Skip to main content

Topics

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

Topics - Warren Porter

104
General Discussion / Importing a midi file from internet into NWC
I was visiting this site http://www.violinonline.com/etude10.htm and a mouseover on Play Etude No. 10 shows the same url except it ends in MID instead of htm.  I never had the opportunity with the Windows Media Player of saving that file and IE 7 only lets me save the website.  After letting NWC open the file by giving it the location on the internet, the imported file sounded like a harp (not a violin) and had tons of wierd time signatures, barlines, and short measures in it.

I got the file cleaned up, but is there an easier way to do this? 

TIA
105
User Tools / A better Arpeggiate Chord
I am trying to learn PHP and tried to make some minor modifications to the arpeggiate script--to change the duration of the grace notes to 16ths (easy) and to not include the top note of a chord.  I'm not sure what I need to do to stop the foreach loop early.  All my code does now is not include the last (unwanted) grace note from the beam.
106
General Discussion / Scripts to handle lyrics?
Can PHP scripts handle the text in lyrics?  If lyrics can be set up with imbedded measure numbers (removable) it would greatly help in proofreading.
109
General Discussion / Browser problem at cyberhymnal.org
I was trying to look at a hymn at Cyber Hymnal, but when using Netscape 7.02 I got a display of [NWZ] followed by random characters--Noteworthy did not open the file.  The NoteWorthy web check-out tool says:

Content-Type: text/plain

The Content-Type does not appear to be set correctly.

However the MS Internet Explorer let NWC open the file with no problems.

Has anyone had similar problems or know the reason for this?! TIA
110
Tips & Tricks / n-tuplets (vs m-tuplets)
This is an extension of the user tip on Pentuplets and may be helpful when necessary to divide a beat, two beats, or a measure into n parts where n contains more than only 2's or only one 3.  For example, 11 (a prime number other than 2 or 3) would be covered while 12, a product of 2 * 2 * 3, would not be.  Notes can already be divided in half or grouped into triplets so no workaround is necessary.

There are three situations when dealing with n-tuplets.
  • Only one part is playing the n-tuplets or all parts are doing the n-tuplets.
  • One or more parts are performing n-tuplets while other parts are doing ordinary notes (dotted, double-dotted, or tripletized notes are included), that is, their factors are 2's and/or only one 3.
  • One or more parts are performing n-tuplets while other parts are doing m-tuplets where m and n are not equal and m's factors include numbers other than 2's or a 3.

Case 1. is the most straightforward.  Divide n by the next lower power of 2 (1,2,4,8, etc.) and temporarily increase the tempo by that amount for the duration of the n-tuplets.  Hide the tempo changes before and after, beam the n-tuplets (if appropriate), and (optional) insert n as italic text at the middle note.  If there are other staves doing the n-tuplets, these changes would be done there as well except the hidden tempo change only needs to be in one staff.

Case 2. was partially addressed in the pentuplet user tip.  The Case 1. changes would also need to be done for all staves with the n-tuplets, but ordinary notes would need to be extended as well.  To determine by how much, subtract the bottom of the fraction from the top in Case 1.  With 5-tuplets, the time factor is 5/4 and the extension factor would be 1/4.  Tie each note to a copy of itself and add two flags.  With 7-tuplets the time factor is 7/4 and the extension is 3/4.  To the extension note, add one flag and a dot.  To do eleven notes in the space of 8, the time factor is 11/8 and extension is 3/8--add two flags and a dot to the tied notes.  What about fifteen notes in the space of eight?  Since its factors are 3 * 5, it can be broken into five triplets and treated as a pentuplet.

As with the Pentuplet tip, the displayed (but muted) staff would not have the ties. The extension notes would either be hidden or replaced with hidden rests if beaming was not an issue.

Case 3. is the most challenging as both n and m require workarounds.  When done simultaneously, the beat, beats, or measure would need to be broken into the Lowest Common Multiple (LCM) of n and m.  If both n and m are prime or share no common factors then they would be multiplied to obtain the LCM.  For example, if a measure contained five notes being played with seven notes concurrently in another part, the measure would have to contain thirty-five(!) beats.  Each note of the pentuplet would use seven of these (one double-dotted note per each would suffice) while the septuplet would require five beats each.

