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Messages - Warren Porter

1102
General Discussion / Re: Noteworthy file specs
The NWC format is already compressed (that's what the "Z" indicates in the first five characters of the NWC default format) so space shouldn't be an issue.  If you want another format, this might be helpful: http://nwc-scriptorium.org/helpful.html#ABC

The groups I sing in have a number of members who download (and often pay for) the NWC Composer and learn how to control part volume, instrument, and/or stereo pan to highlight their own part; then save their changes (registered users only).
1103
General Discussion / Re: What is a Tenor Clef?
I am about half & half on reply 26 in that I associate a note's position on the staff with what I need to do to play it, but can "name" that note when talking to other musicians.

As a violinist, 8va can make life messy.  Unlike a keyboard, every octave is not like every other.  I would associate the 4th line on the treble staff with one octave above the D string or 3rd finger in 1st position on the A--not 4th finger in 3rd position on the E.  If there is a lot going on in the music, I might just ignore the 8va indication.
1104
General Discussion / Re: What is a Tenor Clef?
That is pretty much the standard when men sing from the treble clef.  If there is not an "8" under the treble clef for a male part it is implied in most of the choral repertoire.
1105
General Discussion / Re: where are the drums, yall?
On a new staff, hit F2 and, under midi, assign it to channel 10 and leave the instrument at "none".  Take a look at "Drumref" in your samples folder for ideas.  HTH
1106
General Discussion / Re: What is a Tenor Clef?
I have seen the tenor clef used for cello and bassoon, but when it was used on chorus parts (only) in the Durufle Requiem, it was far from user friendly.  A bassoon cue was given with the tenor clef in place before the chorus entrance.  While the bassoon played every note the chorus parts would come in on, it was necessary to figure out what note that was beforehand.
1107
General Discussion / Re: Thank you! Noteworthy Composer is wonderful!
Agreed!  After over five years I'm still learning about its finer points, but I was amazed at what I could do in the first few days.  Be sure to check out the resources of the Scriptorium, User tips and the Newsgroup.  I found seeing how Fred, Tina, Ann, and Richard (among others) created their works has been an invaluable learning tool.
1108
General Discussion / Re: How long does delivery take?
About five years ago when I first ordered NWC with a credit card over the phone, I asked for my registration number.  It was provided via e-mail and I was in business in a matter of minutes.  The CD and instruction book arrived a few days later IIRC.  While the F1 help key may be useful to brush up on topics, I much prefer a a real book when learning something new.
1112
General Discussion / Re: One line in staff, for percussion.
When you set the staff to just one line, that will be the middle line.  You will need to experiment with staff transpositions to make sure the "note" you need falls on that line.  On DRUMREF in your Samples folder, the snare drum is the 1st D natural below the bass clef.  In your piece you would have to transpose (Alt/T  T) +12 semitones, leaving the transposition box checked.
1113
General Discussion / Re: Opening files
'my last icon on the "Open" window is "details" - I don't have a "View window" icon.'

Jan: Which operating system are you using?
1114
General Discussion / Re: Opening files
Sounds like a function of the operating system rather than NWC.  If you click on "open file", the last icon on the top row of the "Open" window should be the "View Window".  If you select and choose "Details", you can select "Name", "Size", "Date", or "Type" to produce a list sorted how you want.  After you select a file, the next time you use this window it will open (and sort) the same way.
1115
General Discussion / Re: A few things...
I forgot you also asked about stems.  You can click on an icon with a note and a red arrow on the stem pointing up or down.  Once you select it, it remains in effect until you click on it again or choose the opposite direction.  To force stem direction for a number of notes, select them then click on the icon (or shift /up arrow  or shift/down arrow).  To do a whole staff, enter Home, shift/End first.
1116
General Discussion / Re: A few things...
Welcome, Seb!

8va You can do a traditional 8va by inserting a clef where the music goes up, select it, cntl/E and then select octave shift.  After changing that click on visibility and choose Never.  You will have to insert your 8va------------------ as ordinary text above the shifted notes.  When you return to normal, insert an unshifted clef and hide it as above.

