Print Page - Percussion splitter

Title: Percussion splitter
Post by: Flurmy on 2019-08-31 07:36 AM

This tool splits a percussion staff, tipically containing all the percussions, in different staves, one for each "instrument", i.e. note.
The staff to be splitted is the one selected in the editor.
The staves are added at the end of the score. To undo, just delete the staves which were added.

There is an optional parameter.
If the program is called with a parameter value of 1, the "notes" of triangle and hi-hat are grouped so as to use only a single staff each.
If the parameter is 2, also the bongos, congas, timbales, agogo, whistle, guiro, wood blocks and cuica are grouped on a staff each.
If the parameter is 3 or more, also toms and cymbals are grouped.
If there's no parameter or the parameter is <= 0 then there will be no grouping.

N.B. When importing from MIDI you often get two staves for the percussions, one with treble clef and the other with percussion (or bass) clef.
There is no harm in repeating the splitting, so you can split one staff and then the other. The only drawback is that possibly, if you're using grouping, you can have two staves of the same group and you have to merge them manually.
To avoid this you can widen the "maximum single track chord size" so as to have all in a single staff.

This is my first attempt at programming in Lua.
I would never have it done without the great help of Bart.
Thank you, Bart.

Title: Re: Percussion splitter
Post by: yukulele on 2019-09-03 11:15 AM

Very useful tool, thanks! 👍 grouping rocks! 😍

I have some suggestion:

keep original staff options (ending bar, volume/pan/muted, playback device, MIDI patch instructions, Default dynamic velocity, ...)
take into consideration original staff transposition
set smaller upper/lower boundaries between generated staves (=6?)

Title: Re: Percussion splitter
Post by: Flurmy on 2019-09-03 08:00 PM

Hello yukulele,
thank you for your suggestions. Here below my comments.

Quote from: yukulele – 2019-09-03 11:15 AM

keep original staff options (ending bar, volume/pan/muted, playback device, MIDI patch instructions, Default dynamic velocity, ...)

Well, the default dynamic velocities were already maintaned. :D
The staff ending bar was set to none (hidden) because that's how I always use it, but it's easy to change it once as needed in the original staff before splitting, so now it copies the original in all the added staves.
I forgot to copy the staff volume. ;D
I think it makes no sense to copy the original mute status. You can easily mute and unmute the whole group at once with the NWC muting dialog.
Each percussion "instrument" already has its acoustic position. I don't see why to pan the whole lot. You can pan each single instrument via special MIDI commands, but that's another story... :D
MIDI patch instructions? Those are "per channel" data and all the percussion we are dealing now are on channel 10! Just set them once.
Playback device? Are you kidding? :P

Quote from: yukulele – 2019-09-03 11:15 AM

take into consideration original staff transposition

Gosh! nwcPlayContext does not take care of that! >:( Thank you for having pointed it out.

Quote from: yukulele – 2019-09-03 11:15 AM

set smaller upper/lower boundaries between generated staves (=6?)

I considered that, then... I forgot it. :)

I also fixed a bug when there were partial bars, tipically at the beginning of the score, containing only rests.

Version 1.1 attached below.

(attachement removed - 09/05/2019)

Title: Re: Percussion splitter
Post by: yukulele on 2019-09-04 08:35 AM

I,
Thanks for the update!

Quote from: Flurmy – 2019-09-03 08:00 PM

I think it makes no sense to copy the original mute status [...]
Each percussion "instrument" already has its acoustic position [...]

You agree for pan and mute.

Quote from: Flurmy – 2019-09-03 08:00 PM

Playback device? Are you kidding?

I'm not kidding, in some case devices are used to workaround 16 channel midi limitation (by using several virtual midi devices). but I admit that I don't use it very often (and probably never for percussion).

Quote from: Flurmy – 2019-09-03 08:00 PM

I considered that, then... I forgot it. :) [upper/lower boundaries]

thanks! but you should keep first upper and last lower to original (12) value.

Quote from: Flurmy – 2019-09-03 08:00 PM

I also fixed a bug when there were partial bars, typically at the beginning of the score, containing only rests.

