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Messages - Flurmy

1501
General Discussion / Re: Very Rare Instruments
Quote
there is also a valve trombone

As I wrote in another thread, I recently had to play with a jazz trombonist.
His trombone is considered non-trasposing and has both coulisse and valves.
1502
General Discussion / Re: Artificial Harmonics
Hey Bill,
it's me that must thank you for all your detailed explications.
I simply tried to adjust the small imperfections... trying not to add some myself.

Quote
Plucking near the ends of the string produces a dulling of the sound, which I have always attributed to a greater excitation of the higher harmonics and a corresponding drop in intensity of the fundamental, though I could be wrong.

You're perfectly right.
If you pluck the string in the middle point you're exciting the string in the only anti-node of the fundamental so you have the highest relative level of the fundamental.

Quote
I don't play concert harp, so I can't judge.

Nor do I. You know: $$$$$$$!
Only "celtic" harp with gut strings.
My daughter sometimes lowers only partially some levers to get what she calls "sitar" sound.

About unusual ways to play strings, nobody wrote about the "col legno" ("with the wood": using the wooden part of the bow) or "con sordina" ("with mute").
The latter I used very often while practicing violin to save my neighbours' ears...

Even more off topic is Rossini's ouverture from "Il signor Bruschino" in which the second violins are instructed to tap the bow on the music stand.
Then there is Ethan Winer's "A Cello Rondo"... :-))))
http://www.ethanwiner.com/video/index.html

But all these things are explicitly written on staff or, at most, abbreviated ("con sord." etc.) so there are no odd symbols to learn or add to NWC. ;-)

Cheers
Maurizio
1503
General Discussion / Re: Artificial Harmonics
Quote
clarinet, for example, emphasizes the fundamental and the second harmonic, with most of the others at least present up to about the fifth harmonic

Bill,
the clarinet has a sound reminiscent of a square wave, indeed that's how it's synthetized with "subtractive" synthesys (analog synts), and a perfect square wave contains only odd harmonics.
Of course the clarinet sound is not a perfect square wave so a small quote of even harmonics are present, but the second one is almost non existent.

For example see:
http://209.85.135.104/search?q=cache:UVELiffYz6wJ:www.phys.unsw.edu.au/music/clarinet/E3.html+clarinet+sound+spectrum&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=it

Cheers
Maurizio

1504
General Discussion / Re: Artificial Harmonics
Ahem...
Verbatim "sul ponticello" means "on the bridge", but of course you can not play exactly on it. :-)

Moving the excitation position (either bowing, picking, plucking, hammering...) along the instrument resonant (standing) wave changes the sound of the instrument because you change the "filtering" effect of the instrument. This alters the proportions of the partials.
Some instruments are more sensitive to this.

For example, in the piano the hammering is typically done in the best place to reduce the 7th harmonic that's notoriously out of tune and not very pleasing.
In the harp, unless I use the nails, the difference is minimal.
In the violin there is precisely the "sul ponticello" playing mode.
...
1505
General Discussion / Re: Hi, I want to ask how to change notes to...
Hi Sangzza,

this remembers me the old monophonic ringtone programming. :-)

I think it should be relatively easy to make a user tool that can do that.
You prepare a text file with it then a user tool translates.

No offense implied, but don't you think this can be a good opportunity to learn to read a score?
1506
General Discussion / Re: Glissando on a Trombone
Silly me!

Lawrie, you're right: there is controller 65: Portamento On/Off, and this one is not supported by NWC.
Oh, why not?

By the way: portamento = 0 is the slowest rate!

And even more: the minimoog too has the portamento switch (available as pedal too).
I was thinking about the wheels that are the usual pitch bending and modulation.

So much for my memory...
1507
General Discussion / Re: Glissando on a Trombone
Lawrie:

Quote
NWC doesn't implement the required commands...

What?
So what's "Portamento time" controller for?
Isn't simply a matter of playing e.g. a C, setting the portamento to the desired time, playing a G then, after a while resetting portamento to 0?
Did a miss something?
Ok, it's tricky to set the desired times, but once you got them you're done.

At least in the mini Moog, things work that way... :-)
1508
General Discussion / Re: Glissando on a Trombone
As I said before, I can not be more detailed about the portamento trick because neither my keyboard nor my sound driver support it. Anyone can try the idea?