Layering Two things (at least <g>) are necessary for layering to work.  With the "top" staff highlighted, press F2 and pick the "Visual" tab and check on "Layer with next staff".  Once you click OK on that go to Page Setup (open book icon).  Under "Contents", check "Allow Layering".  If you have notes or accidentals which overlap, you will have to add extra note and/or extra accidental spacing to the note(s) on one of the staves to clear up that problem. (select, then cntl/E again).

Repeats If you can use master repeats instead of local repeats, there will be no 2.  I don't know how it can be avoided on local repeats.

Bowings The Scriptorium is your friend.  Download, unzip, and install Boxmarks.zip from here and, under page setup and Fonts, insert Boxmarks as a numbered user font.  IIRC, t = upbow and v = downbow.  To put those symbols on notes you will have to insert text (a "t" or "v") and choose that user font.

Once again, welcome.
1118
General Discussion / Re: Crescendo within one note
If you need to insert a Multi Point Controller, just press "L" or, from the Insert Menu, it is the bottom item.  Change "Controller" to "Volume" and change "Style" to "Linear Sweep".  Whatever you do at the end of an MPC will continue to the next similar MPC or end of the piece.  For a crescendo on one note (a certain Hungarian dance comes to mind here), have an initial value of, say, 32 and have it end on 127 a few 16th counts later.
1121
General Discussion / Re: Hidden staff(?) and locked(?) volume
While preparing a file for chorus training, you might want to also adjust stereo pan for all parts.  To emphasize the Alto part, set stereo pan to something like 32 for STB and 96 for Alto.  There are many ways the end user can adjust the equivalent of "balance".

While you can also change the instrument to something which would really stand out, I would not suggest this when the user can't change what you provided.
1122
General Discussion / Re: Tuplets
It's nice to know people read those tips <g>.  Under "Page Setup" (open book icon), click on the "Fonts" tab.  Change an unused user font to be both Bold and Italic.  At your septuplet create a text "7" before the middle note and, under "Expression Placement" choose "at next note/bar".  Don't select "Preserve Width".

The "7" will take some space on your screen, i.e., some extra space will appear where you inserted it but that will practically disappear in a print preview or a real print.

If that doesn't work, feel free to send me your file.
1123
General Discussion / Re: Getting rid of ledger lines.
Looking at your question it appears you may need to insert new clefs rather than changing an existing one--there are many examples of this in "moonlight" in your samples folder.  Simply click on the treble clef icon or choose the Insert -> Clefs menu option, or press "c".  A bass clef would be added after the high L.H. part is over.  Select everything between the clefs, hold down cntl & shift, and press the down arrow 12 times.
1124
General Discussion / Re: Percussion Instruments
In your "Samples" folder there should be a file named "Drumref".  Play each staff with Shift/F5 to hear what they sound like.  Note the midi channel must be 10 or 15.
1128
General Discussion / Re: How to disable dynamics per staff
One way would be to save the file as a type 1 midi, change its name slightly, then read it back.  You can open both files at the same time: create a new staff in the original file and copy the staff from the new file into it.  It will have no dynamics, but you will have to reset the instrument.

Another way, possibly simpler would be to search for the "pp" (or any other )dynamic, select it, copy it to the clipboard, cntl/F then paste it into the expression.  Where ever you find a colon ":" replace what you find after it with an asterisk "*" (Style and possibly staff position should be enough unless something else was overridden when the dynamic was created.)  After you find the first one, alternate hitting the Delete key and the F3 key (search next) until you reach the end of the staff.  Don't save this file if you ever want to see those dynamics again.
1130
General Discussion / Re: Tempo marking - NWC and generic
You are correct.  I don't know if that has a name, but you can add notes as text by inserting the NWCV15 font as a user font.  You will have to have three text comments back to back to back with the outside ones being half notes from the font (upper case "F") and the middle ones being ". = " from an ordinary text font.

An ordinary tempo marking would need to be inserted at about the same point, but you can hide it my changing its visibility tab.

