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New Comer questions

Hi, I'm a new comer for the Noteworthy Composer (V 1.75) and I have several simple questions, hope that you can help me.  Thanks

About Front & Text
1) How to increase or reduce the text size & change the font style on the "Song title, Copy Right-1 & 2, Author"?

2) How to increase the Staff Size to match with a A4 size paper?  I tried to do this from Page Setup (Staff size in point) but either it's too small or too big. Also, when I increase it up to certain point (let say more 20, all the bar lines will adjust automatically to the middle of the paper.

3) File
If I use this program for alto sax, should I start (Song Templates)? Should I select a Blank Score?

4) Mute - Play Along
I have a Midi file, I want this program with my midi file for Play-Along.  What I've done is to Mute the Sax part (Simply by click on Staff - Mute Staff - then select the sax player).  However, it can only mute a few bars, not the complete song.  What's wrong I have done?

Re: New Comer questions

Reply #1 –
First of all, welcome to NWC ! :-)

Reading the tips (which you can find in the "Help/Did you know..." menu in NWC) can be helpful, generally speaking, as well as the FAQ.

Q. 1: you can do this for any font used in NWC. Look !lin(FAQ 26=/composer/faq/26.htm).

Q. 2: It seems to me that you're using NWC as if each score you enter must match a page width. In NWC, scores are of "infinite length", and the program determines where to break the lines (though you can force breaks too). The number of bar lines is not necessarily the same for each system; in particular if the number of notes per measure differs (one whole note or 32 32nd notes, for example). Particularly true when unchecking "increase note spacing for larger note durations" in the Options tab of Page Setup.
This means that if you enter a song with a single voice plus piano, you will need only three staves, even if the printout will display 9 or 12 staves per page. If I'm not clear enough, open the "Moonlite.nwc" example, and check the preview (Alt,F,V or menu File/Print Preview).

Re: New Comer questions

Reply #2 –
Q 3. You can create your own templates, simply copy a file to the Templates directory. I suggest you to create it using a new file, and have one staff with the correct clef already inserted, and instrument set. (Staff properties).
Do not forget to transpose it +9 semitones if you want it to sound correct (referring to https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?topic=432.msg1728#msg1728).
For this, in the midi tab of Properties for Staff (quick key F2), set Transposition to 9; in the Instrument tab, set "Alto Sax".
Then save your file in the Templates directory.

You can later modify your template files; open them as ordinary files (which they are indeed).
To create a new file from the templates, just choose "New..." from NWC menu, and select the template you want.

Q.4: here also, I have the impression you made several staves instead of one for your saxo part. If a staff is muted, I can't see how soemthing can make sound in it!?  btw, what do you call "the sax player"??

Hope this start may help!

Re: New Comer questions

Reply #3 –
As Marsu noted:

What you see when you are in the process of editing music, is not the same as what you will get when it is printed. Be sure to use "print preview" (File > Print Preview) for that purpose.

Your choice of staff size, and lyrics font size if you use lyrics, and content of music (number of notes) will affect where the staves break to fit margins. You can manually force breaks. Highlight a bar line, right-click, properties, and "force system break." But be aware that the system may need to break elsewhere, for its own reasons, Again, use print preview.

If you must have your music fit to a particular page size, so that it fills the page just exactly the way you want, then take advantage of NWC's capability to create a placeable Windows metafile (WMF). Go to print preview, copy, placeable metafile. The WMF is a scaleable vector graphic that can be placed, cropped, and scaled (but not edited) in most word processing documents such as MS Word. There, you can also add any other kind of text (or additional music) to suit your fancy.

Re: New Comer questions

Reply #4 –
Thanks for help.

1) Text/Front size
The text size I want to increase/reduce is Not on the Bar-line.  These text are the SONG Title, author name & other information.  So, what I should do?

2) Mute one instrument sound
I just click on one practicle instrument that I want to play (such as sax part - saxophone).  If I can mute the saxophone sound for the WHOLE song,  I can do play-along with the song,  just like KOK.

I tried to do this but only can mute the sax sound in a few bars. What is the correct procedure I should do?

Re: New Comer questions

Reply #5 –
1. For any font in the File/Page Setup/Fonts window (Staff Italic, Staff Bold, Staff Lyric...), you can define the font used, its size and attributes. Just double-clik on it (or select it and click "Modify" button) and set it to what you want.

2. I still can't understand why "only can mute the sax sound in a few bars". Open the Mute list (key M or menu Tools/Mute_list) and check (X) the staves you do NOT want to hear. It's simple as that. I often use NWC as a play-along rehearsal too, for it's really easy to mute one, none or some tracks.
Note: if you just want to practice, if the staff is not muted, just select it and press Shift+F5 instead of F5 : it will play that one only.

Hope this helps!
P.S. If you still can't mute the Sax for the whole song, please let us (on the forum) know where we could find an example of you NWC file that causes this problem. Or describe it more precisely (how many staves, which instruments, which channels...) or send me one.

Re: New Comer questions

Reply #6 –
The information on composer etc is displayed using the "page text" font, which is set by default to Times New Roman of a certain size. You can change any font from "Page setup", the little open-book icon. Look up Page Setup in the help menu and you'll find a font list telling you which font is used for which page element. You can also use up to six other fonts for chords or special lyrics or whatever.