Lawrie:
Quote
orchestral and jazz work the trombone is considered a non-transposing instrument

I learned this recently when I had to play with a jazz trombonist and I was automatically transposing the score accompanying him on keyboards. I'm so used to trumpet and clarinet...

Barry:
Quote
Enter CC100 with a value of 0 (zero)

So you're trusting CC101 already being 0!

Quote
Followed by CC6 with a value of 12 (semitones) to give a total range of -12 to +12 semitones.

Why not to set 7 semitones and then use the full wheel range?

N.B. Data Controller 6 (Corse Data Entry) is indeed accessible in NWC (it's called Data Entry MSB) but it's almost useless without access to RPN e NRPN controllers (MSB-LSB) and possbly Data Entry LSB too.
Why not include these "controllers" in the list, being that it should be very simple and Data Entry MSB is already there?
Eric?
1509
General Discussion / Re: Glissando on a Trombone
In theory you have the possibility to change the operating range of the pitch bend.
The problem is that, as far as I know, you can not do it from inside NWC.
So bad NWC doesn't allow insertion of special events like, for example, GM2 on or GS on or XG on.

Another possibility is to use the MPC portamento, provided that your sound device supports it; my keyboard doesn't!
1511
General Discussion / Re: Using Multiple Soundfont Banks
Well, I actually have SB live! (as I already wrote I'm the one with old things... I wonder why :-) and I can use soundfonts via the original SB drivers and hardware.
n.b. the memory is shared so you SF will take memory from the main processor

The soundfont manager is indeed INSIDE AudioHQ and is called (no wonder) "SoundFont AudioHQ".
If you managed to get AudioHQ then you must already have it.

As many Creative tools, it's not particularily user friendly but it works.

The program file is C:\Programmi\Creative\ShareDLL\AHQ\CTSFONT.EXE but you can't launch it directly.
You must use AudioHQ to launch it.

Halas, you have to install the whole crap to have it.

By the way: what a bad idea for SB to store the environment parameter data base in the system registry!

Hope this helps.
1513
Instrument Trees / Re: Yamaha XG Tree
Well, as far as I know that's exactly what i-trees are for!

You simply have to get somewhere the list with the names and MIDI numbers (banks and program) of your keyboard patches and put it, with a minimal effort, in NTWPATCH.INI (NWC1) or in a .nwcitree file (NWC2).

The syntax is fairly simple if you start from an existing file.
1514
General Discussion / Re: Simply foolish!
Milton, it's late: I already emptied the wastebasket! ;-)

Don't worry: simply wishing, it should be easy to find somewere the MIDI files as they were before the NWC crunching.

I know very well what you're saying about importing MIDI files in a notation program, but that's not what was needed.
The need (I mean, for the one who used NWC on those files, not for me: I really don't care about those songs!) was just to add lyrics to the vocal line, nothing less, nothing more, and for this there are so many dedicated programs around; some good, some bad, of course.
1515
General Discussion / Simply foolish!
A friend passed me some MIDI files on which someone had the wonderful idea of adding lyrics using NWC.
No need to say what happened to dynamics, MPC, n-tuplets, slurs...

NWC was never conceived for that. The wrong tool for the wrong result.
It's like using a knife to open a can: unless you're really skillful you'll end up enjuring yourself... and anyway the result isn't worth the effort.

There are so many programs in the web explicitly made for that purpose!

Of course those MIDI files went quickly to the wasteba... ooops, sorry, the recycle bin.
1518
Instrument Trees / Re: Orchestral itree
There are many threads here about that and it all boils down to soundfonts.

Be aware that not all the sound cards can handle soundfonts unless, of course, you use a (decent) soft synth.

I don't know how many here understand spanish.
Is your english really so bad?
1520
General Discussion / Re: Tremelos and Arpeggiated Chords
Just back from holidays!

I see I triggered a lot of fun here around. ;-) Glad for it.

Oh, how I lack the NG access!
I found the NWC NG interesting and amusing, but I lost the access because of firewall and security policies...

Cheers
Maurizio
1521
General Discussion / Re: Drum Kits?
I suppose in NWC you checked "Send bank select" and set LSB = 0 and MSB at wish, so I can only guess that your synth needs a command like "GM2 on" or "GS on" or "XG on" to use these features.
Just a guess, anyway.

The problem is that, as far as I know, you can not send that kind of command from NWC.

