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Topic: pause, and verse start (Read 3428 times) previous topic - next topic

pause, and verse start

Noteworthy is a great program. I can just take what's in my head, put notes on the staff, hit play, and listen to the song.

Here is my problem: I'm writing ballads and I'm not a strong singer. I can make the song in my head come out of the computer, but not out of my mouth. ;) What I would find really helpful would be two simple features:

* A Pause button, so that I can restart exactly from where I paused. (This would be a big help when I'm rehearsing by myself.)

* Some way to start on a particular verse. If I'm trying to fix how the seventh verse scans by seeing how each syllable highlights as it plays, I don't want to have to listen to the first six verses again to get to the part I'm trying to fix. Something like an Alt-F5 that asked me what verse I wanted to play would be great.

I also suppose it might be nice if the system breaks actually created a new line, so the thing could scroll down as it plays, not just scrolling off the right edge, i.e. so that what was on the screen looked like printed sheet music. But I don't know how complicated that would be to program and it's not critical.


And the feature I really, really like: Being able to set a delay on breath marks. I was getting light-headed trying to keep up until I figured that one out. ;)

Re: pause, and verse start

Reply #1 –
You can set NWC to play from the cursor position. Go to the [options] menu, choose the [MIDI] tab and set the [Play] dropdown box to "from insertion point." Now all you have to do is click on a staff at the point you want to begin playing and push the "play" button. As for a <pause> button: many of us have asked for this. It hasn't materialized so far, but who knows? It can't hurt to stick it on the wish list once again.

Re: pause, and verse start

Reply #2 –
Quote
Some way to start on a particular verse. If I'm trying to fix how the seventh verse scans by seeing how each syllable highlights as it plays, I don't want to have to listen to the first six verses again to get to the part I'm trying to fix.

Add a second staff, copy all the notes onto it, and then write and edit the seventh chorus lyric as if it was the only lyric.  Once it's tweaked, just copy the lyric back to lyric window 7 of the first staff, and delete the added staff.

Quote
... it might be nice if the system breaks actually created a new line, so the thing could scroll down as it plays, not just scrolling off the right edge, i.e. so that what was on the screen looked like printed sheet music...
Desirable for some usage, but undesirable for anything more than a single staff.  If you're writing a piano score, it might be workable, but not if you were writing for an ensemble.

The easy workaround is to start playback, then and immediately press print preview.  You won't see the note chase, but you will see the paper layout.



 

Re: pause, and verse start

Reply #3 –
Quote from: avt_tor –
* Some way to start on a particular verse. If I'm trying to fix how the seventh verse scans by seeing how each syllable highlights as it plays, I don't want to have to listen to the first six verses again to get to the part I'm trying to fix.
Or try this: temporarily add an 8th lyrics line. Copy lyrics 1 to lyrics 8. Replace lyrics 1 by lyrics 7. Tweak until satisfied.
Now replace 7 by 1, and 1 by 8. Remove 8. Done.

Another way would be: save lyrics 1 in Notepad, not in lyrics 8. The idea is the same, but it might be easier to see where you are at a certain point.