[rrayner]

The Help Guide tells me that a quarter note gets 480 ticks, yet when I score notes smaller than a quarter note, the total number of ticks does not add up to 480 ticks. This is more of a curiosity question really. It's probably explained very nicely in the Help Guide, and I just haven't found it yet.

In the attached snippet, I have the same phrase scored two ways; one with dotted eighths and sixteenths; the other with swing triplets. In the former, a dotted eighth has 345 ticks and the sixteenth has 113 ticks. This is a total of 458 ticks, well short of 480 ticks. In the latter, the quarter note part of the triplet has 309 ticks and the triplet eighth note has 153 ticks - again, well short of 480 ticks at 462 ticks. To further muddle the question, two ordinary eighth notes would each have 233 ticks each, for a total of 466 ticks.

As time has a precise mathematical attribute, where do the missing ticks go? One presumes there is a space between notes when there is no "sound". In all these years of using Notation Composer, this "open space" had never occurred to me - probably has something to do with decay of sound, etc., i.e., an eighth note would really be 240 ticks, but 7 ticks are left off of the sound to provide separation between the notes. Sounds probable.

I probably didn't need to post this question, as I seem to be figuring it out as I try to explain my question. Perhaps in my eighth note example, it is sound on for 233 ticks, sound off for 7 ticks, etc.

I guess I'll go ahead and post the question anyway, in case there are others who have wondered about this.

Ralph