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newbie: What is...

Hey, I'm relatively new to all this MIDI and music stuff, but I think the PC and the net is gonna teach me faster than a man or a book, plus it's cheaper! So, what exactly is tenuto and fermata? Also, how do I do a slide over a few notes just as I do it on my bass? This pitch shift thingy seems to be limited to a few semitones only...

Thanks dudes.

Mr. TB

Re: newbie: What is...

Reply #1
Tenuto means "held", so hold the note until the very moment the next one sounds. In practise, very similar to "legato", which means "smoothly." A fermata is a pause; think of it as a momentary abrupt tempo change (slow-down), which is how you have to notate it in NWC if you want the resulting exported midi to contain the pause.

The pitch-bend range is, as you point out, plus or minus two semitones, for a total range of four semitones. If you need longer slides, you have to resort to trickery like several shorter slides merged together by fading the volume in on one, while fading it out on the other. A bit fiddly, to say the least...

Re: newbie: What is...

Reply #2
Oh, cool. So basically tenuto is the opposite of staccate right? As for the fermata... I kinda miss that one - I'm sorry for my ignorance. So lets say you want to jump from a 120 tempo to a 95. Is that a fermata? Or is it a pause that is sort of additional to the bar, exceeding the limit of the time signature? If I still aint got it then can you direct to a file anywhere that contains that fermata thing? Like the scriptorium, I think it's called.

Thx Fred.

Mr. TB

Re: newbie: What is...

Reply #3
You've probably seen a fermata without knowing its name. It's basically a semicircle, thickened in the middle, with a dot under it. Think of the CBS eye logo missing its lower lid.

A fermata is placed over a note or rest to indicate that that note or rest is to take more time than it would otherwise. After the fermata the pace of the music picks up exactly as it was before, unless a new tempo specification intervenes.

Re: newbie: What is...

Reply #4
Thanks for teh help. So basically it extends the capacity of the time signature passively in a sense, by increasing the alloted timeto the bar universally in teh score, but without permitting the intrduction of notes.

All the other parameters, like accelerando, do they function on playback? Anywhere I can find what they mean so I can stop bothering you with my silly ignorant questions?

Mr TB

Re: newbie: What is...

Reply #5
The NWC help file contains a section that describes all of the musical terms used in the program. From "Help Contents" search for "faq" and then under this heading select "Music terminology".

Re: newbie: What is...

Reply #6
To answer the other part of your question: from experimentation I conclude that most of the tempo variance items have the same effect, which is to mark the beginning of a tempo change. The directon of change is determined solely by the tempo settings before and after the variance. That is, if a fast tempo is followed by a slow one, the music will begin to slow at an intervening tempo variance, even if that variance happens to be "accelerando" (Italian for "speeding up").

The only tempo variances that don't work this way are fermata and breath mark, which cause a hold (fermata) or gap (breath mark) of the specified duration if a delay is specified and are ignored otherwise.

The only dynamic variances that have any effect on playback are "Crescendo" and "Decrescendo". The others are ignored (even "Diminuendo", a synonym for "Decrescendo"). Like the tempo variances, Crescendo and Decrescendo merely determine where the change begins; the direction of the change (soft-to-loud or load-to-soft) is determined by the actual dynamics that surround the variance.

I'm out of time for now, so I'll leave the effects of the "Performance Style" items as an exercise.

Re: newbie: What is...

Reply #7
You're cool brother.

Thanx

Mr. TB

 

Re: newbie: What is...

Reply #8
Where you located man?