Skip to main content ↑ ↓
Topic: Why does it sound awful??? (Read 5661 times) previous topic - next topic

Why does it sound awful???

Ok I'm arranging this peice for my grade11 music class. Everyone knows about the concert pitch thing (different instruments have different key signatures) but I was wondering if when I playback and it sounds sharp is it because noteworthy doesn't relize it's in different key signatures or is it an actually wrong note, Cause I think I'm doing it right.

Re: Why does it sound awful???

Reply #1 –
Well, hard to say... but I'd guess that if it sounds awful, it's probably wrong.

Noteworthy doesn't know about transpositions unless you tell it. For any transposing instruments you have to tell it how many semitones to move the pitch up (or down). For example: for an 'Eb' instrument you would have to set staff transpostion to +3 or -9, depending on which direction it's transposed.

Re: Why does it sound awful???

Reply #2 –
There are two transposition charts which I think would be helpful to you at the user tips section. First;
Instrument to instrument transposition guide by Garnett Lee Henley at
http://www.noteworthysoftware.com/composer/usertip5.htm#transpse
and the second;
Instrument transposition chart by John White at
http://www.noteworthysoftware.com/composer/usertip3.htm#trnschrt
which links to
http://members.aol.com/mandminst/chart.html
In addition, you can have a look at my Prelude at the NWC Scriptorium (www.vadu.com/nwc)
I hope these do some favour

Re: Why does it sound awful???

Reply #3 –
Nicole,

Assuming your problem is caused by not having the transposition set correctly, I recently came across a very comprehensive list of instruments at

http://www.nifty.ne.jp/forum/fmidicla/htmls/ichou.html

The column "key+" shows the number of semitones and the direction required. Note that the clef is not always specified!

Re: Why does it sound awful???

Reply #4 –
Click on file in the upper left of the "main" NoteWorthy
screen and then click on history. Click clear,then, cancel.
I'll bet the "awful"-ness you hear has absolutely nothing
to do with intervallic clash and everything to do with the
with the strange things that can and do occur with data
storage . Use of multi-point -controllers within a piece
has , in my experience , caused episodes of internal
havoc that effect unrelated noteworthy files seemingly at
random. Frequent use of the F9 refresh button during compo-
sition can help but the clearing out of the "history" file
has shown itself to be the best "cure" for such gremlins.
Further still , use of m.p.c.'s is not neccessarily the
"ground zero culprit" of "awful"-ness. It seems at times that having too many similiar sounding files, files differ-
ing by just a hair , may send out the troubles as well. An
example for myself would be having identical tunes in my
music files as well as in the "sent" file of my mailbox. At
times I'll find a "corrupted" composition which was fine the
day before , then discover that the identical version that
I had e-mailed to a friend the day previous remains intact
in my "sent" file. This is an ongoing difficulty for myself
and would love to know what experiences others have had with
this .Please feel free to e-mail any trouble shooting tips!

Re: Why does it sound awful???

Reply #5 –
Screen refreshing and clearing your history file has nothing to do with resetting mpc's. Most difficulties with stuck controllers can be cured by pressing F6 twice (or once, if the piece being played is already stopped). This does the following:

Resets all pedal controllers and sends a note-off on every note on every channel (stops stuck notes)
Resets all pitch bends
Resets all volume controllers

It does not at present reset some other controllers, e.g. expression. At this time, you either have to a: reset the controllers within your file, or b: use an external midi reset option (such as is frequently provided in the mixer applet for sound cards) to accomplish this.

Re: Why does it sound awful???

Reply #6 –
My first troubleshooting tip would be to reinstall NWC.

In my experience (32-bit 1.55, 1.55a and various 1.70 beta versions), bad sounds in playback are exclusively due to user error (bad transpositions, wrong notes, and so on) or to the longstanding bug that allows ties between notes with different accidentals. I've never had the occasion to use 'F9' or to clear out the file history. (If it comes to that, I can't imagine why clearing the file history would have any effect on what you call "episodes of internal havoc".) Nor do symptoms of this kind ever seem to come up in the newsgroup.

Unless you're using the 16-bit version (with which I have no experience) or use NWC in odd ways (e.g., extremely long sessions), the likely explanation for your symptoms is either that there's an installation error or that there is some problem with your PC that shows up when you use NWC.

Re: Why does it sound awful???

Reply #7 –
Extremely long sessions -- odd? Around here they're de rigeur! :)

Re: Why does it sound awful???

Reply #8 –
"awful sounding" playback can and does occur, and no , it
does not necessarily have to do with transposition.
Seemingly unrelated notes are a matter of subjectivity ,
but when a single staff , without mpcs , constructed of
mere undecorated note entrys, plays back with pitch
variation of its own design , out of tune with itself
much less with any other staffs on the page , there exists
a problem that transposition obviously does not address.
The overall pitch standard wavers in these situations .
It's a real problem within either the program or the computer. The overall result once again is akin to having
a live ensemble where in the piano is out of tune with the
winds i.e. the group has to tune up with itself, rather
than merely finding the "right key" or refreshing their
grasp of musical fundementals.

Re: Why does it sound awful???

Reply #9 –
I wasn't for a moment suggesting that you don't hear bad playback that's unrelated to user error.

I merely said that such a thing must be very rare, since I don't remember seeing it as an issue in the Newsgroup or (until now) on the Forum, and that if it is occurring, it's most probably not the fault of NWC.

In the example you cite, NWC should be sending only note-on and note-off events to the playback device. If the playback pitch is wavering, this implies either that (1) NWC is sending pitch bend events or (2) the problem isn't in NWC. If you believe (1), then either NWC is conjuring the pitch bend events out of thin air, or the pitch bends are legitimate. The latter can happen when the staff you're playing from shares a channel with one or more other staves that contain pitch-bend MPC's. (Yes, even if a staff is muted, its MPC's are still part of the MIDI stream and will affect other staves on the same channel.)

Re: Why does it sound awful???

Reply #10 –
Thanks gentlemen , I very much do appreciate your
sharing of your time and experience. Maybe some day
I'll be able to triangulate the exact problem.
Cheers .

Re: Why does it sound awful???

Reply #11 –
Ok I fixed the problem. I figured out what i was doing wrong and it was pretty stupid. anyways thanks for everyones help!!!!