I think this fix create a regression in case of time signature change, try it with that:

Code: (nwc) [Select · Download]

!NoteWorthyComposer(2.751)
|AddStaff|Name:"perc"|Group:"Standard"
|StaffProperties|Muted:N|Volume:127|StereoPan:64|Device:0|Channel:10
|Clef|Type:Percussion
|TimeSig|Signature:6/4
|Note|Dur:Half|Pos:-8
|Note|Dur:Half|Pos:-8
|Note|Dur:Half|Pos:-8
|Bar
|TimeSig|Signature:4/4
|Note|Dur:Half|Pos:-7
|Note|Dur:Half|Pos:-7
|Bar
|Note|Dur:Half|Pos:-8
|Note|Dur:Half|Pos:-8
|Bar
!NoteWorthyComposer-End

Title: Re: Percussion splitter
Post by: Flurmy on 2019-09-05 08:11 PM

Quote

I think this fix create a regression in case of time signature change

Thank you for discovering this bug.
I also fixed another couple, so here attached you can find the new version 1.2.

Title: Re: Percussion splitter
Post by: Flurmy on 2025-05-12 10:29 AM

A program update.
The changes are too many to be listed, hence version 2.0, but in a nutshell I can resume them as: much, much less need for manual adjust of the resulting staves.
The usage instruction are unchanged.
You can find the new code in the first message of this thread.

Title: Re: Percussion splitter
Post by: yukulele on 2026-02-07 03:52 PM

Hi Bart!

I just reinstalled NWC, one of the first things to do is to reinstall the essential percussions-split plugin!

Unfortunately, I'm getting an error that I don't think I've encountered before:

Code: (txt) [Select · Download]

Usertools\fl_PercussionSplit-2.0.lua:738: bad argument #1 to 'match' (string expected, got table)

I tried this quick fix:

replace line 738

Code: (lua) [Select · Download]

    local PercStaffNumber = string.match(Item.Opts.Name, PercStaffName.."(%d+)")

with

Code: (lua) [Select · Download]

    local PercStaffNumber = 0

This hack seems to work, but I assume this line must serve some purpose, right?

- Are you also experiencing this problem?
- Is it a configuration error?
- How can it be fixed?

Title: Re: Percussion splitter
Post by: Flurmy on 2026-02-07 04:31 PM

Argument #1 is the name of the staff. There something odd with them.
What are the names of the staves in your score that begin with "Perc. staff "?

P.S. I'm not Bart! :D

Title: Re: Percussion splitter
Post by: yukulele on 2026-02-07 05:01 PM

Oups 😅 Sorry Flurmy, I misread the end of the first message as a signature.

I don't have any staves that start with "Perc. staff ".

Here is a minimal example for which I get an error:

Code: (nwc) [Select · Download]

!NoteWorthyComposer(2.751)
|SongInfo|Title:"test perc"
|AddStaff|Name:"perc"|Group:"Standard"
|StaffProperties|EndingBar:Section Close|Visible:Y|BoundaryTop:12|BoundaryBottom:12|Lines:5|Color:Default
|StaffProperties|Muted:N|Volume:127|StereoPan:64|Device:0|Channel:10
|Clef|Type:Percussion
|Note|Dur:4th|Pos:0
|Note|Dur:4th|Pos:-1
|Note|Dur:4th|Pos:-2
|Note|Dur:4th|Pos:-3
!NoteWorthyComposer-End

Title: Re: Percussion splitter
Post by: Flurmy on 2026-02-07 07:53 PM

I don't.

