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Topic: NWC 2004? (Read 11498 times) previous topic - next topic

NWC 2004?

Finale 2004, when can we expect nwc 1.80? Please add a dialogue box that allows the user to create a staff list in which such things as expression marks and visibility or non-visibility of such can be defined. It can also allow a one acton placement of such on all chosen staves. You I am amazed at what lesser notation softwares than NWC can do that nwc can't, and what nwc can do that bigger named softwares can't do. I think nwc has been able to handle the big things to neglect of the smaller things. When editing however, the smaller things matter. They have made me more than once want to abandon nwc. Editing in nwc consumes too much unecessary time. Please nwc handle the small things. Fellow users add your voice.

Re: NWC 2004?

Reply #1 –
you know I am amazed..., to the neglect..., please note the corrections.

Re: NWC 2004?

Reply #2 –
I think it's a brilliant program and I prefer using it to Sibelius. Of course there is always place for improvement.1.An alternate key for rests over on the right in the numberpad area.2.Shorter length for semiquaver stems etc.3.Better control over placement of slurs and ties and to be able to set defaults for up or down.Thanks NWC for a great program.

Re: NWC 2004?

Reply #3 –
If its time to throw in wishes, how about being allowed to set the key or time signature across all staffs at once?  I do full scores sometimes, and a simple one measure change of time signature or key signature can drive me bats.  I won't even attempt a compound-time piece with anything more than chamber music.

Here's another one: Why can't I copy a staff from one piece to another, or even within a piece.  I can get the notes, but I mean the whole staff.  Yes I know it's just new staff, then edit staff properties, then highlight all the notes and copy, then paste...  but compare that to "select staff"-"copy staff"-"paste staff".  There are many cases in large score writing where this would be handy.

Come to think of it, here's a couple more:

In a playback started from somewhere other than the first measure, being able to specify which turn through a repeat or D.C/D.S one is in.  I have had many times when I had to sit through the rest of the first turn plus the entire second turn to see how a second ending fit with the lead up to it (yes I know there are dodges, but just try one with a thirty-staff score. You'll sit through multiple turns instead, also.)

A quick and easy way to do a selective playback (select just a few staffs to play back). It is a chore to go through muting and unmuting staffs, and easy to accidentally leave one muted after having heard the playback. If I just want to know what, say, just the horns and trumpets sound like, its either mute all but 2 out of 16 staffs on a short score, or all but 4 out of 30 staffs on a full score, before I can find out. Then I have to undo what I just did. This chore is a real momentum killer.  A selective playback function would be a great replacement/enhancement of the "staff playback" tool currently in place.

I could keep going, but only if I was going to get greedy. The above would cure the only true irritants I have with the program (all other true irritants in my portfolio are gripes I have with MIDI, not Noteworthy.)

Re: NWC 2004?

Reply #4 –
".... A quick and easy way to do a selective playback."

Mute List on the Tools menu seems pretty slick to me.  I can't think of a quicker way of doing it.

Stephen

Re: NWC 2004?

Reply #5 –
For the 1st/2nd ending problem, just put your cursor in the first ending and press play (F5).  A similar solution is available for the D.S. al Coda and the like.

Re: NWC 2004?

Reply #6 –
Another thing, too - instead of having to go through the trouble of layering staves for two parts throughout the whole song, wouldn't it be nice if there was a way around having to put a whole rest with every single bar that isn't being played? When writing for an orchestral score, its absolutely ridiculous how many whole rests are needed when on paper you don't need nearly as much. Maybe a solution would be mult-measure rests like 10  or something and then
|---|
the next 10 measures are ignored or muted. That would probably save half the time writing the music.

Re: NWC 2004?

Reply #7 –
Assuming you want the rest bars to show, it's not that painful.  You just enter the whole rest and the next bar line, highlight it and copy it to your clipboard (Ctrl-C).  Next hit "end" to move to the end of the line, and paste it as much as you want using Ctrl-V.  If you hold Ctrl-V down, you'll get dozens/scores/hundreds? of bars of rests in a couple of seconds.

Assuming you don't want them to show, once you've placed the first, make it hidden, then do the same copy/paste routine.

