Editing the Tempo Graphically |
With graphical editing tools, you can:
For an overview of using graphical editing tools, see Tutorial on Graphical Music Editing. To prepare for editing of the tempo graph:
-- OR -- Type SHIFT+X.
-- OR -- Type "t" for tempo. Composer will display a graph of the tempo, such as shown here:
To find out what the tempo is at any location in the song:
In the status bar Composer will display the tempo at the location of the mouse cursor. See the above illustration. As you draw the tempo curve with the mouse, you can view the tempo value in the status bar to see exactly what the value is. For greater precision while editing the tempo, you can zoom in. You can also customize the scale of the tempo graph, as described below. The tempo graph is drawn on top of the first two staves of each system of the score. If there is only one staff, then the tempo graph is drawn on top of that one staff. The scale for the graph is linear, between a pair of minimum and maximum values. The dotted red lines mark the minimum and maximum values. If actual tempo values for the song fall outside of this range, then the graph will be drawn above or below the dotted lines. By default, the minimum and maximum valuesfor the graph are 20 and 240 beats per minute. You can change the scale of the graph on a per-song basis. You can also change the default scale of the tempo graph for newly imported MIDI files or for newly created songs. To set the scale of the tempo graph:
-- OR -- Type "m" for minimum and maximum. Composer will display this dialog box:
To set a constant tempo for a small portion of the song: To set a constant tempo for a relatively large portion of the song, follow the procedure in Applying a Constant Tempo, Accelerando or Decelerando. The general method for using the horizontal line drawing tool is described in Procedure 7 of the Tutorial on Graphical Music Editing. The procedure below applies the general method to the tempo.
-- OR -- Type "h" for horizontal line. -- OR -- Click the Draw Horizontal Line button in the GraphOverNotestm Palette.
To add the performance of a fermata (long hold of a note):
To set a gradual tempo acceleration or deceleration over some number of measures or beats:
-- OR -- Type "n" for numeric value. -- OR -- Click the Constant Numeric Value button in the GraphOverNotestm Palette. Composer will display the Set Tempo in Region dialog box.
Instead of entering the starting and tempo values from the keyboard, you can use the mouse to draw an increasing or decreasing tempo line, as follows:
--- OR -- Type lower-case "L" for line. -- OR -- Click the Drawi Sloped Line button in the GraphOverNotestm Palette.
To extend a tempo acceleration or deceleration over a longer range in the song, or compress it into a shorter range in the song:
The general method for horizontally stretching a region of a graph is described in Procedure 11 of Tutorial on Graphical Music Editing. To remove tempo changes for any portion of the song:
-- OR -- Type "E" for erase. -- OR -- Click the Erase button in the GraphOverNotestm Palette.
As you erase the tempo curve, you will see Composer apply the tempo value immediately preceding the range that you have erased. The general method for erasing a region of a graph is described in Procedure 8 of Tutorial on Graphical Music Editing. To uniformly increase or decrease the tempo over some region of the song:
To shift the tempo curve to the right or left:
The general method for horizontally shifting a region of a graph is described in Procedure 13 of Tutorial on Graphical Music Editing. To copy a tempo curve from one section of a song to another section: For an illustration of copying a region of a graph, see Procedure 15 at the end of the Tutorial on Graphical Music Editing.
-- OR -- Type CTRL+C, which is the standard Windows keyboard command for Copy to Clipboard.
-- OR -- Type CTRL+V, which is the standard Windows keyboard command for Paste from the Clipboard. |