Skip to main content ↑ ↓

Messages

This section allows you to view all Messages made by this member. Note that you can only see Messages made in areas you currently have access to.

Messages - Fred Nachbaur

403
General Discussion / Re: D.S. al coda?
ROTFL! There must be a corollary to Murphy's Law that states that a criticism of grammar or spelling must inevitably itself contain an example of such, unless it's in such a convoluted sentence that no-one can discern the proper grammatical flow anyway.
405
General Discussion / Re: Midi sounds bad
Go to Tools | Options | Midi tab and, one by one, select from the available devices in the left pane, moving it to the right pane (there should be only one device in the right pane at any given time). This should help you find the device that you formerly used before volunteering as a microsoft beta tester. :-p

Alternately, select Midi Mapper as your "device" (making this the only entry) and select the different available devices one by one in the Midi Mapper dialog (Control Panel | Multimedia | Midi tab | Single Instrument button).
406
General Discussion / Re: View question
There's a way to do it, as was once demonstrated by someone on the newsgroup; basically you add [hidden] local repeat loops at the beginning of all but the first staves, pregressively larger on each staff.

To give credit where due, it was Peter Edwards who developed this. The technique is very useful if you want different staves to play on different repeats, as can occur when only one instrument of many executes variations on each pass.

An example is this excerpt  from The Magic Flute (watch the Glockenspiel staves).

However, it might also have applicability for specific cases where you want a short piece with only one or a few staves to play on a single screen.
407
General Discussion / Re: D.S. al coda?
Francis, this surprises me also, since the female variant is usually spelled with an "e" (Frances).

Maybe you should change your name to "Bruno." :-P

Cheers,
Fred
408
General Discussion / Re: soprano saxophone sound font
I don't know about sf2's, but midi files can (and often do) contain text information. These are readily displayed on VanBasco's Midi Player (the easy way). Alternately, (the harder way) convert the midi to text using either Piet van Oostrum's mf2t, or Jeff Glatt's "Midi Disassembler," then search for text items.

Similarly, mp3's can have "id3" tags, there are v1 and v2 variants (v2 allows more information). These are displayed by WinAmp's "info" option, also by the mp3 plugin for Irfanview (but v1 only, if I'm not mistaken). mp3 furthermore allows for a "copyright" flag to be set.

Of course, anything that can be added can also be stripped or changed by someone who knows how to. Just as for fonts, jpeg images, even .exe's and .dll's.
409
General Discussion / Re: View question
Just imagine the code that needs to be written for that!

The screen has to be refreshed every time the score is moved anyway. It also already keeps track of what the current key signature is anyway, since you can start playback at any point. Don't know about the time sig, it probably would have to look that up.
410
General Discussion / Re: Length of Bar-line
You can put text in with the "Preserve Width" box checked. It will then take as much space as it needs.

If you just want more space at a given position for whatever reason, you can enter a text item consisting of a string of spaces, again with Preserve Width on.
412
General Discussion / Re: View question
But if you did that you couldn't use the playback function.

There's a way to do it, as was once demonstrated by someone  on the newsgroup; basically you add (hidden) local repeat loops at the beginning of all but the first staves, pregressively larger on each staff. It's more of a novelty than a workable alternative, though.

Is there a way to view multiple lines while composing, sort of a WYSIWYG mode?

Jeff, this aspect of NWC can be disconcerting to new users. However, in practise it proves to be very workable; on any but the smallest scores, it's actually much easier to deal with than if you had to page-down or scroll vertically. I came to NWC from Cubasis, which has a score editor such as you describe. After the initial necessity to "rethink" how the score was structured in the editor, it became very natural and I now find the other approach extremely awkward.

But, your mileage may vary. If you find that you just can't seem to get comfortable with NWC's UI, perhaps a suggestion to allow a "WYSIWYG mode" might be worth posting to the wish list.
413
General Discussion / Re: Printing MIDI file
Printing is not supported in the Player program. However, you can print from the Browser Plug-in (also free). Install the plug-in, then load your NWC file into the browser by dragging the file (from Explorer, for example) and dropping it on the browser icon on your desktop, or by using the browser's File | Open File option. You can then use the plug-in's printer icon to print the file.
417
General Discussion / Re: Layering problem...
When creating more than one staff, NWC adds this line at the beginning of the staff in keeping with standard practise. With only a single staff, it's omitted, again correctly so. However, as you noted, this fails if two (or more) staves are layered, since the program still thinks that there is more than one staff.

