Bar lines and time signatures 2014-05-20 07:46 pm One of the "features" I don't understand about Noteworthy relates to the manner in which it converts Midi Files into Noteworthy notation when a Midi File is imported into Noteworthy, and specifically what it does with, and how it places, time signatures in the middle of the File. In all - I think - musical scores I've ever come across the notation used to show a change in time signature - from, say, to 3/4 to 4/4 - places the new signature at the very beginning of the bar/measure from where it is required to apply (although in some modern music the composer sometimes enjoys keeping us on our toes, and puts the new time signatures in the middle of the bar!), and it is normal to locate the new signature immediately after the bar line at the start of that bar (or, if there's a key change as well, immediately after the new key signature which itself is placed immediately after the bar line). And yet ... and yet ... And yet it seems to me that whenever a Midi File having some such time signature change is imported into Noteworthy, the File shown in Noteworthy notation always has the new time signature placed right at the end of the last bar to which the old signature applies, and thus immediately before the bar line at the start of the bar to which the new signature applies. And this applies to Midi Files correctly made from Noteworthy Files. So, the score shows the new time signature AFTER the bar line, and yet Noteworthy places it BEFORE that bar line. What am I misunderstanding? Or is - which I admit is unlikely - Noteworthy wrong? MusicJohn, 20/May/14 Quote Selected
Re: Bar lines and time signatures Reply #1 – 2014-05-20 08:09 pm Quote from: MusicJohn – 2014-05-20 07:46 pm... converts Midi Files into Noteworthy notation when a Midi File is imported into Noteworthy, and specifically what it does with, and how it places, time signatures in the middle of the File. In all - I think - musical scores I've ever come across the notation used to show a change in time signature - from, say, to 3/4 to 4/4 - places the new signature at the very beginning of the bar/measure from where it is required to apply (although in some modern music the composer sometimes enjoys keeping us on our toes, and puts the new time signatures in the middle of the bar!), and it is normal to locate the new signature immediately after the bar line at the start of that bar (or, if there's a key change as well, immediately after the new key signature which itself is placed immediately after the bar line). And yet ... and yet ... And yet it seems to me that whenever a Midi File having some such time signature change is imported into Noteworthy, the File shown in Noteworthy notation always has the new time signature placed right at the end of the last bar to which the old signature applies, and thus immediately before the bar line at the start of the bar to which the new signature applies. And this applies to Midi Files correctly made from Noteworthy Files. So, the score shows the new time signature AFTER the bar line, and yet Noteworthy places it BEFORE that bar line. What am I misunderstanding? Or is - which I admit is unlikely - Noteworthy wrong? MusicJohn, 20/May/14Well, it's not just modern music - in older charts you occasionally see a bar divided in the middle, with an inserted bar line and new time signature, but I've only seen it a couple of times in 50 years of playing and I think it's rare. I don't usually import midi files, so I have to assume you're correctly describing the behaviour. If so I think you're observing what I would expect to see as a courtesy time signature at the end of a bar at the end of a system - but I expect to see the conventional new time signature also at the beginning of the bar that is written in the new time. In other words, the import is incorrect - the courtesy signature is a nice-to-have, and the true time signature is missing. I think it's a bug, and if so the correction might just be to tweak the program to place a bar line before any time signature change in the midi import logic, instead of after it. Quote Selected
Re: Bar lines and time signatures Reply #2 – 2014-05-20 09:38 pm Quote from: MusicJohn – 2014-05-20 07:46 pmthe score shows the new time signature AFTER the bar line, and yet Noteworthy places it BEFORE that bar line.The score is correct. I've never had so many that it was a problem changing them manually. If I did, I'd write a user tool. Quote Selected
Re: Bar lines and time signatures Reply #3 – 2014-05-21 08:38 am Thanks for your comments. Perhaps Eric will take note, and put things right? Meanwhile ... an example, from a not-so-modern composer, of music with a lot of time-sig changes is Barber's Adagio for strings, which changes back and forth between 4/2, 5/2, 6/2 and 3/2 several times. Another, and much worse (!), is Poulenc's Mass in G major, which - in the Kyrie, for instance - changes almost every bar ... 7/4, 5/4, 4/4, 3/4, 5/2, 4/2 ... it does become quite a drag! MusicJohn, 21/May/14 Quote Selected
Re: Bar lines and time signatures Reply #4 – 2014-05-21 09:47 am To say it with Rick:QuoteIf I did, I'd write a user tool. Quote Selected
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