Linux:noteedit:multi rests, doub. wh. notes

[Joerg Anders]

Newsgroups: alt.music.midi
Subject: Linux:noteedit:multi rests, doub. wh. notes
Reply-To: 
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Keywords: MIDI, score editor, KDE, music
Summary: noteedit-1.16.0 offers: multi rests and double whole notes

noteedit-1.16.0 is available:

  http://rnvs.informatik.tu-chemnitz.de/~jan/noteedit/noteedit.html

New features:
=============

   1.) multi (measure) rests
   2.) double whole notes
   3.) Combine groups of equal and tied chords
   4.) all parameters given by rulers can alternatively be given by numbers
   5.) PMX export with staff selection
   6.) PMX export with keep beams option
   7.) (only) tse3-0.1.2 compatible
   8.) "--noalsa" and "--nooss" option
   9.) (hopfully) more intelligent MIDI --> Score algorithm
  10.) (hopfully) better selection in case of placing restriction conflicts
  11.) Bugs fixed; among them:
        - Lyrics '-' to '~' exchange problem
        - crash if the MIDI file to be imported doesn't exist
        - bad direction in case of "change clef" with octave shift



Aspects/Problems concerning the new features
--------------------------------------------------

1.) multi (measure) rests
..........................

Some restrictions apply to multi rests in MUP and PMX:

* MUP: a multi rest must appear in every staff and it must be
       of the same length. If this isn't the case Noteedit
       divides the multi rest in a sequence of "normal" rests.
That means: If Noteedit restores such a score the multi rest
----------  is changed against a series of "normal" rests.
            Noteedit will warn you in this case.
* PMX: PMX dosn't accept multi rests if the score has more than one line.

2.) double whole notes
.......................

Although the double whole note is called "breve" in (almost) all music
typesetters (except PMX, here it is called '9') the representation differs:

    * In MUP and LilyPond it looks like a whole note with 2 additional lines.
    * In MusiXTeX and PMX it is a small rectangle:
and
    * MusiXTeX offers the whole note with 2 additional lines, too.

To unify the representation I decided for the whole note with 2 additional
lines. 

   ( Let me know whether this conflicts with some musical)
   ( orthography, my knowledge ends here.                )

This can be exported to MusiXTeX, MUP and LilyPond. Thus, only PMX shows
the small rectangle.

3.) Combine groups of equal and tied chords
............................................

This is especially useful after application of the auto bar function.
Somtimes the auto bar fuction produces sequences of equal and
completely tied chords. The combine notes functions tries to
collect them as far as this is possible.

5.) PMX export with staff selection
..................................

Because PMX offers a tool "scor2prt" I thought a staff selection isn't 
necessary. But I got reports that some users delete N - 1 staffs from
score before PMX exportation to get the only interesting staff.

With PMX export with staff selection this souldn't be necessary any
longer.

6.) PMX export with keep beams option
.....................................

The automatic PMX generation causes a problem:

  - To ensure correct placement of beams the note
    with lowest distance from beam must appear first in text.

On the other hand:
  - PMX determins the direction of the beam: up or down.

So, Noteedit has no idea what is the note in chord with lowest distance
from beam. If this causes beam problems (beams crossing stems) the keep
beams button could be helpful. In this case Noteedit places beam direction
statements into PMX source and thus, it has enough information to
determine the suitable order of notes.

8.) "--noalsa" and "--nooss" option
....................................

I got reports that the whole Linux stops if the users starts
Noteedit using ALSA MIDI scheduler. Reset is necessary.

Note! It is impossible that a program which runs in user
space stops Linux (except swap overflow). Even if the program has
tons of bugs. It has to do with your ALSA module parameters and/or 
IRQ/IO - BIOS/PNP parameters. Contact the ALSA developers!
As an interim solution you can start Noteedit without creating
an ALSA MIDI scheduler:

         noteedit --noalsa

Note! Noteedit uses the so-called ALSA-OSS emulation in this case.
The ALSA-OSS emulation doesn't permit the read direction.
Thus, read and record from MIDI keyboard isn't possible.

Another alternative would be: Remove ALSA and use the pre-ALSA sound modules!

9.) (hopfully) more intelligent MIDI --> Score algorithm
........................................................

I changed somthing and built the score of Beethoven's 
5th symphonie once again. It seems to be better.(?)
(see http://rnvs.informatik.tu-chemnitz.de/~jan/noteedit/noteedit.html)

10.) (hopfully) better selection in case of placing restriction conflicts
.........................................................................

Noteedit has some placing restictions for volume signature, tempo signature
and program (instrument) change. Although these symbols can be placed
everywhere, they cannot be written at every arbitary position
in MUP file (due to MUP syntax). So, Noteedit omits some badly
placed symbols. I tried to make this selection algoritm more
intelligent.(?)

Or: Perhaps it wasn't a bad idea to use MUP as file format.(?) I thougt
if MUP is an already existing music typesetter, they regarded all
possible cases and I'll never fall into trouble. But with implementing
more and more features I found more and more MUP restrictions
(drum notes, multi rests, voice count, volume-, tempo-, program- sign
placement, ...) --> Don't know. Perhaps I'll switch over to XML.(?)


-- 
J.Anders, Chemnitz, GERMANY (address@hidden)