fermatas in browser plug-in

2001-02-02 05:00 am

Okay, I've read up on the fermata and breath mark issue with exporting to MIDI. I can deal with that, though it would be nice if NWC would generate the required mpc for me on export. But...

In the browser plug-in these two notations are also ignored. Is this an oversite? Or is the plug-in player really just converting NWC to MIDI first and then synchronizing the display during playback?

FWIW, playback is correct in the standalone Player.

Re: fermatas in browser plug-in

Reply #1 – 2001-02-02 05:00 am

Fermatas are currently ignored in both plug-ins. This is a consequence of the play back engine used, which is that of the standard Windows MIDI MCI sequencer.

Re: fermatas in browser plug-in

Reply #2 – 2001-02-03 05:00 am

I've wished that fermatas were implemented as pairs of MPC tempo changes -- I thought that would be easy to import cleanly into a music notation editor, as well as be played accurately with the dumb MIDI players.

Breath marks were not in any music I was familiar with before I started seriously exploring some other traditions in the last two or three years. A hidden "double bar -- rest -- double bar" would give the same musical effect when played, again without causing major damage when imported into a music notation editor.

Re: fermatas in browser plug-in

Reply #3 – 2001-02-04 05:00 am

Yes. As I suspected and confirmed in the support post above, the plug-in uses the Windows MIDI engine rather than using the NW engine. I'm sure there are great reasons for this, but for performance purposes it can introduce some major issues.

Fermatas are relatively simple to convert to MPC absolute tempo changes. For example, I had a piece with a quarter note fermata that had a duration of 8/16s (using the default 1/16 unit of variation), causing the note to play for a total of three beats (12/16s). My tempo was 90, so an MPC tempo absolute from 30 to 90 with one quarter note duration achieved the same effect in the MIDI stream.

Now, the problem comes in if you have repeats which vary the tempo. My 90 changes to 102 on the repeat, but when the MPC is encountered, the 30-90 tempo is imposed. So, for a wish list item, how about a relative option for the values? The MPC could be set to 33%-100% and NWC would use the current tempo to compute the actual values.

Breath marks are used quite often in choral music, and if you are making practice compositions (as I do) they are very important. I quickly found the hidden dbar-rest-dbar notation work around. It works and survives bar audits, unlike just inserting a hidden rest.

Both of these work arounds are simple mathematical conversions. I hope Eric sees fit to add them to the MIDI export routines as an automatic feature. Perhaps as an optional "render fermatas and breath marks in MIDI" option.