageNum,1%"
then the next time I run a Global_Mod command I get this:
"\"%Title% - %StaffLabel% - Page %PageNum,1%\""
then this:
"\"\]\"%Title% - %StaffLabel% - Page %PageNum,1%\]\"\""
then this:
"\"\]\"\]]\]\"%Title% - %StaffLabel% - Page %PageNum,1%\]]\]\"\]\"\""
and so on.

If I use it on one staff it only affects the PageTxt.nw object on that staff, if I use it in file mode it affects all of them, as you would expect. 

I haven't spotted it happening to any other object, but would I be going out on a limb here to suggest that perhaps Global_Mod needs an update?

To generate this example the Global_Mod command I used was:
Tempo,Tempo==180 Visibility=TopStaff

NB, there were no Tempo marks in the test file, but I discovered the corruption in a file that had 2 on each staff.

I just perfromed a second test with the Global_Mod command:
Text,Font==User6 Pos+=2
and got the same result.
20
General Discussion / Happy New Year
Well, it's just turned midnight here.  Given we're in daylight savings mode I guess it isn't really 2016 for another hour yet, but who cares?

Happy New Year!

21
General Discussion / Merry Christmas
Hi everyone,
I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous new year from "Downunder"

Lawrie
22
General Discussion / NWC 2.75 and the new User Object facility. A thank you.
Hi guys.

Eric, thank you for this new facility.

Those who have created objects, thank you too.

I have recently had to notate a couple of "quick and dirty" scores for a Christmas Carols band I've got happening for my church this year, and with the new objects things that use to take me ages with text objects or things I simply never bothered with are now easy.

This product just keeps getting better and better, and the opportunity for user input in the offerings available are excellent.

Thank you all again,
Lawrie
23
General Discussion / A user object request - decorated repeat bars
Hi you guys that have skills in user objects:

Occasionally, scores I play have "decorated" repeat barlines - they have "wings" similar to the orchestral brace which helps make them easy to find, especially in an unfamiliar piece.

Some time ago I played with creating "handwirtten" style barlines in a font, to be used by superimposing them on existing barlines - even wrote a user tool to do it, but it's a bit of a pain when compared with the usefulness of a user object.

I envisage puting a user object at the beginning of a staff, and then whenever a master repeat open or close barline is encountered, it gets enhanced - preferably with a controllable extension so that the decoration can be varied to taste.

Any takers?
24
User Tools / Help with Global_Mod
It used to be me helping people with Global_Mod issues, now I need some help...

With the advent of the new User Objects in NWC2.75, I needed to make a change to some Arpeggio objects I'd used.

A dump from the "Variable Dump For Developers" tool gave me this:
Code: [Select · Download]
A text representation of the NWC2ClipItem object for each clip line is shown below. This was generated using NWC2Clip Version 2.51.

NWC2ClipItem Object
(
    [ObjType] => Clef
    [Opts] => Array
        (
            [Type] => Treble
            [Fake] => 
        )
)

NWC2ClipItem Object
(
    [ObjType] => Chord
    [Opts] => Array
        (
            [Dur] => Array
                (
                    [Whole] => 
                )
            [Pos] => Array
                (
                    [0] => -6
                    [1] => -4
                    [2] => -2
                    [3] => 1
                )
            [Fake] => 
        )
)

NWC2ClipItem Object
(
    [ObjType] => User
    [Opts] => Array
        (
            [Arpeggio.ms] => 
            [Pos] => 4
            [Speed] => 4
            [Fake] => 
        )
)

NWC2ClipItem Object
(
    [ObjType] => Chord
    [Opts] => Array
        (
            [Dur] => Array
                (
                    [Whole] => 
                )
            [Pos] => Array
                (
                    [0] => -6
                    [1] => -4
                    [2] => -2
                    [3] => 1
                )
            [Fake] => 
        )
)

The relevant portion is this:
Code: [Select · Download]
NWC2ClipItem Object
(
    [ObjType] => User
    [Opts] => Array
        (
            [Arpeggio.ms] => 
            [Pos] => 4
            [Speed] => 4
            [Fake] => 
        )
)

With a Global_Mod command of:
User Speed=8
I was able to change the speed successfully BUT it also added a "Speed" parameter to all the other non Arpeggio.ms user objects on the staff  :(

I tried every syntax I could think of to specify ONLY Arpeggio.ms objects to no avail.
E.G.
User,Opts.Arpeggio.ms Speed=8
User,Opts.Arpeggio\.ms Speed=8
User,Arpeggio.ms Speed=8
User,Arpeggio\.ms Speed=8
User,Opts.Arpeggio.ms== Speed=8
User,Opts.Arpeggio\.ms== Speed=8
plus a bunch of others I can't remember...