Another idea is: take care of what you're looking (well... listening) at.
For example: I can select the Analog Kit so the drums and cymbals become "synthetic", but the other sounds (agogo, claves, maracas, cabasa...) don't change.

Uh, I just noted that you wrote
Quote
my computer's MIDI capabilities
.
I did my tests with external keyboards. Maybe your sound card does not handle alternative drum kits.
1523
General Discussion / Re: Drum Kits?
As far as I know, GM2 now includes what used to be GS and/or XG drum kits, and specifically:

ProgChange       Name
 MSB  LSB
 000  000        Standard Kit
 001  000        Standard Kit 2
 004  000        Hit Kit
 008  000        Room Kit
 016  000        Rock (Power) Kit
 024  000        Electronic Kit
 025  000        Analog Kit
 026  000        Dance Kit
 032  000        Jazz Kit
 040  000        Brush Kit
 048  000        Symphony (Orchestra) Kit
 056  000        Sound Effects (SFX) Kit

If your synth is not too old or if your synth is automatically in GS or XG mode you should not have any problem inserting an instrument change command with the relevant ProgChange values.
1525
General Discussion / Re: Using More than 16 Channels
If you are never using more than 16 instruments contemporarily (yuk! Wagner?) you can assign the same midi channel to a couple (or more) instruments that never play together, then insert an instrument change before any time those instruments starts to play.
Possibly you have to set also some MPC like pan, expression, modulation etc.

That's an old trick used with an old GEM WK2 keyboard that didn't allowed more than 5 patches contemporarily.
1527
General Discussion / Re: radio shack midi keyboard HELP!
Uh! That doesn't come as a surprise to me.

I have a Canon printer permanently connected to an USB port, but it must be off for windows to boot.
If it's on, windows locks in the boot process without any message.

Then I have the very same behavior with a HP scanner and/or a joystick, with the small detail that they do not have a "power switch".

It's three years I'm hoping for a M$soft fix...
1529
General Discussion / OT: Traditional Kletzmer scores
Sorry for the off-topic.
Where can I find some free scores or midi files of traditional Kletzmer music on the net?
Beside "Hine Ma Tov" in the scripto (courtesy of Andrew Purdham), that is. ;-)

Maurizio
1530
General Discussion / Re: Repetita juvant
Quote
Once you wrote that, the rest was easy. (sorry about the file name)

What's to be sorry, Rick? Very clear indeed ;-)

Lawrie, at the moment I can't recall any specific example but I think in the years I met both the "da capo (or "dal segno") con replica" and "da capo (or "dal segno") senza replica" or even "da capo (or "dal segno") senza ritornello (without refrain)".

Would you believe? I feel uneasy mixing italian and english in writing. It happens that I start writing in italian and I find myself keeping writing in italian even what should be in english and vice-versa...
1532
General Discussion / Re: Repetita juvant
Hi Richard,
well, perhaps I was too much criptic, sorry.

I know the use of the "default" special ending and I used it as a... "better than nothing" solution but that's not exactly what I need.
I try to explain it better.

The sequence I want is:

Intro, Chorus, SE1, Chorus, SE2, Bridge, Chorus, SE1, Chorus, SE2 (fine)

Inserting a segno just after the intro, a fine at the end of the SE2 and using a "Dal segno al fine" I get:

Intro, Chorus, SE1, Chorus, SE2, Bridge, (segno) Chorus, Bridge
(please note there is no SE1 nor SE2: awful!)

Using D together with SE2 I get

Intro, Chorus, SE1, Chorus, SE2, Bridge, (segno) Chorus, SE2(i.e. SED) (fine)

As I said, a tollerable workaround but not exactly what I need.

Any idea? (Beside, of course, using copy/paste ;-)

Thank you anyway.
Maurizio
1533
General Discussion / Repetita juvant
I have a structure of this kind:

Intro (MRO) (segno) Chorus (SE1) ... (MRC)   (SE2) ... (Fine)     bridge (Dal segno al fine)

Since master repeats are ignored after one of the flow directions have been
executed, how can I force the chorus repetition (with the different special
endings) even after the "Dal segno al fine"?

Thanks in advance.
Maurizio
1534
General Discussion / Re: Can you understand?
Hi Eric.

If I get your point, you say that a lot of pitch wheel events can overload the midi channel.
Well, it seems you're right.
(Ok, a step of 1 is too small in this case, silly me!).

