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Messages - carlsson

2
General Discussion / Re: More than one Sound Card
What's really fun is to use the MIDI capabilities of two sound cards simultaneously, e.g. a few systems playback through Microsoft Wavetable Synth (Roland) and a few systems playback via on-card hardware or software synth. Now we can talk about latency...

I've used double sound cards for a few years, and NWC has no problems neither in using the Windows default settings or any other MIDI output source I want, even several at a time as described above. The only software I had problems with was WinAMP 5 which for a while locked up when I had two sound cards enabled. It seems to have been fixed in more recent versions. Currently I have a SB Live! and some integrated sound from Realtek that I barely don't use anyway.
3
General Discussion / Re: Transposing Horn in F to Alto Saxophone
Probably nobody cares, but when I transpose a bass part to treble, I copy the staff into a system with treble clef, move it up two whole notes and then apply transposition; for Eb instruments -3, for Bb instruments +2. I would update the MIDI playback transposition to -9 (alto), -14 (tenor) or -21 (baritone sax).
4
General Discussion / Re: Transposing Horn in F to Alto Saxophone
In the concert band I'm playing in, the bass clarinetist more or less doesn't read a single note of bass clef. When required, I tend to transpose those Bassoon 2 parts to bass clarinet for her (maybe 1/3rd of my total NWC use!).

Sometimes, a good baritone saxophone player can adopt a bassoon or tuba part written in bass clef, but that is due to when transposing it into treble clef with regard to transposition, most of the notes end up in the same visual position, only with different accidentials.
5
General Discussion / Re: Transposing Horn in F to Alto Saxophone
Quote from: David Palmquist –
On the other hand, a Bb bass clarinet (my favourite instrument) does transpose up a tone then down an octave,
Or for an even more mind-boggling example, the Bb contra-bass clarinet transposes one note up and then sounds two octaves below that. It is written in treble clef, but sounds at the very bottom of the bass clef. I suppose the same goes for Bb bass and Eb contra-bass saxophones, BBb tubax (saxophone-like instrument) and so on.

Regarding low brass, I think it depends on which type of orchestra it is; in a symphonic wind/concert band the bass parts are not transposed, but in a brass band, they would be transposed and written in treble clef like the low woodwind. I'm not sure there ever is a situation where you transpose a bass part and retain the bass clef, but I could be wrong. I don't know how eventual tubaists, trombones etc do in a symphony orchestra.
6
General Discussion / Re: Serious bug in length of Whole Notes (But Not Rests)
There are five bars of 5/2 (fff), then follows the double bar line and 3/4 (p cresc to fff) for the remaining 14 bars, of which the last eight are in a rallantando. If I have the time, I will browse through parts looking for a place where exactly one bar of rest is denoted, or perhaps a part where the player enters on the third beat. There is no pick-up notes in the beginning to compensate for. As I said, a curiosity perhaps caused by the confusion that if a semi breve rest should always fill the whole bar, what to do when you need four beats of rest in a bar with other notes.

In theory, I wonder which version the engraver would've used for a (made-up) bar like this:

Code: [Select · Download]
!NoteWorthyComposerClip(2.0,Single)
|Clef|Type:Treble
|TimeSig|Signature:5/4
|Rest|Dur:Whole
|Note|Dur:4th|Pos:1
|Bar
|Rest|Dur:Half
|Rest|Dur:Half
|Note|Dur:4th|Pos:1
|Bar
|Rest|Dur:Half,Dotted
|Rest|Dur:4th
|Note|Dur:4th|Pos:1
!NoteWorthyComposerClip-End
7
General Discussion / Re: Serious bug in length of Whole Notes (But Not Rests)
Quote from: Lawrie Pardy –
the semibreve [..] is worth 4 beats in a 4/4 or 5/4 bar.  It is worth 2 beats in 2/2 or 3/2 or 4/2 etc..
As a curiosity, I'm currently transposing a bassoon part from Mars (Holst, that is). It is well-known that the fast tempo is written in 5/4, but the slower, menancing parts are written in 5/2. No big deal, NWC handles it fine.