Any suggestions?
26
General Discussion / Data Security
A member of another forum recently contacted me RE CryptoWall.  At the moment there's not a lot that can definitely be done because of the nature of the encryption.

It's predecessor, Cryptolocker, has been broken and keys are available - they MAY be able to help with Cryptowall but don't count on it.

Now, the attack vector is via email and file attachment.  Of course the ideal is to delete all questionable emails without opening them.

This sounds good in theory, but most people who use fat email clients like Outlook also set it to display the currently highlighted email - this must open the email to do so and will execute any code that opening an email will do - you can get infected REALLY easily this way.

My advice is TURN OFF preview - yes, I know it's inconvenient but it's a lot less inconvenient than losing your data, or worse, having it encrypted and an extortion notice to decrypt - how bad is it knowing your data is there but you can't get it because some mongrel has encrypted it.
27
General Discussion / Merry Christmas - 2014
It's Christmas Eve here in Oz:
Where I am it's overcast, a little steamy and threatening rain.

That's all just fine by me, 'cos it's CHRISTMAS.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

...and may we all have a very happy and prosperous new year.
28
General Discussion / Selectors and their care and feeding...
Hi guys,
I've been having a hunt around trying to find some detailed information on selector modification and location of selector files.

What I've found is somewhat confusing...

First selectors seem to be in the config folder, then they're supposed to be in the ToolbarBitmaps folder (which I don't have), but there aren't any in config either.

Now I know the filenames: 100.nwc, 101.nwc etc. but where are they?  A search of my entire machine does not disclose ANY selector files.., yet I have active selectors... The standard default ones from my 2.51 upgrade.  And where in the folder structure are they supposed to be?

There is also a smattering of information about in the beta threads from before the release of 2.51, but no aggregation of information relating to selector management that I can find.

So...  can anyone give me a quick and dirty guide to the care and feeding of selectors please?
29
User Tools / Barline changes - using text, specific fonts and user tools
About 6 years ago I started playing with a way to make a handwritten style barline to overlay the standard NWC barlines to go with my SwingDings suite and try to complete the package.

There were a few challenges, mainly the fact I couldn't hide the standard barlines and still make everything work properly.

I have a feeling I communicated about this with either the forum or the Newsgroup once before - I don't remember which nor how much (if at all).  A quick search of this forum didn't reveal anything so I figure it must have been the newsgroup.

Still I made it work OK and have used it a few times, but discovered I didn't really care all that much about implementing the styling, so it languished for the last 6 years.

However, I recently "got an urge".  What sparked it was how often, when using printed scores, I would use a pencil to extend the lines on repeats to make them more visible, kinda making them into stylized brackets.  This got me to thinking about my SwingBars font...

So I modified that font, and created a new one called StraightBars, with associated scripts.

SwingBars has 10 alternative single barlines and 3 sets of decorated barlines - dashed barlines are not catered for.
StraightBars is set up the same, but the script ONLY uses repeat barlines.

The tools place the text barlines centred at next note/barline, sometimes, like at the end of staves where there is a decorated barline, it may be necessary to manually modify the text to be left justified at next note/barline

When you create your file, make a user font to be the Barline font you want to use and set its size to match the staff metrics.  The default is User5 - you can easily modify the script to change this if you want.

The basic user tool command is:
wscript scripts\TextBarlines-LP.vbs <PROMPT:parameter:=*>
or
wscript scripts\StraightBarlines-LP.vbs <PROMPT:parameter:=*>

Font installation is easy, extract them from the zip file, then copy to C:\windows\fonts (assuming you're on C drive and not D or some other drive) - DO NOT EXTRACT DIRECTLY to the fonts folder - the font installer gets confuzzled and doesn't work if you do this.

Copy the scripts to wherever you normally put your user tool scripts (I use the default Scripts folder under the Noteworthy program folder)

Please have a look and let me know what you think - they aren't really "finished" at this point but are most certainly useable.

Oh yes, running this script is probably the last thing you would want to do when editing.

If you need to undo the barlines for any reason, the Global_Mod user too with the paramaters Text,Font==User5 DELETE wil work - assuming the font is in the default User5 location - otherwise modify to suit.

