When writing in NWC, I would like to be able to start with, say, two "empty" bars to establish the tempo. I often burn my music to a CD, so I need to hear a couple of bars to "count myself in" Is there a way of doing this other than having a note of pitch playing?
G'day Rosemac,
assuming you don't want just silence (in which case you could simply use rests...)
- Assuming you don't already have a percussion staff, create another staff
- Set it to MIDI channel 10 (percussion channel)
- Select Piano for the instrument (in NWC1: instrument 0 for 0 based or 1 for 1 based, in NWC2 use Accoustic Grand Piano))
- Set the clef (Bass for NWC1, Percussion OR bass for NWC2)
- Set the time signature
- Place some notes on, say the C# line (2nd ledger line below the staff with a sharp accidental) - you could use any other percussion 'instrument' if you don't want the "Side Stick" suggested
For the notes to place, you might try (Crotchet or 1/4 notes/rests) note, rest, note, rest, Barline, note, note, note, note (for 4/4)
For 'instrument' selection in the percussion staff, checkout the "DrumRef.NWC" file supplied with NWC - it's in your "samples" directory.
I agree with Lawrie's method. A couple of additional options:
If you want to continue those two bars as a metronome, you can change the instrument for beat 1 or for beats 1 and 3, for instance, then add a local repeat with a large number of repetitions. Instead of drum sounds, I used to use some other instrument, with a very high note chirping on beat 1 and the other notes a little lower. I like Lawrie's choice of drums better than my choice.
Since the bars will be count-ins, you need to add two hidden (visibility=never) bars of rests at the beginning of each other staff. With NWC2, exclude the extra bar lines from the bar count if you need to.
In NWC1 you probably can't do that, so just use one 8-beat count-in bar and one 8 beat hidden rest bar in the other staffs. Then on page setup, if you set the beginning bar count to zero, your music staffs will count correctly as long as you don't have a pickup before the normal bar 1. Actually, even that's ok, because you would simply add the pickup notes to the end of the hidden bars, but make these notes visible.
I have a set of Metronome beats I prepared for my mobile phone (Inserted there as midis) in NWC as a zip file. Only trouble. I don't know how to get it to you.
send it to www.yousendit.com and post the link, maybe...