But in that case I would have expected a slow down or a missing note; that's not the case, the problem is a speeding up!

The exported midi file contains far less pitch wheel events than you would expect. The average step is about 22.
This can easily explain why it doesn't show the problem.

Anyway, if there is no problem when using NWC2 for playback, what's different when using the winamp plugin?

Thank you
Maurizio

P.S. Always about the winamp plugin: the winamp cursor should change the volume but it doesn't change anything; I must open the windows mixer and adjust the synth or/and the main slider.
1535
General Discussion / Can you understand?
I was listening the attached file in WinAmp (with plugin_nwc2winamp_v2beta2 installed, of course) when I noticed an odd time change in bar 58.

For sure I didn't put it there, but also I never heard it before.
Indeed, playing that file using NWC2 or playing the exported midi file has not that problem.

It seems like WinAmp plugin has an interference between pitch bend and tempo.
Is it a problem of my sound card (SB basic)?
Someone else can replicate this problem?

Can you understand? ;-)
1536
General Discussion / Re: A question about a note.
Hi Dwight.

That's a tremolo.
It means playing repeatedly the notes at the speed of 1/32 (there are three lines on the stem) for a total duration of 1/4.

Maurizio
1537
General Discussion / Re: autobeam issue in split measures
Yes, right. Musically speaking, archi = strings.
Literally: arco = bow, so "archi" means the whole family of bowed instruments.

I don't know if violas (vihuela, viola da gamba, etc.) are actually considered strings... pardon, archi.

Getting back to the score, if you consider it for a bunch of strings it's not a problem to understand the multiple melodic (and also polyphonic) lines.
Things become awkward only if you try to play them on a keyboard with just two hands!
It's ok on the organ with pedalboard.

Maurizio
1538
General Discussion / Re: How do you do fp<f on a long note?
I suggest using expression instead of volume so you can modify the instrument (track) volume at wish without to have to change all the dinamic effects along the score.
(I think this is exactly why there are two distinct MPCs: volume and expression.)

Furthermore you're not restricted to do just a single effect via MPC.
It's very easy to create the whole decrescendo-rinforzando effect with the 4 distinct settings of a single MPC command that NWC allows.
I do it often in the pop/jazz scores.

Maurizio
1539
General Discussion / Re: MPC restoring
>Somehow your stage name is easier to remember.

Rob,
my friends sticked that nickname on me more than 30 years ago and now Flurmy it's kind of a second name for me.
So no problem at all, unless you don't want to be considered a friend... ;-)
What surprises me is that you find it easier to remember. Curious.

Completely off-topic: once I was speaking with a Maori who explained me that they use "kia ora" for both "hello" and "good bye". I said that we do the same in Italy. He asked me how we say and I answered "ciao" (spelled "chao"). A Japanese heard the whole conversation and said: "wow, easy!"

Cheers... that is: ciao!
Maurizio
1541
General Discussion / MPC restoring
I stumbled upon a case like this: in a piece I had a 4 bars long trumpet note fading away.
I obtained this by applying the expression MPC linearly sweeping from 127 down to 0.
Very good.

I stopped the playback near the end of this fading then I restarted the play a dozen bars early.
The trumpet was very soft, almost non-existent.
What happened was that I stopped the play while the expression MPC was already very low and when I restarted the play the MPC remained untouched.

Of course this is a problem with all the MPCs. Guess what happens with an "engaged" pitch bending!

The best would be if NWC could restore the MPC settings virtually active at the restarting position, but I think it's not a simple matter. That is: the matter isn't worth the effort.

Opinions? Eric?

Maurizio
1543
General Discussion / What time is it?
Well, my idea was to play measures 63..80 at 105 bpm, then repeating them gradually accelerating until reaching measure 81 at 135 bpm and keeping that time until the end,
IE the effect of "La seconda volta accelerando" ("the second time accelerating") in measure 63.
What I got instead is twice measures 63..80 at 105 bpm then a sudden awful jump to 135 bpm.

Writing the accelerando at measure 63, I expect a slow acceleration until measure 81.
Instead I have measures 63..80 accelerating up to 135 bpm, measure 63 that progressively slows down again at 105 bpm and then the final acceleration in measures 64..80 (the only one I want).

