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Topic: Please help me with slurs! (Read 4410 times) previous topic - next topic

Please help me with slurs!

Okay, here's my problem: I have the two notes I want slurred together, I select them both, then hit the slur button. When I play it though, it plays the two notes regularly and doesn't slur them at all! What could be causing this, and how do I make them slur? please reply!

Re: Please help me with slurs!

Reply #1 –
What you're looking for is called a "tie". It's on the / key, as opposed to a slur which is on the ; key. Visually, the tie will have the ends almost touching the notes, the slur will have the ends a short distance away from the notes.

A slur will make the transition between notes more smooth, especially at the longer note durations, whereas a tie will make the single note continue without interruption.

Re: Please help me with slurs!

Reply #2 –
A minor point - if you want to slur or tie two notes then you must only select the first note of the pair.

Re: Please help me with slurs!

Reply #3 –
No, I think that what Mattcraze means is that the slur does not make the transition between two notes smoother. The tie works for the same note, but as far as I understand, Mattcraze talks about two different notes slurred together.
Although a musician will understand it and play it properly, NoteWorthy doesn't.

Re: Please help me with slurs!

Reply #4 –
I think NWC does what it can.

In its default performance style, NWC introduces a little space between notes. Slurring removes these spaces (as does using tenuto marks or the "legato" performance style). In this sense NWC does honor the slurs.

However, in real life a slur not only connects notes but also changes the attack characteristics of notes under the slur. NWC slurring doesn't seem to do this, and this may be what Mattcraze is referring to.

I don't know enough MIDI lore to know if it would be possible to smooth out the attacks of slurred notes, or, if so, how difficult this would be. I suspect it's not trivial if possible at all. Comments? Would this be a worthwhile enhancement request?

Re: Please help me with slurs!

Reply #5 –
It's easy for a program like NWC to implement a style such as 'stacatto', since it impacts only the duration of the note. I'm not up on MIDI lore either, but Legato would imply holding the notes for their full duration, with some attack for each note. Slurring indicates no attack on subsequent notes, if possible. This is possible on wind instruments, and bowed strings. The soundcard,I'm guessing, would have to know to 'skip the attack' and just change pitch.

Re: Please help me with slurs!

Reply #6 –
The only way I've found to do a believable slur (such as for guitar hammer-ons and pull-offs) is to /tie/ the notes, and insert the appropriate pitch-bend and channel volume increase between the tied notes.

I suppose you could also change the wavetable sounds if you have an editable sound-font based synth, and use the modified sound (with less attack) on a separate channel, then employ the staff layering tricks to sound the two (different) notes on different channels. But it would be next to impossible to make such a beast playable on other peoples' hardware.

Re: Please help me with slurs!

Reply #7 –
NWC doesn’t support it, but there is MIDI controller 68, which is supposed to omit the attack. Does anyone know if there are sound cards that support this controller?