Sometimes n and m would have a common factor or a factor which can be handled by the notation already.  For example, to have 7 vs. 9 in a measure, it would not be necessary to put 63 beats in a measure (although that would work).  Treat it as 7 vs. 3 (21) instead and the part(s) with the 9 can be grouped into three sets of triplets.

What about 6 vs 7 vs 8 vs 9?  While I doubt any music would ever contain this, its LCM would be 2 * 3 * 7 * 2 * 2 * 3 or 504.  However, the 2's and one 3 would go away leaving only 21 beats.  The combination of adding flags (halving the note) or creating triplets would handle all of these divisions.  A much simpler example is 6 vs 9.  Only one 3 needs to be accounted for so, with a time signature of 3/4, triplets are played against eighth notes and no workaround is needed.

In creating a demonstration of 1-10 beats to a bar simultaneously, the LCM of those notes would include a number of 2's, two 3's, a 5 and a 7.  The 2's go away as does one of the 3's as shown in the previous paragraph, leaving a time signature of 3 * 5 * 7 = 105.

Another related user tip is Triplets v. Duples, 3/4 v. 9/8, Hiding "3" in triplets.

This line is added to help searches: pentuplet quintuplet quintuple pentuple n-tuple n-tuplet hextuple hextuplet septuplet septuple.
111
General Discussion / How much change needed before original copyright doesn't apply?
I am working on a small example piece of music.  It uses five of the first six measures of a piece written in the 19th century, copyrighted by a publisher in 1950, and the solo part is still intact.  I have changed the right hand piano part to be dotted eights and 16ths instead of straight eighths, left the bass part as as, added a new base part with triplets instead of eighths, and a staff of whole rests.  What else do I need to do to make that example untouchable by the copyright?

TIA
112
Tips & Tricks / Notating Pentuplets
Whenever it is necessary to play five sixteenth notes on one beat:

  • Temporarily increase the tempo by a factor of 1.25 (5/4) by inserting a new metronome marking before and after the pentuplet where the second one is the original tempo.  Select each tempo marking and Cntl/E to not display them.
  • The pentuplet is entered as ordinary 16th notes. Select the five notes and click on the Beam icon. A "5" can be inserted as a text comment over the middle note.
  • Notes played concurrently with the pentuplet need to be tied to an equal note with 1/4 the value of the original.
  • To properly display these concurrent notes, it will be necessary to create a displayed but muted staff while hiding the original staff. Click on the + icon to create a new staff then return to the staff you need to copy. Press Home, then Shift/End to select everything on the staff, copy it to the clipboard, select the new staff, and paste it.
  • Where you have extended the length of a note by a quarter, remove the tie on the original note and change the note which now follows it to a rest and hide it. Notes can be beamed even if there are rests between them.
  • Hide the original, played, non-pentuplet staff by selecting "Page Setup" from the File menu or the "open book" icon. Under the "Contents" tab, uncheck that staff listed in "Visible Parts.
  • Steps 3-6 need to be repeated for each staff with notes played concurrently with pentuplets. Where another part contains a rest on that beat, a hidden 16th rest will need to be added at the end of that beat or measure.  If another part has a measure rest, a one measure hidden time signature with an extra 16th would work: e.g., if in 3/4 time, create and hide time signatures of 13/16 and 3/4 before and after the pentuplet measure.
  • If you plan to use the tool: Audit Bar Lines, it would be necessary to insert the hidden before and after time signatures on all staves.

When playing a triplet concurrently you can beam the notes being played with the hidden rests as above.  It will be necessary to include the final rest when you reselect the triplet to be tripletized again.  The bracket which indicates what is in the triplet will be a little long at the right end, but that can't be helped yet but it may be corrected soon.

The attached file is an example. pentuple quintuplet

A discussion of other n-tuples is in N-tuples (vs m-tuples).  Also, Triplets v. Duples, 3/4 v. 9/8, Hiding "3" in triplets.

A webpage to assist this process is here: Pentuplets.htm.
113
Tips & Tricks / Printing Parts For Ensemble Members
This assumes you have opened a complete or conductor's score with NoteWorthy Composer and would like to print each part separately for members of an ensemble. The https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?topic=2290 or other specialized fonts should be installed on your computer. If any staff is layered, see the note at the bottom.