Code: (nwc) [Select · Download]

!NoteWorthyComposer(2.751)
|Editor|ActiveStaff:1|CaretIndex:1|CaretPos:0
|SongInfo|Title:"test perc"|Author:"<Name>"|Lyricist:""|Copyright1:"Copyright © 2026 <Name>"|Copyright2:"All Rights Reserved"
|PgSetup|StaffSize:16|Zoom:4|TitlePage:Y|JustifyVertically:Y|PrintSystemSepMark:N|ExtendLastSystem:N|DurationPadding:Y|PageNumbers:0|StaffLabels:None|BarNumbers:None|StartingBar:1
|Font|Style:StaffItalic|Typeface:"Times New Roman"|Size:10|Bold:Y|Italic:Y|CharSet:0
|Font|Style:StaffBold|Typeface:"Times New Roman"|Size:8|Bold:Y|Italic:N|CharSet:0
|Font|Style:StaffLyric|Typeface:"Times New Roman"|Size:7.2|Bold:N|Italic:N|CharSet:0
|Font|Style:PageTitleText|Typeface:"Times New Roman"|Size:24|Bold:Y|Italic:N|CharSet:0
|Font|Style:PageText|Typeface:"Times New Roman"|Size:12|Bold:N|Italic:N|CharSet:0
|Font|Style:PageSmallText|Typeface:"Times New Roman"|Size:8|Bold:N|Italic:N|CharSet:0
|Font|Style:User1|Typeface:"Times New Roman"|Size:8|Bold:N|Italic:N|CharSet:0
|Font|Style:User2|Typeface:"Times New Roman"|Size:8|Bold:N|Italic:N|CharSet:0
|Font|Style:User3|Typeface:"Times New Roman"|Size:8|Bold:N|Italic:N|CharSet:0
|Font|Style:User4|Typeface:"Times New Roman"|Size:8|Bold:N|Italic:N|CharSet:0
|Font|Style:User5|Typeface:"Times New Roman"|Size:8|Bold:N|Italic:N|CharSet:0
|Font|Style:User6|Typeface:"Times New Roman"|Size:8|Bold:N|Italic:N|CharSet:0
|PgMargins|Left:1.27|Top:1.27|Right:1.27|Bottom:1.27|Mirror:N
|AddStaff|Name:"perc"|Group:"Standard"
|StaffProperties|EndingBar:Section Close|Visible:Y|BoundaryTop:12|BoundaryBottom:12|Lines:5|Color:Default
|StaffProperties|Muted:N|Volume:127|StereoPan:64|Device:0|Channel:10
|StaffInstrument|Trans:0|DynVel:10,30,45,60,75,92,108,127
|Clef|Type:Percussion
|Note|Dur:4th|Pos:0
|Note|Dur:4th|Pos:-1
|Note|Dur:4th|Pos:-2
|Note|Dur:4th|Pos:-3
|AddStaff|Name:"Perc. staff 1"|Label:"Toms"|Group:"Percussions"
|StaffProperties|EndingBar:Section Close|Visible:Y|BoundaryTop:12|BoundaryBottom:12|Lines:1|WithNextStaff:Bracket,ConnectBars|Color:Default
|StaffProperties|Muted:N|Volume:127|StereoPan:64|Device:0|Channel:10
|StaffInstrument|Trans:-5|DynVel:10,30,45,60,75,92,108,127
|Clef|Type:Percussion
|Key|Signature:Bb|Tonic:F|Visibility:Never
|Note|Dur:4th|Pos:3y
|Note|Dur:4th|Pos:2y
|Note|Dur:4th|Pos:1y
|Note|Dur:4th|Pos:0y
!NoteWorthyComposer-End

Title: Re: Percussion splitter
Post by: yukulele on 2026-02-07 09:28 PM

After a few debug time I realize that `Item.Opts` have this structure for me:

Code: [Select · Download]

{
  ["Group"] = { ["Text"] = Standard, },
  ["LabelAbbr"] = "abbr",
  ["Label"] = { ["Text"] = label, },
  ["Name"] = { ["Text"] = perc, },
}

So I now use:

Code: (lua) [Select · Download]

local Name = Item.Opts.Name.Text or Item.Opts.Name
local PercStaffNumber = string.match(Name, PercStaffName.."(%d+)")

But I don't know why the behaviour is different on my side.

my debug code:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Code: (lua) [Select · Download]

print(dump(Item.Opts))

function dump(o)
   if type(o) == 'table' then
      local s = '{ '
      for k,v in pairs(o) do
         if type(k) ~= 'number' then k = '"'..k..'"' end
         s = s .. '['..k..'] = ' .. dump(v) .. ','
      end
      return s .. '} '
   else
      return tostring(o)
   end
end

Title: Re: Percussion splitter
Post by: Flurmy on 2026-02-08 10:52 AM

Quote from: yukulele – 2026-02-07 09:28 PM

But I don't know why the behaviour is different on my side.

