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Topic: simplifying tunes (Read 2661 times) previous topic - next topic

simplifying tunes

Please forgive my niavete(?) and thanks a lot for all the help I've received so far.

I play traditional Irish music and NWC is proving incredibly useful for learning new tunes.

Irish music is inclined to be repeatitive. Each eight bars are repeated. But when I convert midi files (most of my source is midi) NWC does not show the REPEATED BAR LINES. I have to insert these myself. It is no big deal, but I was hoping that NWC might be able to make the job a bit easier for me. Is there any way that I can print, or present the music in such a way that recognising the repeats is easier. For a beginner like me it is sometimes difficult to decide if a section is _actually_ repeated. A note or two may be different, but the difference is not worth retaining. But I have to study a complete section before I can decide.

At the moment I dump the score out to the printer and mark the repeated sections with a pencil. Then I go back into the score on screen and use EDIT AND CUT to delete them and insert LOCAL SECTION CLOSE etc. It would be handy if I could do this on-screen.

Any tips ?

Perhaps I am looking "jam on it".

TIA.

joe.

Re: simplifying tunes

Reply #1 –
The problem is not one with NWC, but rather with midi... since the midi standard does not include any facility for "repeats", everything has to be spelled out, as it were. I don't know of /any/ software that automagically recognises repeated sections in a pre-existing midi file.

Re: simplifying tunes

Reply #2 –
Thanks a lot Fred.

I realise that NWC cannot automatically construct repeats from midi files. As I said, sometimes only one bar will have, say, one note different from the previous section. NWC is not _that_ smart :-) And, as you've pointed out, midi files do not contain repeat instructions.

I was hoping for some general tips on how best to recognise the repeats and feature them.

thanks again

joe.
 

Re: simplifying tunes

Reply #3 –
As you mention the problem, I once had to make a score shorter (cost: one-page constraint), and here is how I proceeded.

If your score is a one-staff score, then proceed like the following. Otherwise do the same on each staff (though it should give the same result on each staff).

First of all, play the whole thing. You'll notice some measures that ring you a bell --measures that are the same as others.
The problem is to ensure they are the same.
So you simply duplicate the measures wanted: add a new staff, pad with empty measure up to the first supposed repeated measure, and then copy there the measures you *think* are the same. Or better, copy from there to end.
Now, play the two staves, one being played on left channel, the other on right channel (set this is in StereoPan, Midi Tab of "F2" window). If a note is different, you'll immediately hear it. Then stop, replay if needed to locate it, and cut the measures that are the same, as you already do.

It is better to use empty measures (I mean with whole rests) rather than one empty measure repeated n times, since it's easier to compare the two staves on screen when aligned.

Proceed like that until you get to to the end of the score.

Example:
Suppose your tune is composed of 4 thems: A, B, C, D in the order ABBACBBD.
You can easily hear the B them, and then create a staff with: [silence until first B][rest of tune minus first B = BACBBD], so you got in parallel:
ABBACBBD
_BACBBD
On that case, you may check that the two "B" sections are *really* identical, and you'll note where it starts and ends. Then you go on, and in the "work" staff you try:
[silence until first A, i.e. nothing][ACBBD]
This gives:
ABBACBBD
ACBBD
You can now precisely identify the two A's, and so on.
Finally you may make a score with:
MasterRepeatBegin + A + |: B :| MasterRepeatClose + C + |: B :| + D

Hope this was not too obscure...