Three problems need to be addressed in creating a set of parts.

  • All tempo markings, tempo variances, and (if any) rehearsal letters must be visible on all parts.
  • Parts having multi measure rests may need to have these displayed differently.  It may be helpful to provide cued notes before a player's entrance as well.
  • Printing the parts is not straightforward:  a special procedure must be used.

First be sure each staff is properly labeled as this label will appear on each part. For each staff, press F2 and select the "General" tab. If the "Name" field is not the name of that part, type over it (may have a default name of "Staff" or "Staff-3" for example) and click "OK".

If all staves are labeled, choose "File", "Page Setup", and "Options". Under "Staff Options", choose "First System" or, if you would like the name of the part to appear on all pages, "Top Systems".  Choose a "Measure Options" other than "None".   By convention, the first full measure is measure number 1. If the piece starts with a pickup, change "Measure Start" to zero.

While you are on the "Page Setup" window, select "Fonts" and change user fonts as required to the special fonts to be used such as "Boxmarks" or Boxmark2 and give it a size of about 3/4ths that of the staff size (found in the "Options" tab in this window). For example, if the staff size is 26, choose 20 for the size of the font. Click OK.  This font is used to create multi measure rests and rehearsal letters.

Save the file at this point and also save it under a different (temporary) name.

Tempo markings and rehearsal letters only need to be entered once on a special staff to be layered with individual parts.  Start with rehearsal markings positioned before the bar where the marking is to occur. Set it's Alignment/placement to "at next note/bar" with "left" justification and the perserve width box NOT checked. (Jeff Adlon).  To create this staff:

  • Cntl/A to create the staff and label it "tempo" (F2 and "General" tab as above).
  • On this staff place a clef and appropriate key and time signature: do not add tempo markings or variances yet.
  • Fill the staff with whole rests (after pressing "1", rock between space bar and tab).  Any new time signature, key signature, decorated bar line or ending, or flow directions  must be reproduced.  Continue to the end of the piece.
  • Make everything on the staff invisible by entering Home, Shift/End, Cntrl/E, and select Visibility.  Then choose Never.
  • Add all tempos and tempo variances on this staff. If a tempo change occurs in the middle of a measure, replace the whole rest with a number of shorter rests and hide them before inserting the tempo change.
  • To add a rehearsal letter, press X, enter an uppercase rehearsal letter under "Text Expression" and choose the user font where you set up "Boxmarks" (Boxmark2). On the "Expression Placement" tab, be sure "Staff Position" is 7 or more.

Unless you are creating a part requiring more than one staff (e.g., piano, harp, or three horn parts on two staves), on each staff press F2 and choose Visual; then under "Style" select "Standard" and click OK. When there is only one staff printed, a bracket or brace on the left end of each line will not be necessary.   Unless a staff is a bottom (L.H. on piano, e.g.) it should also be flagged as "Layer with next staff" on the above tab.

This next section is modified.  Multi measure rests are now part of NoteWorthy Composer 2.5.2.

Wherever there are multiple consecutive whole rest measures with no decorated bar lines, key changes,  time signature changes, or rehearsal letters, you can create a multi measure rest as follows: 1) Position the cursor in front of the first whole rest. 2) Hold down both "Shift" and "Ctrl" and count the number of times you press the right arrow. 3) When you reach the last whole rest measure, hold down "Shift" and press the right arrow for the last time and count it as well. 4) Delete these rests, then press the open bracket key "[" and enter the number of measures you counted earlier.

At this point you should have the multi measure rest highlighted, that is, only the rests and single bar lines between them. Enter "Ctrl/E", choose "Visibility" and change "Show on Printed Page" to "Never". Then click "OK".

Go back to the middle measure of the rests, it will appear gray on your screen. If there is an odd number of measures, find a point in front of the middle rest; for an even number, use the middle bar line instead. Select menu option "Insert" "Text" (or press the "x" key) and enter (without quotes) "[nn]" as the "Expression" where "nn" is the count of the measures. Under "Display Font", choose the user font you assigned to Boxmarks earlier. Be sure "Preserve Width" is checked. Click OK. Because even hidden items take up some space (thanks to Chris Hall for this information), this will keep your multi measure rest centered.