Then go to the Scriptorium and download user font Boxmark2 or Boxmarks.  Install it as a font in Windows, and then in NWC's File-Page Setup, Fonts, modify one of the user fonts to be the Boxmark2 or Boxmark font.  The opening and closing square parentheses on your qwerty keyboard will give you the beginning and end of multibar rest sign as text.  Pad it with blank space, toggle width preserved, and enter it at the end of bar 1 in a 2 bar rest, or at the beginning of bar 3 in a longer rest.

This works decently for printing out single parts.  If you need to print out more than one staff though, you will want to have the single measure rests visible on the one staff in any bar where the companion staff has notes.

Re: NWC 2004?

Reply #8 –
Forgot to mention, to install the fonts, you double click Fonts from the Control Panel in Windows, and select Install New Font from the File menu. Select the folder containing the font, turn on the Copy fonts to Fonts folder box, and click on OK.

Windows usually will install the fonts cleanly.  I think there is a limit, though, to how many can be saved, so you may have to get rid of some that you never intend to use.

(My thanks to PCMag.com's emailed tip of the day for the bulk of the wording in my first paragraph here.)

Re: NWC 2004?

Reply #9 –
Well, I just finished converting a midi to a full orchestra score and here is another one for the wishlist. When you are printing a score you want every whole note rest for each part to appear, but when printing an individual part you want to be able to hide measures and add multi-bar rests like |- 8 -|. You can set the multibar rest to be visible "on top staff only" so they are hidden on the score, but to print an individual part you have to hide the appropriate bar lines and rests before you print it, then  change it all back again for the score. It would be nice to have a visible property just the opposite, like "all except top staff", in other words make it "invisible on top staff only". Then you could print either a score or individual parts without so much hassle.

Hope this makes sense. I know it could be done with another staff for each part with just the rests, but it starts getting a little too much with all the hidden staffs already for layering a full score.

Re: NWC 2004?

Reply #10 –
Tim B. (what a coincidence):  You use the full score to print out parts?  Don't you have your staff size around 9 or 10 (or 11) for you score and 19 or so for parts?
And then there's the fonts.  The user fonts don't change automatically when the staff size is changed.  There are more reasons to create separate score and parts, too, but I gotta go now (look at the time [which is late for me]!).

Re: NWC 2004?

Reply #12 –
well, that's a good tip, david. i hadn't thought of that- it's definetely useful to just be able to hold down Ctrl+V and not have to press tab, enter, tab, etc. and make mistakes and write so slow - very useful

Re: NWC 2004?

Reply #13 –
Try user tip #83 for some suggestions on printing out parts.  Here is an excerpt:
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.

This does not address the issue of staff size.
I don't want to print parts the same size as a score, or vice versa.
(The tip is otherwise very good.)

Re: NWC 2004?

Reply #14 –
When creating both parts and a score, I find it easiest to have two files.  Write the music out.  Rather than repeating rehearsal letters and tempo markings on each staff, put them on an otherwise empty staff at the top of the score, which you will pad with hidden rests and hidden bar lines and layer with each part you print.

Save the file twice after it's completed - the second time use a new file name - I'd suggest just adding the word score to the name.

Printing parts:

Often parts will spill over from one page to another, leaving a couple of lines at the top of the second page.  This wastes paper, and if you are in the habit of taping printed pages together, just adds time and consumes tape.

A slightly smaller staff size (i.e., notation font) will help, as will adjusting the staff height.  Generally an upper staff height of 12 to 15 is great, and a lower height usually doesn't have to be greater than 8 or 10.  Staff sizes of 12 or 14 are adequate, but I generally find the default size 16 is preferable.

For each part, use page setup to have the top blank line and the desired part visible, with the top blank line set to layered.  Check for obvious glitches in print preview.  Consider creating a PDF file instead of printing to paper (see below).

Printing the score:

Open filenamescore, use page setup and select a font size of 6 or 8, or whatever works for you.  Select the style for each staff - use orchestral to get connecting bar lines for each instrument group.

You can use a blank staff between each group so the bar lines won't connect one group to the next.  A good way to do this is to format the blank staff to have zero lines, and have the staff above it layered to it.  This staff should be the "standard" bar line style.

You will likely want to print the score in landscape format.  You need to set your printer to landscape, but when it's time to print out your parts, you will need to make sure to change the printer back.  Keep in mind also that Noteworthy will not remember the printer setting, so if you need to print the score again in future, you will have to reset the landscape format.

