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Topic: Looking for portamente (Read 4146 times) previous topic - next topic

Looking for portamente

Hi,

I'm looking for a way to make portamente audible in NWC.
For instance go from a note one octave up by smoothly increasing the frequency.
I found no info in the NWC-help database, nor on the forum.

Any suggestions?

Re: Looking for portamente

Reply #1 –
Quote from: IJff –
I found no info in the NWC-help database, nor on the forum.

Probably because it's not that easy natively - Neither is it easy to know what to look for. But it can be done.
So - without using external user objects :
The standard range for Pitch Bend is 2 semitones.  But you can change this on the Instrument set up.
Example ......
So, supposing the instrument you are using is a trumpet.  Set the trumpet up for the staff . (ALT Enter and select the Instrument tab)
Select Trumpet from the pre defined Instruments.
You will also see a box that says "Set Pitch Bend Range" . Tick the box and set the value to 24  (24 semitones).
Click OK
Now set a note you want on the staff, make it a half note .  Before the note, select Multi point controller ("L" key or from the Insert menu).
In the controller box, select Pitch Bend. Select Linear Sweep in the Style box. Select Note Resolution quarter.
Activate the setting 2 box.  and move the marker to the end (ie 8191).  Click OK.
Press play.
You will need to experiment to get exactly what you need, but that is the idea,

An alternative, and much easier method is to use Mike Shawaluk's  Glissando.ms user object.

Set your start note. Set your end note. Mute both of them.  Put the Glissando object between the muted notes.
If you wish, you can change the text so that it says port. rather than gliss.
In the playback box select Pitchbend.
Press play.

HTH.






 
Rich.

Re: Looking for portamente

Reply #2 –
I was entering my reply when Rich posted his.  It contains an older example:

Go here: nwc-scriptorium.org/helpful.html and download gliss.nwc.  It isn't a straightforward process since you can only glide a few semitones at a time and hidden staves have to do it like a relay.
Since 1998

Re: Looking for portamente

Reply #3 –
Quote from: Warren Porter –
I was entering my reply when Rich posted his.  It contains an older example:

Go here: nwc-scriptorium.org/helpful.html and download gliss.nwc.  It isn't a straightforward process since you can only glide a few semitones at a time and hidden staves have to do it like a relay.
Actually Warren, latest versions of NWC have the ability to extend the pitch bend range in the Instrument tab of staff properties or when you insert an instrument patch.

This adjusts the effective range of the pitch bend MPC
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: Looking for portamente

Reply #4 –
Quote from: Richard Woodroffe –
An alternative, and much easier method is to use Mike Shawaluk's  Glissando.ms user object.

Set your start note. Set your end note. Mute both of them.  Put the Glissando object between the muted notes.
If you wish, you can change the text so that it says port. rather than gliss.
In the playback box select Pitchbend.
Press play.

HTH.
One further note: if you are using the pitch bend playback option of Glissando.ms, you will also need to set the pitch bend range for the staff instrument to 24 semitones, as for Rich's other example. (This is mentioned in the help information for Glissando.ms.)

Re: Looking for portamente

Reply #5 –
Tecnically, using the methods previously explained you do a pitch bend.

The real MIDI portamento is a controller of which in NWC you can set the speed using the "multipoint controller" parameter called "portamento time".
But only its MSB (MIDI controller 5); no way to set the LSB (MIDI controller 37).
And there is more.
As far as I know there is no way in NWC to enable or disble this effect (MIDI controller 65) so you need to set it manually before playing and, possibly, use a time of 0 to disable it.
Then keep in mind that setting the portamento speed is often tricky,

To conclude: the best way to do a portamento in NWC is... doing a pitch bend! :))

Re: Looking for portamente

Reply #6 –
Hi all,

Today I found time to look at the responses and see if I could play around with the offered solutions.
I took me some time before I found the Insert/Object... menu item to insert the Glissando object, but I think this is useful for what I need.
The Chromatic/Black Keys/White Keys playback options can be usefull too.

Thanks a lot.

Re: Looking for portamente

Reply #7 –
So I found the portamente, but there seems to be no way to extend it over more than one measure, i.e. have it start in bar 1 and end in bar 3. The only way I found to do that is remove barlines and increase the note length of the first note.
I need first note in bar 1, then an empty bar (only showing the portamente line) and second note in bar 3.
Is there any way to accomplish this?

P.S.
If I should have started a new topic, please let me know.

Re: Looking for portamente

Reply #8 –
The Glissando.ms object used to be fairly simple (I think it was the first object I ever created). It drew a straight line between two notes, with optional text above the line. Then I added wavy lines, and later it learned how to span a system break, and later yet it learned how to play as both discrete notes as well as continuous sweeps (with a little help from @NoteWorthy Online).

Sorry for the flashback, but during all that time, it has always been something that sat between two adjacent notes. Obviously it has to be able to handle an intervening bar line to span systems, but I had never considered the case of it spanning several measures. It should be possible to do that also, but I would need to figure out how to notate it. Would you put a hidden rest between? Or an intervening note midway between the end notes and also make it invisible?  I've never seen one in print so I don't know what it would look like. Perhaps I can find an example in "Behind Bars" or some other resource.

Thank you for the suggestion, I'll look into it.

Re: Looking for portamente

Reply #9 –
In a violin part to "Cloudburst" from Grand Canyon Suite, there was a low whole note, an empty measure, high whole note, empty measure, and it repeated several times with a zig-zag line connecting them.
Since 1998

Re: Looking for portamente

Reply #10 –
Thanks Warren, I found it here. It appears that the current Glissando.ms code will do this, if the object is inserted directly after the first note, and there are no rests in the following empty measure. Here's an excerpt from that score, with spacers inserted in the empty measures to pad things out:

Code: (nwc) [Select · Download]
!NoteWorthyComposerClip(2.751,Single)
|Clef|Type:Treble
|Note|Dur:Whole|Pos:#4
|User|Glissando.ms|Pos:1|Class:Span|Text:"slow gliss."
|Bar
|Spacer|Width:1300
|Bar
|Note|Dur:Whole|Pos:#11
|User|Glissando.ms|Pos:1|Class:Span|Text:
|Bar
|Spacer|Width:1300
|Bar
|Note|Dur:Whole|Pos:#4
|User|Glissando.ms|Pos:1|Class:Span|Text:
|Bar
|Spacer|Width:1300
|Bar
|Note|Dur:Whole|Pos:#11
|User|Glissando.ms|Pos:1|Class:Span|Text:
|Bar|SysBreak:Y
|Spacer|Width:1300
|Bar
|Note|Dur:Whole|Pos:#4
!NoteWorthyComposerClip-End

Of course you might have problems with empty measures if there are multiple staves. I am going to see how difficult it would be to have the object span over hidden rests.

Update: After a little experimenting, it was not too difficult to get the drawing portion working, by adding a "Span" parameter, that defaults to 1, and is increased by 1 for each rest-filled measure you want to span. (It might even be possible to have the object automatically skip over rests, making the parameter unnecessary.) However, the system-spanning and pitch bend playback functions are going to take some extra work.