Thank you.
30
General Discussion / Some humour :)
Received in a forwarded email, all serial numbers carefully removed...
 
I think I get it...  or not...  maybe...
 
=========================
Subject: Fwd: an interview with huxtable p. downes, jazz columnist for the gold coast bulletin.
 
Interviewer: Can you explain jazz?
 
Dude: I can't but I will.  90% of all jazz is half improvisation. The other
half is the part people play while others are playing something they never
played with anyone who played that part.
So, if you play the wrong part, its right. If you play the right part, it
might be right if you play it wrong enough. But if you play it too right,
its wrong.
 
Interviewer: I don't understand.
 
Dude: Anyone who understands jazz knows that you can't understand it. Its
too complicated. That's what's so simple about it.
 
Interviewer: Do you understand it?
 
Dude: No. That's why I can explain it. If I understood it, I wouldn't know
anything about it.
 
Interviewer: Are there any great jazz players alive today?
 
Dude: No. All the great jazz players alive today are dead except for the
ones that are still alive. But so many of them are dead, the ones that are
still alive are dying to be like the ones that are dead. Some would kill
for it.
 
Interviewer: What is syncopation?
 
Dude: That's when the note you should hear now happens either before or
after you hear it. In jazz, you don't hear notes when they happen because
that would be some other type of music. Other types of music can be jazz,
but only if they're the same as something different from those other kinds.
 
31
General Discussion / Unread posts in forum icons
Hi guys,
I hate to complain, really I do, but has anyone else noticed the change to the forum "folder" icons?  Are you happy with it?

It used to be that a forum with unread posts was very obvious, the folder changed shape and colour (went yellow IIRC), but now the folders remain the new shape and go from grey to grey/blue.  I find this less helpful.  Not impossible mind, but I have to look more carefully now instead of being able to see changes at a glance.

Eric, mate, is there any way we could go back to the old ones?  Pretty please?

37
General Discussion / Decidedly off topic: The Great Gatsby
Sooo, has anyone in the States seen the latest remake of "The Great Gatsby", directed by Baz Luhrmann?  It opened in the US on the 10th.  Being in Oz I won't get to see it until the 30th as that's when it opens here.

What I'd like to know is if anyone noticed a white guy with a pretty big, mostly greyish beard dressed in tails with a boater on his head and weilding an old King 'bone?

I have no idea whether I ended up on the cutting room floor or not, but if you did see him, it was me :)

The gig came about when a buddy of mine forwarded a request from his agent for musicians to audition as extras for "an upcoming, big budget movie" - I figured "why not, I've never done anything like this before", went to the casting call and ended up getting the gig.  It was certainly a different experience...  The semi-controlled chaos of a big set like that was quite enlightening.

It was also a bit like history repeating itself: In 1944 the film "The Rats Of Tobruk" was made - it featured scenes filmed on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia and my father was an extra in it (he was serving at the time and it seems the army "volunteered" a bunch of troops to help), so maybe we both made it into film :)  He never managed to see himself in the movie, he was just another head with a "tin hat" on it, I'm hoping I'm a bit more visible - guess I'll find out on the 30th ;-)
40
General Discussion / Layers and gapping the staff
Either I'm missing something or I've found a problem...

If you create a staff and put a gap in it, it works as expected.  Now, layer another staff and there are staff lines...  No matter if you copy the gap objects you still get staff lines...

Make several gaps to get an early end of one staff and an indent on the next (for a coda) and even stranger things happen.

Using NWC 2.5.5

Example:
Use page setup to hide staff-1 to see how it should look, then unhide staff-1 and check out what happens.
41
General Discussion / Are there market opportunities for NWC in the Sibelius space?
I understand that Avid owns Sibelius.  I have read elswhere that Avid are divesting their consumer products in a downsizing exercise.  

One source (which I haven't found again) said that Sib. was being dropped.  Now I find this hard to believe, BUT if this is the case, then a reliable Sib. to NWC import could be a fantastic opportunity for NWC to expand.

We all know that Sibs approach to notation is quite different to NWC, but NWC's easy user interface should make up a lot for the effort involved in changing.

Thoughts anyone?

Of course, this is dependent on the rumour being correct.  I just wish I could find where I read about it, or corroborating sources :(
42
General Discussion / Time for something lighthearted:
I stole this from another forum, but it's definitely worth repeating:

There was once a young man who, in his youth, professed a desire to become a great writer. When asked to define "great" he said:

"I want to write stuff that the whole world will read, stuff that people will react to on a truly emotional level, stuff that will make them scream, cry, wail, howl in pain, desperation, and anger!"