However in the original material printed in 1924, at one point near the end (reference number 11, just before it goes into 3/4 and all the quick fiddling takes place) the bassoon (as well as the alto sax) part looks like this:

Code: [Select · Download]
!NoteWorthyComposerClip(2.0,Single)
|Clef|Type:Bass
|TimeSig|Signature:5/2
|Rest|Dur:Half
|Rest|Dur:Half
|Note|Dur:Half,Slur|Pos:-6
|Bar|Style:Double
!NoteWorthyComposerClip-End

Yes, it definitely looks like two "half note" rests followed by a half note in a time signature where I would've expected two "whole note" (semi breve) rests if each is worth two beats at 5/2. Unfortunately, there are no semi breve rests in the parts I have access to, so I can't compare if the printer used those at all. All the rests are of the type concatenated multi-bar. What gives? Could at one point a semi breve rest have meaned the whole bar no matter the time signature, and a minim rest was worth two beats? Or did I miss some anecdotal part of music theory that already was explained/linked to?
8
General Discussion / Re: Audit Bug (Beta 2.03)
Ahem. When I copy a textual clip from the forum, it can be pasted as a new file. But if I copy some bars from an open score, some garbage or nothing appears when I paste that into a new file. If I paste the content into a text editor, copies it again from there and pastes back into NWC, it works.

Is that new paste function only meant to be used for importing clips from e.g. the forum, or also meant to be used within NoteWorthy Composer 2 itself? *scratches head* Or is it my computer that acts up?
10
General Discussion / Re: Extend last system oddity
I can add that while you add the last decorated bar line, make sure it is of the type "Section Close", or otherwise the score will look funny, ending in a single bar line. Most people probably already figured out this, but it is worth mentioning. Of course you could make the last bar line any type you wish, but in most cases it should either be a Section Close or perhaps Master Repeat Close.
11
Instrument Trees / Re: General Midi.nwcitree
Quote from: Peter Edwards –
You can get an octave of Timpani (F to F on the bass clef) on the percussion channel (10) if you select instrument patch 49.
Doesn't it rely on which soundfont or other synthesizer you have connected? If I understand correctly, the "percussion channel" 10 is reserved for one of many drum sets, and the range you relate to is for tom-tom drums; at least F to D. Those are not really timpani replacements.

Since NWC2 can present instruments in custom trees, the question is rather if the default tree should be according to the GM standard or some adapted version that sorts certain instruments differently: timpani either under Chromatic Percussion or Percussive (depending how melodic you find it), string ensembles and synth strings under Strings (perhaps fiddle even), bagpipe and harmonica somewhere under winds (although neither sorts well under Brass, Pipe nor Reed). NWC2 already comes with four ITrees: classic (everything in one long list), default (the one we're discussing), general MIDI (identical?), sample (example).
14
General Discussion / Re: instrument patches
Quote from: Anders Carlsson –
I just noticed that NWC2 (1q) in the Properties->Instrument (F2) window shows a "patch value" which is 1 lower than the value shown in Score Review (R).
This is by the way still true. :-) Another small issue that sometimes irritates me is that selecting a patch through "Predefined instruments" restores the values for default dynamic velocities and transposition to what they were before entering staff properties, i.e. if I know on beforehand that I will want -3 transposition, I can not confirm it other than exit the dialogue and go back, or I have to select the instrument patch first.
15
Tips & Tricks / Re: Making MP3s of NoteWorthy compositions (and audio CDS if you have a burner)
One drawback of hard disk recording is the amount of CPU (I believe) it takes, in particular in combination of replaying a MIDI file. I have found that both when I replay from NoteWorthy or when I export a MIDI to replay in e.g. WinAmp, and then use WavePad to capture the output, some lag and missing notes occur if I use too many systems and channels at the same time. I don't know if true software synths who can (?) work in steptime note by note have similar issues when generating WAV files, but another option would be to have two computers (or maybe dual CPU), one with the MIDI outputting sound card (and NoteWorthy etc) and one with a generic sound card for recording mic/line in.
16
General Discussion / Stuck grace notes + fermata
I have observed some discrepancy in how grace notes are played back. Perhaps it is known from before, but it was new to me. To hear it properly, use a slow tempo like quarter=60 and some instrument patch that is sustained (i.e. a wind or string). First a clip that plays back OK:

Code: [Select · Download]
!NoteWorthyComposerClip(2.0,Single)
|Note|Dur:8th|Pos:-1
|Note|Dur:16th,Grace|Pos:0|Opts:Stem=Up,Beam=First
|Note|Dur:16th,Grace|Pos:1|Opts:Stem=Up,Beam=End
|Note|Dur:8th|Pos:3^
|TempoVariance|Style:Fermata|Pause:4|Pos:8|Justify:Center|Placement:AtNextNote
|Note|Dur:4th|Pos:3|Opts:Stem=Down
!NoteWorthyComposerClip-End

Then I change the end note value to a sixteenth, which seems to be played back in parallel with the grace notes, effective like the grace notes were stuck?

