Short notes on same pitch second note not sounding

[Tim Mariott]

I am trying to input a score that has lots of 1/16 notes followed by 1/8 notes. As long as the 1/8 note has a different pitch all is fine, but if the 1/8 note is the same pitch as the preceding 1/16 note than the second note does not sound.
I have tried shortening the duration of the 1/16 note or even moving it back but the 1/8 note still will not sound.
This is a practice file for choir members and so it is important that all notes in the vocal line do sound correctly.
Song in question is "You raise me up": current draft attached.
Any suggestions please?
Thanks
Tim

[Sherry C]

Hi Tim,

I don't know about all of those pairs, but in Piano Roll I'm seeing that some of your notes have an attack that starts 120 ticks before the notated note should sound. I'm not sure how you're entering notes, but that is the issue with the SA/measure 11 pair - the second A has an attack that is at -120 (you can see these values just by mousing over any given note while in Piano Roll). What that means is that the "note on" event for that note turns "on" 120 ticks before the notated note, which means it turns "On" while the previous note is still sounding, which in turn means that the sound goes "off" when the end of that first note ends and since there is no new "on" for the second note, it doesn't sound.

You can fix this by
(1) clicking on the note that isn't sounding and
(2) click on the "Snap as-performed attack to as-notated.
The note will then properly sound.

There are some other notes that sound properly (eg. C# in TB/m16 and A in SA/m16) that also have the attack at -120. If you let me know what method you're using to put the notes in, I'll test that here to see if there is a bug that is affecting the attack in some instances.

ttfn,
Sherry

[Tim Mariott]

Sherry

Thanks as ever for your patient and helpful reply. I am still a novice when it comes to the mysteries of Piano Roll and appreciate your guidance. I have done a global edit to snap as-performed attack to as-notated. This nearly fixed the problem but having understood a little more about Piano Roll I then slightly reduced the duration of the 1/16 notes to give a clearer break before the 1/8 note when on the same pitch.

I don't think it is a bug in Notation Composer. This song has come from scanning and processing in Photoscore, which normally delivers a reasonable MIDI file but which I have noticed before does seem to have a problem with 1/16 (and shorter) notes. Photoscore had made a bit of a mess of this one, shifting some of the 1/16 notes into the next measure and putting them in the same position as the 1/8 note or omitting the 1/16 note completely. I have re-examined the MIDI file from Photoscore and indeed the attack of the misbehaving notes is 120 ticks early.

My conclusion is that it is a limitation or fault of Photoscore rather than a bug in Composer. I will add this global edit to my standard list of tidying Photoscore MIDI files which already includes a global edit to snap as-performed duration to as-notated which seems to eliminate most stuck notes.

Thanks again
Tim

[Sherry C]

Hi Tim,

I also use Photoscore's "MIDI Lite" product, and have noticed some of the same issues with shorter notes. I've tried importing those files into other notation software (not ours ) and see the same issues, so I think your surmise is correct. That said, the translation of Photoscore's engine is still pretty amazing, and for the number of pieces I've used it for it's still a very worthwhile piece of software, after you get to know it

ttfn,
Sherry