HTH
1132
General Discussion / Re: Muted note(s)
Do you mean as in no sound whatsoever (select a note, cntl/E, then click "Muted") or a musician sticks something in his bell or on his bridge to muffle the sound?
1134
General Discussion / Re: ties and slurs
I agree with Graham but would like to add notes of identical pitch can also be slurred instead of or in addition to being tied, e.g., tied notes are part of a larger phrase.  If you start a tie when the same pitched note does not follow, the tie may continue to the end of the piece (or beyond).  This can come in handy for a bell chord or a rolled chord but can cause headaches when you hear a stuck note at the end of the piece.
1135
General Discussion / Re: NWC won't play nwc files of others
Robert, I don't have the plugin but I could jump through some hoops to play your songs.  After opening one of your plugin htm files I viewed the source to look for the name of the *.nwc file.  After a copy I pasted it into the address, replacing everything after the final slash.  For example here: http://members.cox.net/old-music2/stranger-on-the-shore.nwc

You might want to set up your page with direct links to those files so others could use NWC or NWP to listen to them and a plugin wouldn't be necessary.
1138
General Discussion / Re: clipboard
I works pretty much the same way.  For example if you are working with choral music with piano accompaniment and are just getting started.  Enter the key signature and time signature on the top staff (assuming the clefs are in place).  Back up to just before the key signature and while holding down the shift key, press right arrow twice.  Now cntl/C copies your key signature and time signature to the clipboard.  Do a page down and cntl/V pasting your KS-TS to the next staff and repeat until done.  Cutting (cntl/X) is the same--selected objects are copied to the clipboard but deleted from where they were originally.

There is one more use of the clipboard--if you search for something you can paste one NWC object into the "by expression" field of the search window.
1139
General Discussion / Re: Tempo indications
Jacqueline, you are correct that I can't get the "ca" between the "=" and the value of the note, but there is also the matter of tradeoffs.  I have used the NWCV15 font on several occasions (a chart of which, using IE, is here), but it is a hassle to set up and use.  Besides, NWC has to be told the tempo somewhere.

If the user feels the position of the "ca" is important enough, that user would need to do something similar to PhilM's suggestion while inserting and hiding the real tempo indication.
1141
General Discussion / Re: Tempo indications
Opps, I see PhilM beat me by two minutes.  I'd better check my math again.

Let's make that 1m 10s.  This crowd is brutal if you make any missnakes.
1142
General Discussion / Re: Tempo indications
Either choose the icon "quarter note=.." or press the letter "t".  Whatever text you want in there will be displayed and printed before the tempo marking so "Allegro, ca." would work for example.
1143
General Discussion / Re: How do I do a time signature?
The shortcut to the time signature is the letter "g".  To do 24/16 you can do the dialog under the "Insert" menu or "g24tab16Enter".

Your 2nd question already had the magic word in it, "layer".  With a staff selected, hit F2 and the tab "Visual".  There will be a checkbox "Layer with next staff".  Layering will not happen until "Page Setup" -> "Contents" has the "Allow Layering" box checked.  A search for "layer" or "layering" in your documentation, F1 help, this forum, or user tips should be helpful.
1145
General Discussion / Re: Key Accidentals
Under the "Tools" menu, first force accidentals.  Next add the correct key signature, then (Tools again) Audit Enharmonic spellings.  You may have to go back to add courtesy accidentals, but nothing as drastic as having to mess with every note with a sharp on it.  HTH
1148
General Discussion / Re: 1812 Overture
It is fairly simple to add a URL to a post, simply put an exclamation point before http: whatever.

This is the file you see when you click on the Hints link while creating a reply.  Until I got used to it, I found it helpful to keep a hard copy of it handy.
1150
General Discussion / Re: Forcing slurs, ties, staccatos, tenutos etc.to bottom of stems.
That has been on the wish list for some time.  I had thought that on a layered staff that if stem direction was forced all dots and dashes should be on the other end of the note my default, but stem direction is automatically forced for beamed notes.

The only workaround is to copy the staves (when finished) for a muted-displayed hidden-played pair.  On the displayed staff, take off all dots and dashes and replace them with text from a user font such as boxmarks or "extra ornaments".