Code: [Select · Download]
!NoteWorthyComposerClip(2.0,Single)
|Note|Dur:8th|Pos:-1
|Note|Dur:16th,Grace|Pos:0|Opts:Stem=Up,Beam=First
|Note|Dur:16th,Grace|Pos:1|Opts:Stem=Up,Beam=End
|Note|Dur:16th|Pos:3^
|TempoVariance|Style:Fermata|Pause:4|Pos:8|Justify:Center|Placement:AtNextNote
|Note|Dur:4th|Pos:3|Opts:Stem=Down
!NoteWorthyComposerClip-End

Add one more grace note, and the effect is even more noticeable:

Code: [Select · Download]
!NoteWorthyComposerClip(2.0,Single)
|Note|Dur:8th|Pos:-1
|Note|Dur:16th,Grace|Pos:0|Opts:Stem=Up,Beam=First
|Note|Dur:16th,Grace|Pos:1|Opts:Stem=Up,Beam
|Note|Dur:16th,Grace|Pos:2|Opts:Stem=Up,Beam=End
|Note|Dur:16th|Pos:3^
|TempoVariance|Style:Fermata|Pause:4|Pos:8|Justify:Center|Placement:AtNextNote
|Note|Dur:4th|Pos:3|Opts:Stem=Down
!NoteWorthyComposerClip-End

Finally, as a side-effect, I noticed that if the fermata is moved to the note just next to the grace notes, the playback delay happens for the first of the grace notes, rather than lengthen the actual note where the fermata is. This is true both for the case where grace notes get stuck and not:

Code: [Select · Download]
!NoteWorthyComposerClip(2.0,Single)
|Note|Dur:8th|Pos:-1
|Note|Dur:16th,Grace|Pos:0|Opts:Stem=Up,Beam=First
|Note|Dur:16th,Grace|Pos:1|Opts:Stem=Up,Beam
|Note|Dur:16th,Grace|Pos:2|Opts:Stem=Up,Beam=End
|TempoVariance|Style:Fermata|Pause:4|Pos:8|Justify:Center|Placement:AtNextNote
|Note|Dur:16th|Pos:3^|Opts:Stem=Down
|Note|Dur:4th|Pos:3|Opts:Stem=Down
!NoteWorthyComposerClip-End

Based on my experimenting, it seems the bigger number of grace notes, the longer note must follow to prevent the grace notes from sticking; i.e. two grace notes require a dotted sixteenth, three grace => an eigth, four or five grace => a dotted eight and so on? :-?

I am using Public Preview 1z. This was my first post pasting notation, I hope it worked OK.
17
Tips & Tricks / Re: Printing 2 small pages on 1 landscape page
But all these tips assume that you have music where each part in landscape mode is more than one page of music, since you can only print one part (or several together) at a time from NoteWorthy? If I want to print Clarinet 1 and Clarinet 2 as landscape A5 onto the same sheet of portrait A4, does ClickBook capture the first print-out, keep it in a buffer and then when I print the second part, resizes both printer jobs onto one page?

I remember trying to copy output part by part to EMF files and resize them, but the only program I had available in the other end was MS Word and the final printed page looked terrible: notes not aligned to lines, stems hanging loose from the note etc. I'd rather print to landscape A4 and use a copying machine to resize two A4 (landscape A3) to one.
18
General Discussion / Re: Feature Request: Headers and Footers
Already today, one can select staff labels on Top Systems. It will look a bit confusing for the musician, and I suppose it is mainly useful for conductor's scores, although one may want All Systems just as well in that case. I would also second the requested options.
19
Tips & Tricks / Re: MIDI to WAV; a Simpler Method
I'm using WavePad which is available in free or master edition. Possibly depending on your sound card, it is capable of recording from "mixed output" as well as all traditional inputs (line, mic etc). Thus, I can start this sound program, configure it to record and press Play in NWC, and the MIDI output from my sound card will be captured to a sound file. I can then process or save it any way I want. I believe many sound converters (MIDI to MP3, RealAudio to MP3 etc) you can download out there for $20-30 each more or less take this approach.

Update: Perhaps saving as MIDI and play back in a less advanced program than NWC is a good idea. I just tested this approach on a 26 system score I'm working on, and on my Athlon XP2000+, the hard disk recording ends up with small jitter, probably due to too intensive CPU use during playback/recording. For smaller/simpler music, I've used the direct approach without jitter.