Until (or if) this behaviour is changed, the only workaround I've seen is Marsu's suggestion in https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?topic=267.msg13795#msg13795.

Since this is the second time in recent days that this has come up, perhaps it's worth a trip to the wishlist.
418
General Discussion / Re: reading bass clef
Yes, tenor as a solo voice is almost universally written in treble clef (understood to be an octave lower than written, so as not to compete with the sopranos). ;-)

It's only in SATB or operatic trios, quartets, etc. that tenor shares the bass clef with the baritones/basses.
419
Tips & Tricks / Re: Measure numbers
If you make the 1/64 rest a "grace rest," the time delay is even smaller, perhaps not even requiring any tempo adjustment. :)
420
General Discussion / Re: chord names above the staff
When there is just one staff in the system, it is considered "normal" to have the left end of the staff open. However, when layering there are actually two staves, so NWC inserts the barline.

I happen to prefer having the left staff end closed, so for me this behavior is a bonus...
421
General Discussion / Re: chord names above the staff
"Opus" - either "Opus Chords" or "Opus Plain Chords"

Those fonts ship with the "Opus viewer" and other Opus products distributed by vivaldistudio.com (formerly allegroassai). As for other proprietary fonts, I'm sure there wouldn't be a problem using them for personal use, but wonder about the implications of embedding them in published PDF or PostScript files.

Any lawyers out there who could clarify copyright issues surrounding the use of fonts?
423
General Discussion / Re: reading bass clef
The bass clef is just a continuation of the treble clef, with one leger line inbetween. Another way of putting this: the note on the first leger line below the treble staff is "middle C". The note on the first leger line above the bass staff is the same note, middle C.

This trick might also help; if you're comfortable with treble clef and can recognize notes at a glance, you can look at a note in bass clef and mentally shift it up two note positions. For instance, the note on the lowest line of the staff would be an "E" in treble clef; shift it up two note positions, and you have "G" in bass clef (except of course two octaves lower).

Hope this helps
424
General Discussion / Re: Adding Harmonic Notes to Triplets
No, sorry. I've run into this situation also. It would be nice if NWC automagically set the triplet attribute when chording to a tripletted note, but there may be technical issues with this that I can't appreciate.

Might be a candidate for the Wish List.
425
General Discussion / Re: Noteworthy Player
On my previous machine, panning a staff all the way to the left or right made it quieter, while on my present system it is much louder. Which situation is more "normal" or more common?

Your situation seems rather odd. The idea behind stereo balance is to simply change the apparent source of the sound, while keeping the volume the same.

If your pan setting is off-center in your mixer applet, panning to one side will result in higher output than if you pan to the other. Similarly, if there is a difference in system gain between your left and right channel hardware (amplifier, speakers, etc.) you'll get the same effect.

Another thing I can think of is if you're using a stereo amplifier and speakers for your sound (as I do), and if your speakers are out of phase, it will sound louder when panned to either side, because there will be some cancellation when near the center. Speakers should be phased (i.e. connected) the same way on both sides, e.g. the wire with the stripe or other markings connected to the same terminal (red or black) for both channels on the amplifier.

Finally, some sound "enhancement" options (such as "3D-wide," Surround-sound, DSP, stuff like that) can really make a mess of your virtual sound stage. While such effects can be interesting as effects, I don't consider them to have much of a place in general usage.
426
General Discussion / Re: Shave and a Haircut...
"Demain on ra-se... gra-tis!"

Hey, that's no fair. We have to pay two bits, but our French friends get it free.

But they have to wait for tomorrow, and "tomorrow never comes." :-P
427
General Discussion / Re: Involuntary rubato
MPC's can indeed plug up the works if you select too low a resolution. For instance, if you do a volume sweep from 100 to 50 over 1/4 note (let's say at 60 bpm) you end up sending 50 events in a time of one second. If you repeat the mpc on, say, four staves, you're up to 200 events in that one second.

I usually use a resolution of 3-5 for the 7-bit controllers (all except pitch-bend), which keeps the number of events manageable while (usually) not causing any audible "steps."

