Change Pickup Beat Sounds

[Al_]

Just bought Notation Composer after using it on the free trial. Very happy with the program, but is there a way to change the pickup beat sounds to a more normal metronome sound? It sounds like some industrial death metal band right now. Maybe this is a funky MIDI issue peculiar to my setup, but maybe I'm just missing something. Thanks.

[dj]

Hi, Al:

Under Perform/Metronome/Setup, you can change the sounds used by Composer for the metronome.

You can either select the computer "beep" sound or use your keyboard's drum channel sounds -- actually, you can choose any sounds, but they'll all be on one channel, which means that, if not drum channel sounds, they'll all sound alike.

Good luck.

David

[Al_]

Thanks for the reply. The metronome sounds fine, and it seems to correspond to the sounds selected, but the pickup beat has a completely different sound. I'll do a little more experimentation now that I'm not missing something simple.

[Al_]

Never figured out what caused the bad sound on the pickup beats. Saw the problem across different computers and midi devices. I just added some blank measures to the beginning of the piece as a workaround and turned off the terrible sounding pickup beat option.

[dj]

Hi, Al:

With my system, the pickup beats sound the same as the general metronome beats, whether running through internal sounds or outboard synths.

No idea what the situation is with yours.

David

[Al_]

I noticed it plays ok on other songs. I had tested the same song on other systems, but I hadn't thought to test other songs. It's a decent sized file, and I've attached it if you want to try it on your system.

[Sherry C]

Hi Al,

I just tried out your song file, and the pickup beats for it sound the same as my Metronome beats (ie, same observation as DJ had). I'm a little baffled as to why you're hearing something different for the pickup beats here than you are in other files. I've looked at the file with a few different tools but didn't turn up anything that should be causing the difference there. Are you perhaps using a different MIDI playback device for this file that you don't typically use? Eg. one that would have a different drum set for channel 10 than other files that you play?

ttfn,
Sherry

[rrayner]

Bravo!! I just listened to this piece, and while I could not discern any problem with the pickup beat sounds on my PC/Sound Card, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the piece.

It may be precisely as you intended, but I do find the diminished volume levels interspersed throughout to be a little frustrating. You have a number of places where you take the note velocity down below 50, and it sounds to me like the instrument(s) has/have moved into the next room. But, that may be your choice.

Other than that, a very well-written piece. Thank you for sharing it.

Ralph Rayner

[Al_]

Thanks for looking into this. I've used my internal midi synth, plus an external midi keyboard with the same results. I'm happy to let this problem go since I have a workaround. If I ever figure it out, I'll come back and post what I found.

BTW, this piece (Beethoven's Trio IV in B flat major) is from a midi file I downloaded from the internet. My son plays cello, and he practices to this with the cello part muted. Very handy way to get in lots of practice without relying on other people.

[rrayner]

Originally Posted by Al_

BTW, this piece (Beethoven's Trio IV in B flat major).

Oops! I'm not as familiar with the Old Masters as I should be. My apologies to Ludwig.

Ralph