Repeat this procedure for all multi measure rests for all parts.

Printing Cues (Warren Porter).  Near the end of a long rest, it might be helpful to show a player what another part is doing.  NoteWorthy was not designed to print cues, but this workaround may be adequate: 1) Set up another user font (File, Page Setup, Fonts), select NWCV15 (it is already installed), and give it a size of about 1.75 times larger than "Staff Size" (shown on "Options" tab). 2)   Replace the whole rest in the measure where you the cues with rests of the same duration as the cued notes.  3)  Using a chart of the NWCV15 font, insert as a text expression the symbol for the cued note in front of each rest.  "Expression Placement" (Staff Position) will determine where the note appears--adjust until it is correct.  On that tab, also choose "Preserve Width" for your cued notes.  4)  To also show a real whole rest (customary when giving cues), insert the symbol for it in front of a cue in about the middle of that measure, but don't specify "Preserve Width".  The file cuedemo.nwc (1K) shows an example.  Note another user font was also set up for NWCV15 to display the cued clef at less than full size (treble on the viola part). In NWC2, use the font NWC2STDA.

To print each part: 1) Choose "File", "Page Setup" and "Contents". 2) Under "Visible Parts", uncheck everything except the part you are about to print and the "tempo" staff.  Also choose "Allow layering", then click OK. 3) Select "File", "Print Preview" and inspect the potential print out for overlapping symbols and correct if necessary (changing "Expression Placement" may be all that's needed).  4) Choose "File" "Print" as described in Noteworthy documentation. 5) Repeat revealing a different part until all parts are printed.

Note: Occasionally, the "Print Preview" will show an unclosed measure at the end of a line along with an empty measure starting the next line.    In order to keep the measure numbers correct, choose the last bar line before the rest (Ctrl/E) and under "Bar Line" select "Force System Break".   Adding the correct measure number where that part returns as a text comment might also be helpful in this case.

Use the preview window to make any final adustments before printing the part. Look for such things as rehearsal letter that are hanging off on the right side of the page. Move the rehearsal marking to after the bar it was placed before (see above) and fiddle with the justification until you are satified with how it looks. Also look at the part and read it through. If the part spans multiple (usually more than three) pages, examine the page breaks. Try to place page turns during rests. This is especially important for wind players who in many cases may be sitting one player to a stand as well as string players trying to hold their fiddles and bows and turn the page with only two hands. Use the "force system break" in the edit bar line dialog to force a page break.

The temporary file you created earlier may be deleted unless there may be a need to print parts for this piece again.

Special Instructions for Layered Staves

If a part is on layered staves, all of these staves should be visible when you print the part instead of just one. Multi measure rests can be created only when ALL staves are resting. Hide the multi measure rests on all parts, but the "[nn]" text only needs to be inserted on one of them.

If one part on a layered staff comes in a measure or more before the second part or staff enters, the last few rests for the second part should remain visible. If the rest on the second staff is too close to the notes on the first staff, the rest can be moved by selecting it, entering Ctrl/E, and changing "Vertical Offset" "Staff Position" as appropriate.

Special Instructions for Multi-Staff Parts (e.g. piano)

When printing a multi-staff part, the tempo markings and rehearsal letters must appear on the top staff.  When you have selected "Page Setup" and left only the multi-staff part and "tempo" visible, select the "tempo" staff and press Cntl/Shift/Page Up to move it to underneath the top staff where it will be correctly displayed when layering is chosen ("Page Setup" "Contents").  When you have finished printing this part, you will need to return "tempo" to the bottom: 1) On "Page Setup" uncheck "Allow Layering" and make what is now the bottom staff visible. 2) Select the "tempo" staff and Cntl/Shift/Page Down it to the bottom. 3) On "Page Setup" hide what had been the bottom staff, reselect "Allow Layering" and reveal the next part you want to print as described earlier. **Edit 2/22/2012** Set the visibility of all MMRs to "Always", else ordinary whole measure rests will be displayed.  Note the tempo staff remains on top (note strikeout).

Authored by Warren Porter, Jeff Adlon, and Chris Hall.