So do I.

But:

In your snippet the staff name is "perc", in your dump is "perc." but, even after changing it, I found no difference in the result.

Using your dump routine I get:

Code: [Select · Download]

{ 
   ["Name"] = perc.,
   ["Group"] = Standard,
}

Quite different! Why?

Title: Re: Percussion splitter
Post by: Flurmy on 2026-02-08 11:03 AM

Quote from: Flurmy – 2026-02-08 10:52 AM

Quite different! Why?

Sorry, the answer is obvious: in your snippet the label and the label abbr. are missing.
But no "text"!

I still get no error: the name field is present and ignored as it should.

Title: Re: Percussion splitter
Post by: Flurmy on 2026-02-08 11:19 AM

A-ha!
I seem to remember (quite surprising for me! ;D ) that a small change about this was made in the lua libraries in NWC 2.8 Beta 1 (the one I'm using).
Which version of NWC are you using?

Title: Re: Percussion splitter
Post by: Flurmy on 2026-02-08 11:26 AM

Yes, indeed: https://github.com/nwsw/nwcutlib/commit/9940e568bc67f6ca5068127f16b651cb691730cb (https://github.com/nwsw/nwcutlib/commit/9940e568bc67f6ca5068127f16b651cb691730cb)
I'm very surprised of myself! :))

Title: Re: Percussion splitter
Post by: Flurmy on 2026-02-08 01:34 PM

Quote

In the new beta, the |Text:*| property and User object properties are now stored as strings (replaces the nwcOptText object).

In the current general release, text properties use a nwcOptText class for storage. This is a heavy operation that requires an additional allocated table just to store the encoded string.
In this same release, user object properties are all stored as raw, encoded strings. This creates a complicated approach to handling the text properties.

In the new beta, all of these text properties are maintained as simple decoded strings. All simple strings are passed through an encoding filter before writing them back into a nwctxt file stream, which strives to make scripting changes to these properties much simpler.
It does create an issue for current tools.

As it currently stands, changes will be required in tool code when accessing these text properties. Perhaps the easiest way to handle this is by two utility functions:
Code: [Select · Download]
local function GetTextProp(item,lbl)
  local t = item.Opts[lbl]
  return (t and t.Text) and t.Text or t
end
Code: [Select · Download]
local function SetTextProp(item,lbl,txt)
  item:Provide(lbl,'')

  if item.Opts[lbl].Text then
    item.Opts[lbl].Text = txt
  else
    item.Opts[lbl] = txt
  end
end

Title: Re: Percussion splitter
Post by: Opagust on 2026-02-08 01:39 PM

Quote from: Flurmy – 2026-02-08 10:52 AM

Quite different! Why?

I guess yukulele has version 2.8 beta 1 and Flurmy has version 2.751

Title: Re: Percussion splitter
Post by: Flurmy on 2026-02-08 01:42 PM

Quote from: Opagust – 2026-02-08 01:39 PM

I guess yukulele has version 2.8 beta 1 and Flurmy has version 2.751

Exactly the opposit! :))

Title: Re: Percussion splitter
Post by: Flurmy on 2026-02-08 02:38 PM

Since I don't want to roll back my NWC installation and I'm almost sure I forgot to change some items :P , yukulele, could you please try this (beta) version? Thanks.

[edit: tool version officially released and attached to the first message]

Title: Re: Percussion splitter
Post by: yukulele on 2026-02-09 02:01 PM

It seem to work perfectly!

tested with 0,1, 2 & 3 grouping parameter

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Forums => Tips & Tricks => User Tools => Topic started by: Flurmy on 2019-08-31 07:36 AM