The data transfer rate for midi is only on the order of about 30 kbps, or in practical terms, about 1500 events per second. Sounds like a lot, but if you're working on an orchestral score and do a volume mpc on 15 staves, you can quite easily over-run the midi stream. In addition, synthesisers have their own hardware or software limitations which can be even more restrictive. The "Microsoft SW synth" (aka DirectMusic, apparently based on Roland's VSC system) is especially finicky about choking on too many controller events.

The situation is even worse with pitch-bend. Let's say you're doing a pitch-bend of a semitone over the same 1/4 note at 60 bpm. If you use the default of 32, then you've got (4096/32) = 128 events -- in addition to everything else you've got going on. I find that a resolution of 256 is a more reasonable "default" for pitch-bend, especially since the ear will automatically do an averaging effect, much as a quick slide on a guitar string sounds like a true glissando rather than a series of semitones.

Hope this helps.
Fred
428
General Discussion / Re: Shave and a Haircut...
Lighten up, everyone!

?? I thought this whole "discussion" was pretty light-hearted, poking good-natured fun on a cute addition to NW Software's front page. Or am I missing some deep significance?
431
General Discussion / Re: Newbie
Hi Newbie,

Just off the top of my head:

  • Read the help file. All of it. Then use it as needed to get you through the sticky spots. Also read the user manual and work through the examples. It's also available in pdf format on the CD, for convenience.

  • Read the online FAQ. The very first item is "What is the best way to get started using NWC?"

  • Get acquainted with The NWC Scriptorium. There is a wealth of information there, including the comprehensive Command Summary written by fellow users. Also have a look at the composition hints.

  • Participate in the NWC Newsgroup, there are a lot of knowledgable people who are willing and able to help out.
Most importantly, just roll up your sleeves and get at it.

Good luck,
Fred
432
General Discussion / Re: Shave and a Haircut...
Inflation may soon cause the demise of this venerable tune. "Shave and a Haircut, twelve bucks" still works, but once it goes to thirteen, it's game over. Having that extra syllable completely ruins the effect.
433
General Discussion / Re: Tablature software compatible with Noteworthy
With the ability to control number of lines on the staff, and additional control over staff spacing in NWCV1.75, comes a workable way of doing accurate tablature.

Until someone works up a User Tip or something on that order, have a look at what Marsu did with a Vivaldi guitar arrangement of mine, Andante from Concerto RV532. It might be noted that the job was made somewhat easier in this case by the fact that I had assigned separate staves for each string already, for realism in playback. You can compare with the original version for additional "hands-on learning".

Good luck.
434
General Discussion / Re: Guitar notation
Nonono! Pinky is not normally used in plucking. Too wimpy. It just kind of provides "ballast" :) The exception is the occasional five-string arpeggiated chord.

Some guitarists use the pinky to prop against the guitar body, but that's not usually considered good practise.

The standard designations for guitar fingers are p-i-m-a :

  • p - thumb (not pinky) after Latin "pullex" (IIRC)
  • i - index
  • m - middle
  • a - ring (annulus?)
To try to answer Maciek's question, it doesn't often come up in notation, mainly because guitarists usually only use either pick-style or finger-style. (Guitarists that started out using picks tend to be especially handicapped in this respect.) I'd simply put a short note to the guitarist such as "(Finger Style)", using the p-i-m-a notation as needed in any points of ambiguity. When returning to pick solos or strumming, just say "picked".

Whatever you write, most guitarists will just ignore it anyway and muddle through as best they can...
435
Tips & Tricks / Writing Orchestral Percussion and Drum Staves
Here is an easy method for writing orchestral percussion parts, not requiring dual staves for "sounding" and "viewing."

Parts for Gran Cassa (a kind of bass drum), Piatti (cymbals) and Triangle are usually written in orchestral scores on a single-line staff, using standard noteheads, and no clef. NWC V1.75 therefore supports everything necessary for an authentic visual aspect.

However, the sounded aspect poses a problem. While the sounds themselves can be reasonably approximated with sounds available on percussion channel 10, the "pitches" on this channel represent the different instruments. If staff properties is set for a single-line staff, this line will always be the middle line of a "normal" 5-line staff (i.e. the B above middle C in treble clef, or the D below middle C in bass clef).