The reason you will want to use a blank staff at the top with the rehearsal letters, etc., is that you won't want to repeat these figures on each line of the score, and removal or hiding them is tedious and time consuming.

Choice of printer:

Printing the parts is better on a laser printer than inkjet, because inkjet ink may smudge if it gets wet.  Trombonists use a spray bottle on their slides, and some other wind players tend to spray a little as they play.

If you have don't have a laser printer at home, but can use one elsewhere, you might wish to "print" to a PDF file instead of paper, then print the PDF files using Acrobat Reader.  PDFCreator does an excellent job of creating PDF files, although it is incredibly slow.  You can get it here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/

I haven't yet tried FreePDF, but I've heard good things about it, and I think it may be faster.  It's available here:
http://www.webxd.com/zipguy/freepdf.htm

An advantage of printing to a PDF file is that you can review it as it will appear in print, and if you find a mistake, just go back, correct it in the the songfile, and "reprint" the part to PDF.  That may save you a few sheets of paper.

Re: NWC 2004?

Reply #15 –
Another advantage of PDF is that you don't have to fiddle with the part next time you want to reprint it.  Just open the PDF and print.

Re: NWC 2004?

Reply #16 –
The method used by Sourceforge PDFcreator and Zipguy's FreePDF is essentially the same. PDFcreator automates the whole thing with a one-shot installer, but FreePDF requires separate downloads and configuration. Also, The FreePDF configuration advice may be out of date for some systems. If you do use FreePdf, use the 95 version, not the "update" 98.

And, if the recipeints of your PDF files can't see the notes when the file is opened, tell them that some installations of Acrobat Reader 5.0 have a problem with some documents.

Re: NWC 2004?

Reply #17 –
...put them on an otherwise empty staff at the top of the score, which you will pad with hidden rests and hidden bar lines and layer with each part you print.

When two staves are layered, a line (like a bar line) appears at the left end of the staff.  It doesn't belong there.  Period.
When layering was experimental (a long time ago), I used it on many files, without the appearance of the "left bar line."  Once layering was a regular feature, I opened some of those files for reprints, and OHMYGOSH LOOK AT THAT BAR LINE ON THE LEFT END OF THE STAFF!!!!!!!
Totally unacceptable.  I had to find other ways to solve those previously-solved problems.
Layering works fine in a score (or piano parts), but not in a single-staff part.
I've been waiting for this "bug" to be fixed for a few years now.
I ain't holdin' m' breath...

Re: NWC 2004?

Reply #18 –
When printing parts, if any staff is flagged as orchestral, change it back to standard.  That will fix your thick black line on the left end.  Any visible staff with the Orchestral attribute will force that black bar to all other visible staves.

When printing parts, either a style of "Standard" or, if appropriate for that instrument, upper or lower "Grand Staff" should be the only styles in use.
Since 1998

Re: NWC 2004?

Reply #19 –
It's the thin black line that's the problem. On a single staff there should be no opening bar line at all.

Re: NWC 2004?

Reply #20 –
Not sure what you mean. On all of the (professionally published) sheet music I have, there is a vertical line at the beginning of each staff. I can't recall seeing it any other way. Sometimes, the right-hand end of a staff is open, usually because the system break is mid-measure, or because there is a warning clef-key change. But even so, the left-hand side of each staff has a vertical line.

Re: NWC 2004?

Reply #21 –
Although I did a search for a thread which discussed this already, I couldn't find it (I always have been inept at using search engines...).

A single staff should never begin with a barline.
- The Essential Dictionary of Music Notation, Tom Gerou & Linda Lusk, © MCMXCVI by Alfred Publishing Co., Inc. (p.56)

Re: NWC 2004?

Reply #23 –
Well, none of the printed music in my vicinity has a single staff. But I am still curious: Is the authority referring to one staff, one system? Or would it include one staff (instrument) that is broken into several systems?

Re: NWC 2004?

Reply #24 –
It referes to a single staff which can indeed be broken over several systems. Most instrumental parts for orchestras fall into this category!
 

Re: NWC 2004?

Reply #25 –
Once again, I have learned something new!

The sheet music (octavo, published pamphlets) in my vicinity all has more than one staff, since there is more than one voice or instrument. Each system begins with a bar line.

Today I looked at the hymn book - written without parts or accompaniment - and sure enough, the staff systems do NOT begin with a bar line preceding the clefs.

I've been holding that hymn book for years, and just noticed.