He now works for Microsoft, writing error messages

I literally laughed out loud when I read it  :)
43
General Discussion / Certificate error?
Just got a certificate error.  The certificate wasn't for "www" rather than "my"...  Not a big deal IMHO other that it might put some people off if they don't understand.
44
General Discussion / Mute staff groups
I'm currently working on a fairly large big band score and I've made a few changes to my work methods to try and make things easier.  By and large this has worked very well, but it has also highlighted what I think might be a useful addition.

I would like to be able to mute/unmute staves based on which groups they're part of, similar to the way we can currently make staff groups visible/invisible in the editor.

Comments anyone?
45
General Discussion / Happy Australia Day!
YOU KNOW YOU'RE AUSTRALIAN IF:
* You believe that stubbies can be either drunk or worn.
* You pronounce Melbourne as 'Mel-bn'.
* You believe the 'L' in the word 'Australia' is optional.
* You can translate: 'Dazza and Shazza played Acca Dacca on the way to Maccas.'
* You believe it makes perfect sense for a nation to decorate its highways with large fibreglass bananas, prawns and sheep.
* You think 'Woolloomooloo' is a perfectly reasonable name for a place.
* You're secretly proud of our killer wildlife.
* You believe it makes sense for a country to have a $1 coin that's twice as big as its $2 coin.
* You understand that 'Wagga Wagga' can be abbreviated to 'Wagga' but 'Woy Woy' can't be called 'Woy'.
* You believe that cooked-down axle grease makes a good breakfast spread. You've also squeezed it through Vita Wheats to make little Vegemite worms.
* You believe all famous Kiwis are actually Australian, until they stuff up, at which point they again become Kiwis.
* Beetroot with your Hamburger... Of course.
* You believe that the confectionery known as the Wagon Wheel has become smaller with every passing year.
* You believe that the more you shorten someone's name the more you like them.
* Whatever your linguistic skills, you find yourself able to order takeaway fluently in every Asian language.
* You know what it's like to swallow a fly, on occasion via your nose.
* You know it's not summer until the steering wheel is too hot to handle and a seat belt buckle becomes a pretty good branding iron.
* Your biggest family argument over the summer concerned the rules for beach cricket.
* You shake your head in horror when companies try to market what they call 'Anzac cookies'.
* You still think of Kylie as 'that girl off Neighbours'.
* You know how to abbreviate every word, all of which usually end in -o: arvo, combo, garbo, kero, metho, milko, muso, rego, servo, smoko, speedo, righto, goodo etc.
* You know that there is a universal place called "woop woop" located in the middle of nowhere...no matter where you actually are.
* You have some time in your life slept with Aeroguard on in the summer.
* You know that the barbecue is a political arena; the person holding the tongs is always the boss and usually a man. And the women make the Salad.
* You say 'no worries' quite often, whether you realise it or not.
* You've drunk your tea/coffee/milo through a Tim Tam.
* You own a Bond's chesty. In several different colours.
* You know that roo meat tastes pretty good, but not as good as barra, or a meat pie.
* You know that some people pronounce Australia like "Straya" and that's ok.
* You have a thong tan...not on your backside!
* And you will forward this list to other Australians, here and overseas, realising that only they will understand!!!
47
General Discussion / Totally off topic - congratulate me!
Like the subject line says:
totally off topic - congratulate me!

I'm a first time Grandpop :D :D :D :D

My son and his wife just had my first grand child - a grand granddaughter :)

Unfortunately, I don't get to see her until tomorrow :(
48
General Discussion / Pardypack Font suite errors - *TextEuro fonts
In reading another thread I became aware of some problems in my *TextEuro fonts.

Basically, I've discovered some mapping errors in the *TextEuro fonts.  I will need to correct these - this is frustrating because I went to a lot of effort to avoid errors and have missed mistakes with several characters that are, in fact, there, but are mapped incorrectly.  I cannot do the corrections overnight but I'll make them available as soon as I can.

This also raises the problem of distribution - there are many thousands of copies of these fonts out there that I know of - possibly many thousands more that I don't know of...

Given that I must make these corrections, are there any additional characters that should be included?  Euro variant fonts only please...  Be aware that there isn't a lot of room available for extras...

I offer my sincerest and most humble apologies for this nuisance.