This dilemma can be solved by using the Staff Transposition option in Staff Properties. A step-by-step example is given below, using Gran Cassa, Piatti, and Triangle.

  • Open the file drumref.nwc, included in the "Samples" folder under your NWC directory. Use SHIFT F5 to play either of the two staves, to find the desired sounds you want to use. Let's assume that you want to use the following sounds:

    • Gran Casse - "Bass Drum 1" ("C" 2 oct. below middle C)
    • Piatti - "Crash Cymbal 1" ("C#" below middle C)
    • Triangle - "Open Triangle" ("A" an octave above high C)
  • Create three staves (CNTL-A), one for each instrument. For each staff, hit Staff Properties (F2) and set the following:

    • General Tab: set Name, Group and Ending Bar as desired.

    • Visual Tab: set Vertical Size, Color and Style as desired. Set Lines to 1.

    • Midi Tab: Set Volume, Pan, and Playback Device as desired and appropriate to your system. Set Channel to 10. Set Transposition according to how many semitones your desired sound is away from the center line of the staff. Specifically, using our example:
      • Gran Cassa: this has to sound 14 semitones below the D below middle C (center line in bass clef), so set Transpostion to -14.
      • Piatti: this is the C# just below the D, so set transposition to -1.
      • Triangle: this one is best handled in treble clef; the high A is 10 semitones above the B above middle C, so set transposition to +10.
    • Instrument Tab: Set to 1 (1-based) or Acoustic Grand Piano (GM), or other instrument as appropriate (if your sound hardware supports additional percussion banks).
  • Add a clef at the beginning of each staff, as appropriate for the sound on that staff. In the example, "Gran Cassa" and "Piatti" would get bass clefs, and "Triangle" would get a treble clef. In the Visibility Tab, select Never.

  • Add the appropriate time signature after the clefs.

  • Setup done! Write your percussion parts on the single-line staves.
A sample file is attached.
436
General Discussion / Re: instrument patches
It's not a question of those sounds being "hidden," it's more like "not there." For example, on a General Midi system, patch number 126 gives a "helicopter" sound. However, if you happen to have an (older) MT-32 midi system, you'll get "One Note Jam" instead.

The various "Patch List Types" are simply provided as a convenience. If you're using a soundfont-based midi system, some of the specialised fonts may not relate at all to any of the supplied lists; for instance, if you have an organ font, most if not all of the patches will be different organ sounds. In this case, you can edit your ntwpatch.ini file to match your soundfonts (or other midi system) as a convenience to yourself when inserting instrument patches.

You'll also notice that the Roland GS patches are essentially the same as GM, the main difference being in the nomenclature (e.g. Piano3 instead of Electric Piano, etc.)
437
General Discussion / Re: PDF?
One way of creating PDF files via the (free) GSview program is documented in https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?topic=2387. This approach is a bit fiddly, but it has the advantage of making GSview available at the same time (it makes a terrific print-previewer for those final touchups).

There are several other PDF converters, one of the better ones is PDF995 which is available in as freeware ("adware") or reasonably-priced shareware if you want to dump the ads.
438
General Discussion / Re: menuett flow direction
As Olivier pointed out, you could simply write it once, checking both the "2" and the "D" checkboxes for the second (and final) ending. You'd only really need to make them separate endings if there was some difference between them (as, for example, a ritard. on the last pass through the "A" section). But either way will work.

This is one of those many cases where the same result can be achieved in different ways. You'll find lots of such "different ways" as you get to know the program.

I'd suggest playing with it, using a simple sequence, just to get the hang of it. You can't break anything by doing it "wrong", and hands-on experience really helps to make the learning curve less steep.
439
General Discussion / Re: accented syllable or letter
Yes, there are other ways, but least-brainer works for me.

One suggestion I've found helpful: Go ahead and use the least-brainer, but instead of double-clicking on the letter, then clicking on "copy", then going to your application and pasting, just click once on the desired letter, and note what ALT keycode is shown for that letter. Then go to your application and press ALT while typing the code on the numeric keypad.

This is a "next-to-least brainer" that will eventually teach you the codes of the ones you use the most. After awhile, "Look ma, no charmap!"