Of course there is always the possibility to copy measures 63..80 and then applying the accelerando only to the second copy but that's too easy! ;-)

I'm missing something on how NWC handles the tempo variances.

Anyway this is a (sort of) achademic question; I think I'll settle for a hidden staff having the repeat expanded, because in this piece almost all the grace notes must really be taken from the previous note, not the following one.

Cheers
Maurizio
1544
General Discussion / Re: No page numbers?
Ehm... please don't laught too loud: I was looking for the page number in the bottom right corner, not in the upper one. Silly me!
I can understand yesterday for I finished working after midnight, but this morning when I tried again I should have to be more careful.

Sorry and thank you.
Maurizio
1545
General Discussion / Re: No page numbers?
Well, what I am saying is that I see no page number in page 1, in page 2, in page 3, in page...
Are you able to see them?

May it be a problem of printer setup?
I tried modifying the bottom margin with no result.
Anything else to try?

Ciao
Maurizio
1546
General Discussion / No page numbers?
I just finished notating a score (soon in the Scripto) so I took a look at the print preview.
All is right, where it not that there is no page number.
Of course I checked that "Page numbering" was selected and "from" was 1.
No way.

Well, I don't actually printed the score, I just looked at the print preview, but anyway the page number should be there.

Anyone got the same problem?

By the way: I'm talking about beta 2.22.

Cheers
Maurizio
1547
User Tools / TransposeChords enhanced
To begin with: being that this is my very first php program, were it not for Andrew for sure I didn't succeed. Thank you very much, Andrew!
("If I have seen farther than others, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants." - Isaac Newton, hi!)

So, what's new?
Well, I'm Italian.
I don't care at all if a chord is spelled G or sol, but when I prepare the scores for my friends they are far more comfortable with the Italian style: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si.
I modified the program so that it's able to transpose also the chords written that way.
As a kind of side effect, it's now possible to translate the chords from a name system to the other.

I suppose there is some other noteworthy user that can find it useful so here it is.

Once again: Thank you, Andrew!

Cheers
Maurizio Spagni

Update: Transformed the code in the message in a file attached.
1548
General Discussion / Re: Probably it's a stupid question but...
That's it! Thank you Rick.
I knew I was overlooking something trivial.
By the way: why not to put the controls of the "Change" subdialog directly in the "Fonts" tabs?
IMHO it will be easier to understand where to operate.

Cheers
Maurizio
1549
General Discussion / Probably it's a stupid question but...
Hi all.

I opened a file I dowloaded from scriptorium and discovered that in the print preview the score showed up being gigantic: just a bar per page!

(Off topic: as I already suggested trough the wish list, why in the print preview the page-up, page-down, home and end keys don't do what they are used to do?)

I went to the Page setup dialog looking for the well known "staff size" parameter and I discovered it's no more present.
I remembered having read somewhere that Eric changed it for something more flexible and powerful so I wandered in almost all the dialogs but I wasn't able to find anything useful.

Last resort (when all else fails, read the instructions...): a search in the help.
I wasn't able to find anything in the index so I tried with the "find" tab.
Well, the relevant argument names were:
IDH_DLGPRINTCLASSIC2
IDH_DLGPRINTCLASSIC11
IDH_PGSETUPSTAFFSZRESCALE
A little bit cryptic, aren't they? ;-)
Anyway, even in the explication there is no clear indication where to look for the staff size parameter.

I think I'm overlooking something obvious.

Cheers
Maurizio
1550
General Discussion / Re: Staccato or not staccato: this is the problem
Quote from: David Palmquist –
In something like 44 years of playing, I have never seen a tied pair of notes in printed music where the first note is staccato.

Nor do I! :-)

Quote from: David Palmquist –
Why would anyone write it?  It just doesn't make sense.

I agree, of course, but it was an artifact of a bar shifting in NWC2.
Indeed, as I wrote, I don't know how I would have read it.

Quote from: Rick G. –
Depends on the instrument. Acoustic Bass is just about right. Any longer and it ceases to sound staccato:

On my sound card, measure 1 sounds right for a Bass. Measures 2 & 3 sound the same.
For most Woodwinds, Measure 2 sounds better than Measure 1

Itrees or Instrument could be expanded to allow different durations, but that would be a bit of complexity for an application that is not a full-fleged sequencer.

I endorse Rick's findings.

Thank you all.
Maurizio