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  #1  
Old 10-22-2004, 07:44 AM
viv rendall
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Default Hi Mark, How I would have lov

Hi Mark,
How I would have loved to have had Midi notate composer 35 yrs ago when I attempted arranging three pieces of music for 15 piece orchestra and singers for a concert. I have played the violin nearly all my life and in that time I never really studied theory seriously. I found arranging from a piano score and then copying parts extremely hard going. It was an after work exercise and caused much friction with my family as all normal family input was dropped whilst doing it. The pressure was so great I decided I would never do it again (arranging) I still play the violin of course though very little now for other reasons. I am 69 now and when I came upon midinotate recently it gave me a new reason to become active again both in playing and arranging and perhaps even composing. I have now arranged 8 pieces from midi scores (all ensemble) for piano and violin and it's absolutely magic to see the notation go on the screen and to be able to print out the parts. One piece was particularly challenging because it had 3 and 4 running melodies and to retain the flavor of it they all needed to be there as well as the harmony and rhythm. Well maybe I could have changed the flavor, but I didn't like that idea. There have been some bugs in the software but I'm sorry I didn't take note of what they were other than seeing a window saying that the software has run into problems and will be shut down. An improvement in my opinion would be to make it just as easy to write a tempo variation e.g. rall., a tempo on the music as it is to write FF, or PF etc by either drop down menu or pallet as at the moment there appaers to be no easy way to do this other than to type it in. I would like to say Mark you have done a wonderful job with this software! And I'm glad you have.

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  #2  
Old 10-22-2004, 11:40 AM
Jaap Veneman (jaapv)
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Default Dear Mark, Viv, As your exp

Dear Mark, Viv,

As your experience, my neighbour, over 74 years, studied high grade music, composes music for Piano and Choirs etc. started using computer some time back. Strugled two month with Finale Notepad and its serious limitations.

Yesterday I showed him Finale Print Music, compared with Composer.
It was a "Fiesta" of surprises for him and whole hearted decision for Composer. Particular he appreciated the many logically and userfriedly ways to write his music, and most valuable for him the great flexibility to format notations and parts for printout.

I must give you compliments from him, and buy him a copy.
(and convert his .MUS file into .NOT files)

You may expect I will get some valuable suggestions based on his experience for the wish list, the first one already in another thread.

Keep on the good work.

Cheers Jaap
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  #3  
Old 10-22-2004, 10:01 PM
Mark Walsen (markwa)
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Default Hello Viv and Jaap, Thanks,

Hello Viv and Jaap,

Thanks, Viv, for your enthusiastic comments about Composer; and thanks, Jaap, for the report of your neighbor's first impressions of Composer.

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>quote:</font>

An improvement in my opinion would be to make it just as easy to write a tempo variation e.g. rall., a tempo on the music as it is to write FF, or PF etc by either drop down menu or pallet as at the moment there appaers to be no easy way to do this other than to type it in.<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>I can now hear a couple of the early beta testers reading your comment and thinking, "I told you so, Mark". This feature was asked for, and I didn't get around to adding it. Sometimes we silly developers think that if a feature is really easy to add like this one, it probably isn't needed. Instead we work for weeks on features that only a few people use. I've tried to avoid doing this, but I can point to both kinds of examples. I should have included a "common music vocabulary" feature in Composer 1.0, as you have suggested. I'll do that soon, as it will only take a couple hours of work. The feature is particularly handy because then you don't have to look up the spelling of the Italian word(s) in your Oxford or Harvard Dictionary of Music, if you happen to have one.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Cheers
-- Mark


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  #4  
Old 10-22-2004, 11:18 PM
Jaap Veneman (jaapv)
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Default Mark, This feature would b

Mark,

This feature would be great. It was one of the comments also yesterday evening I got in my demonstration of Composer.
When/Why this feature.

Those who download Midifiles, process these into Music notation and rehearse do not really mind this feature.
The serious music composers, traditionally skilled to write compositions, as well as Dirigents that make arrangements will strongly require such feature to add all kind of music notations like "Ritardo, FFF, PPP" etc
For a part you come around it with free text, but your competion built in such library in middle class programs. You better have it to be not negative quoted here.

Jaap
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  #5  
Old 10-22-2004, 11:29 PM
Mark Walsen (markwa)
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Default Jaap, Ok, ok [img]http://ww

Jaap,

Ok, ok I'll bump this up to a high priority. Not as high as getting some more bugs fixed, but a high priority.

