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Topic: WOW! I dont believe it; NWC CANT PLAY JAZZ TRAX! (Read 7849 times) previous topic - next topic

WOW! I dont believe it; NWC CANT PLAY JAZZ TRAX!

Can anyone out there see my predictament?
I have two different versions of NWC and they can't play jazz MIDI files at all.
PLEASE help me, anybody, I need suggestions by the end of the month.
Otherwise please tell me a software program that CAN load jazz files

Re: WOW! I dont believe it; NWC CANT PLAY JAZZ TRAX!

Reply #1 –
Note from NoteWorthy Support: This message had been corrupted, and was detected as such on 05 April 1998. The corrupted areas have been removed, and repairs made to the extent that they are possible. The remainder of this message is the results of the recover effort.
(syncopation, you know) and print USEABLE scores from ts track, check out my web page on noteworthy, http://www.tip.net.au/~apurdam/noteworthy.html
or drop me a line.

An alternative may be that in interpreting the MIDI file, you have inappropriate settings for Note Resolution (See Tools|Options Midi tab).
Experiment with that a bit. You may find that by simply adjusting the note resolution, you can get exactly what you want. As you didn't specify what that was, I can only guess... :-]

Regards,

Andrew

Re: WOW! I dont believe it; NWC CANT PLAY JAZZ TRAX!

Reply #2 –
NoteWorthy Composer doesn't swing. - Sorry Eric but you know what I mean.
The notation determines the sound output - what you see is what you hear.
You will have this problem with most notation software if you intend to notate swing MIDI files.
I have the same problem but with some editing I can produce VERY readable parts a lot easier than I could with other packages - it just takes a bit of effort.
I suggest you wait a decade or so until direct conversion from disk to paper becomes a reality.
By then all the working swing musicians in the world will have starved to death - so there wont be anyone around to read the parts!

Re: WOW! I dont believe it; NWC CANT PLAY JAZZ TRAX!

Reply #3 –
Dear Guys,
Thanks so much for your responses. To clarify my problem I will illustrate.

Re: WOW! I dont believe it; NWC CANT PLAY JAZZ TRAX!

Reply #4 –
May be talking apples and oranges here. There are two issues, not related.
1) Getting midi to swing. - You can create a triplet (8th note + 16th note, grouped as a triplet). This is the usual approximation of swing rhythm. In reality, this is not quite true to performance. Neither is the dotted 8th-16th. If you make the rhythm part (drums, that is) play a swing feel, then notate the horns and things with straight eightth notes. The problem it that this will play pretty stilted. In fact, downright funky, since only the drum part will sound like it's swinging.
I understand you can quantize the midi file in some of the studio programs. But that will only let you hear swing when you PLAY the midi file.
2) Swing parts (printed) - You should realize that NO one writes the swing into an instrumental part. You print the style at the top (swing, blues, etc), and the musicians then interpret it. The parts typically only have straight 8th notes.

Can you get a midi file to play swing? Sure, if you recorded it with swing. It will faithfully record what you play into it.
Can you make a non-swing midi file swing? I hear it can be done, but I haven't tried.
Can you print parts that swing? Sure. But you shouldn't expect to see the 'swing' in print, because it's not done that way. The performer provides that.
Whether you can learn all you need in the next month, I don't know. If you got the gig to do this, and you're trying to learn it in time to pick up a paycheck, you should consider another line of work. This is no slam-dunk. And the other programs out there you can't learn at all without keeping the reference manuals by your side for ready reference.
As far as playing midi files, NWC doesn't. You have to import it (convert it) first, then play the NWC file. Use the finest definition you can (32nds, not quarter note resolution). This should play authentically, but will be largely unreadable by musicians.
YOU will have to convert it to something readable. For that, import it again, but use a 'coarse' definition in the import function (16th or smaller for notes, quarter for rests) and then prepare to spend time converting it to something 'useable.' THAT'S what you get the big bucks for.
BTW, what was the gibberish you printed twice?
Andrew and Barry, ya could'a stopped me before I wrote a book here.

Re: WOW! I dont believe it; NWC CANT PLAY JAZZ TRAX!

Reply #5 –
Wonderful explanation, Kent.
One more note/suggestion.
Using a keyboard macro program (a la MS's RECORDER.EXE, a W3.1 relic not available on new W95, but obtainable from any good museum...:-) you can define a macro to:
1) select the first note of a pair,
2) double it's note length
3) select both and "tripletise" them
4) move right one
Attach this macro to a hotkey, say Ctl-Shift-S, then:
1) Copy the staff to do (retaining a Muted straight one for printing)
2) Ctl-Shift-S, Ctl-Shift-S, Ctl-Shift-S, Ctl-Shift-S, Ctl-Shift-S, Ctl-Shift-S, Ctl-Shift-S, Ctl-Shift-S, Ctl-Shift-S, Ctl-Shift-S, Ctl-Shift-S, Ctl-Shift-S, ...
Depending on the length of the staff, it may take only ONE MINUTE!!!!!
Small price to pay for a functional workaround.

A

PS: One last question, do you need the swing feel to play back as a demo?

Re: WOW! I dont believe it; NWC CANT PLAY JAZZ TRAX!

Reply #6 –
I don't know much about it but maybe Band-In-A-Box may be able to play jazz. I like Noteworthy for what I do which is church music abd ballads.

Re: WOW! I dont believe it; NWC CANT PLAY JAZZ TRAX!

Reply #7 –
I have Passport's Encore which has a "swing quantise". It's ok, but far from perfect.

Re: WOW! I dont believe it; NWC CANT PLAY JAZZ TRAX!

Reply #8 –
Now NWC can play jazz. (Note that in fact, it could since a long time ;-) but the hard part to find the better way)

Look at http://www.noteworthysoftware.com/composer/usertip6.htm#jazz !

Lemme know of what ou think of it (repeat bars are better imho, but may lead to illegible scores)

NWCly yours,
                MAD

Re: WOW! I dont believe it; NWC CANT PLAY JAZZ TRAX!

Reply #9 –
Yeah! Great idea, Marsu.

Re: WOW! I dont believe it; NWC CANT PLAY JAZZ TRAX!

Reply #10 –
I got nwc mine play jazz and swing good.