Another tip: if you're doing a lot of this, put a link to charmap.exe on your desktop, and assign a hot key (I use CNTL-ALT-M). Then, wherever you are, you can have charmap available almost instantly when you need it.
440
General Discussion / Re: Web Site Enhancements
That is, for those of us who do not play an instrument other than voice or piano, what is the meaning of a Bb brass instrument?

Good point. A Bb instrument is simply one that sounds a Bb when it plays a written C.
441
General Discussion / Re: connecting to a midi keyboard
I am using Cubase. This is the Problem.

Yes, I would have to agree. Cubase uses its own method of accessing midi ports, and does not use the native Windows midi mapper.

Since this is specifically a support forum for the NoteWorthy Composer program, you might have more luck getting an answer to your problem by using one of the support options at the Cubase Forums site.
442
General Discussion / Re: Grace notes
There are a couple casual Latin scholars that hang out on the NWC newsgroup, I think they'd probably be happy to help out. You could post your Latin sources there (more appropriately than on the forum) and possibly spawn some interesting discussions. ;-)
444
General Discussion / Re: Web Site Enhancements
Francis -

While I (sadly) have to agree, I think there's hope for us all with the recent release of Mozilla 1.0. There are rumours that AOL will be using a Mozilla build for their packaged browser (replacing IE), also several other companies have committed to using distributions based on this technology. Not to mention that it will hopefully reclaim for Netscape the credibility it lost by hanging onto the 4.x engine throughout the browser wars.

Long live the Lizard! :)

Fred
445
General Discussion / Re: Midi to MP3 problem
Barry wrote: I've been busy getting a plastic tube replacement for a leg artery.

Ouch! "Busy" is an interesting euphemism. Here's wishing you a speedy and uncomplicated recovery.

Fred
448
General Discussion / Re: Midi to MP3 problem
Am I to understand that the result is an MP3 or am I now in wave format? I haven't yet tried to burn anything to CD. When I checked out the saved file in the music library of Musicmatch, it was called an MP3.

If the file extension is mp3, it's most likely an mp3. (There's possibly an option somewhere in MM to determine whether the output is wav or mp3. Wav always has to be created first, even if the final output is mp3; apparently MM just creates the wav as an intermediary, converting to mp3 on the fly.)

You can verify by looking at the file size; wav will run about 10 megs per minute (stereo), whereas mp3 will be one tenth to one fifth that size (1-2 megs per minute), depending on bitrate (loosely translates as "fidelity").

Current versions of the Adaptec Easy-CD writer software can accept either wav or mp3 as input when burning CDs; it essentially does the reverse action, converting from mp3 to a wav intermediary "on the fly."

One thing I've found is that if your source is mp3, you'll want to be careful about having other processor-intensive applications running at the same time; the result can be buffer under-run, which is a fancy way of saying you've just made yourself a nice shiny drink coaster. ;-)
449
Tips & Tricks / Echo Effect in NWC
Most modern sound cards offer a variety of effects, such as reverberation and chorus, but unless you use an external software or hardware FX processor, you'll find that an "echo" effect is generally not available.

This effect can be very effective to "fatten" the sound, especially in techno and similar musics. It's actually quite easy to implement in NWC. Here's a procedure which will do a "pan echo" effect on a selected melodic line:

  • Write your melody line as usual. Assign to it a pan setting at or near center, and for best results use a percussive patch: piano, guitar, harp, bells, xylophone, and marimba are but a few suitable patches.

  • Create from three to five new staves, and assign each to a new channel, and the same instrument patch. Set the staff volume progressively lower on each succeeding staff, and alternate the pan settings from hard left (0) to hard right (127).

  • Copy the original staff to each of the new staves.

  • Add rests to each of the "echo" staves, to give a progressively increasing time delay. The larger the rest, the slower the echo. The absolute time delay will depend both on the rest value, and on the tempo of the piece; experiment until you get the results you're looking for.
A sample NWC file, echodemo.nwc is provided as an example. To see what's happening here, select Page Setup and check the group marked "Hidden."
450
General Discussion / Re: Forcing Lyrics
You can select any note and edit it, then use the Lyric Syllable pulldown to select default behavior, or association with a lyric "never" or "always."

HTH