Cheers
-- Mark


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  #6  
Old 10-23-2004, 12:47 PM
viv rendall
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Default Mark, Jaap, I agree, the bug

Mark, Jaap,
I agree, the bugs need to be fixed, but the ones that did crop up didn't really give me serious problems. By the way I should have mentioned that I am running XP OS. I just thought that to have a common music vocabulary in composer is needed and actually would save time in rehearsals at any level of proficiency. Well this doesn't always happen as musical directors sometimes like to change so many things in order to get a new interpretation or for whatever reason, you wonder why were there expressives written in the first place. One more thing; on my screen I find that the pallet column is too close to the edge of the screen and too narrow. Yes it can be shifted but can its width be increased? Anyway I love the software and it’s given me a new lease of life.

Viv.


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  #7  
Old 10-23-2004, 10:01 PM
Mark Walsen (markwa)
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Default Hello Viv,


Hello Viv,

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>quote:</font>

...on my screen I find that the pallet column is too close to the edge of the screen and too narrow<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>Do you find that the right side of the palette is clipped off on the screen?

Please try this: Change the size of the Composer window so that it is smaller than the full size of the screen. You can do that by clicking the middle of three buttons at the top-most right corner of the window. Then you might need to drag the edge of the window to make it smaller than the full side of the screen. For that purpose, you can drag with your mouse the bottom right corner of the window. Does this fix the problem with the palette being clipped on the right?

If the above test fixes the problem, then this means that you need to adjust the horizontal dimension of your monitor so that the edges of the window are not clipped. If this is the problem, you'll be seeing the same problem in other applications.

Cheers
-- Mark


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  #8  
Old 02-22-2006, 03:57 AM
Hugh Craddock
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Default Ihave finale print music and h

Ihave finale print music and have a problem when I Try TO USE Band Templates. When i Finish THE First Page OF THE Score i Cant Work Out What TO DO Next TO Start The Next Page .
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  #9  
Old 02-22-2006, 04:12 AM
Mark Walsen (markwa)
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Default Hello Hugh, Is your questio

Hello Hugh,

Is your question about Finale Print Music? It is developed and supported by a different company than Notation Software.

Sincerely,
Mark
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  #10  
Old 12-18-2007, 06:57 AM
Frank Pena
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Default Hi, I compose instrumentals wi

Hi, I compose instrumentals without knowing how to read music. What I want to know is does your software notate every instrument in a song. This way I could hand each musician in a band their own individual notation sheet for their own instrument, per song. Also, does the name of each chord come up on the screen as it is playing. I ask that because that way I could learn to play any popular song. If the chords appear on the software screen, could I slow the tempo down (as it is playing) so that I can learn the chords. The final question is I transfered my old compositions from regular cassettes to CD's. Then I downloaded the CD's down to my computer hard drive. Could your software still make music notations of my archaically downloaded music anyway. I hope to hear from you soon. I apologize for not knowing how to read music.

P.S. the instruments involved in my compositions are piano, bass guitar, saxophones, trumpets, syntheziser keyboard (different sounds), human voices, trombone. I mention these instruments to see if they are all recognizable by your software.
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  #11  
Old 12-18-2007, 01:05 PM
Sherry Crann (sherry)
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Default Howdy Frank, I think you wo

Howdy Frank,

I think you would find that Notation Composer will fill many of your needs. I started using it because I, too, play mostly by ear, and I had a lot of songs that I wanted to get into some sort of sheet music form for others to play along with me

A brief overview for the things you want to do, based on how I do them

To get songs into sheet music format, I use a MIDI keyboard to record the song into the program. I'm no keyboardist by anyone's definition, but I can at least get the rhythms and some of the notes right, and then easily go back and adjust the pitches. You can also "punch in" just particular areas ("regions") where it's just not quite right, and you can do this as many times as you need to and pick the perfect one to blend in with the rest of the composition. I usually record one instrument, then add another staff for another instrument, and so on, til I've got the entire song done. Then I go back and tweak how it all fits together. Then I can print out parts for folks who play with me (or who are playing themselves).

Composer easily transposes parts (for transposing instruments like Bb clarinet), or the entire song (in case you find that the high F was just way too high ).

You can use "found" MIDI files and have Composer transcribe the chord names for you, and they will highlight as you play the song file so you can play along. You can change the tempo of an entire song from the tool bar, or over regions of the song to give the file a more "live" feel.

One thing that no Notation product does is transcribe audio (CDs, mp3s, etc) to MIDI, so that you can get a good music notation transcription. You can visit our Special Interest page at http://www.notation.com/SpecialInter...SheetMusic.htm to read more about that.

You should try out the trial version of Notation Composer by downloading it from www.notation.com/Download.htm.

Have fun!
Sherry
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