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Topic: note duration problem (Read 4580 times) previous topic - next topic

note duration problem

On my windows 7, when i do fairly large works (for example, right now im copying the second movement to beethovens ninth) some notes that are sustained for a few measures will only make a small stacatto sound or sometimes no sound at all. For example: in the 2nd movement to beethovens 9th, at the first few bars of letter H, the sustained note that the first flute is supposed to play is cut terribly short when i play the whole thing through or start from several bars before letter H. please help!

   thanks!
        chayloa

Re: note duration problem

Reply #1 –
I'm not a MIDI expert, and there isn't a whole lot of information to go on here, but my guess would be that another instrument on the same MIDI channel is issuing a note cutoff command immediately after the flute starts. There are only sixteen channels available (fifteen if you don't count channel 10, which is devoted to percussion), so if your score has more than sixteen staves (fifteen plus percussion), at least two instruments have to double up. NWC's default behavior is to simply continue to add instruments to MIDI channel 16 after it runs out of channels. If the flute is on channel 16, it's probably doubled up with something else. I don't happen to have a score of Beethoven's 9th, and the rehearsal letters are usually assigned by an editor anyway, so letter "H" may be at different places in different editions. But what I think I would look for, in your case, is a tied 16th note coming from the previous measure and followed by a rest.

Another possibility is that the Beethoven score exceeds the capacity of your sound card to deliver. For example, if your card can only deliver 16-note polyphony, and the score requires 17-note polyphony (i.e., 17 separate voices sounding simultaneously), one of the voices will be cut off when the extra voice comes in. If the flute is assigned to channel 1, this is a more likely scenario than the first one I gave you, because channel 1 is the most likely channel to be dropped - although that would depend on your card.

There may be other possibilities as well, but those strike me as the most likely. Others on this forum may have a better idea.

Bill

Re: note duration problem

Reply #2 –
I suspect that one of Bill's possibilities is indeed the cause.
I had a look at Tina Billett's transcription of Beethoven's ninth on the Scripto (The Tina Billett Beethoven Files). Tina did not use rehearsal letters but there are several places that could fit the description.

On my system, I cannot detect the flute cutting out - but then that may be because of the way Tina transcribed the work or the fact that my system can play greater a polyphony count.

It would be worth visiting the Scripto and downloading Tina's version, just to see if it still happens for you and also to see how she assigned the instruments.
Rich.

Re: note duration problem

Reply #3 –
But the problem is, im only using 12 staves with the flutes and bassoons doubled up (I have yet to insert the brass), and the flutes have their own channel to themselves. Bill, i think your second possibility is more likely, because the whole movement is about 16 minutes long and i split that into two files, thus 6 minutes may be too much for the soundcard as well.

Re: note duration problem

Reply #4 –
Chayloa, you might find it helpful to check the midi setting for each staff.  You can do this with Score Review, just press R when your cursor is somewhere in the edit window.  Look in the column marked Chnl.  Even though you're only using 12 staffs so far, it may be that a couple of them share a channel.  You'd normally use the same channel for Flutes 1 and 2, for instance.

Re: note duration problem

Reply #5 –
Quote
because the whole movement is about 16 minutes long and i split that into two files, thus 6 minutes may be too much for the soundcard as well.

The duration of the score has nothing to do with the problem at hand and, in particular, with the sound card.
At most, the long duration can make you reach the NWC objects limit, but I think that now it's hard to do so because it has been greatly extended.

You can blame the sound card only if the polyphony is too complex for it, as Bill explained.