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| Frequently Asked Questions |
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FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) sheet for the Noteworthy Composer (NWC) users. Any suggestions for update/correction, please let me know. I suggest printing this out if you want to read it carefully. |
0. About this FAQThis FAQ is intended to fill in some gaps and provide a sort of map on how to obtain further help. We won't duplicate everything that has been done elsewhere. Other sources of information are detailed in section 2. A history of updates is provided in section 4.A pointer to it will be posted monthly to the newsgroup, available via https://www.noteworthysoftware.com/newsgroup/signup.php, and it will always be available at http://nwc-scriptorium.org/faq.html 1. Getting the Software1.0 What is Noteworthy Composer?From the first page of the help file... "NoteWorthy Composer is a music composition and notation processor for Windows. It provides for the creation, play back, and printing of your own musical scores. It will also export your compositions to other MIDI applications, thus making your compositions available to a wide variety of music software on the market today."1.1 Obtaining shareware copies of NWCShareware copies of Noteworthy Composer, created by Noteworthy Software, can be obtained from the WorldWide Web by visiting http://NoteworthyComposer.com (or http://www.ntworthy.com)
Noteworthy software have created a free player (of NWC, Midi and RMI) files, called Noteworthy Player, as well as free browser plugins and WinAmp 2 plugins. These are also available from the above address.
If you don't have web access, mail 1.2 What's the difference between the evaluation and registered NWCs?Noteworthy Composer is not free. You may evaluate for up to 30 days before either removing it or registering. The evaluation version is the same as the registered version with the following changes:
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1.3 RegisteringThe current cost of registering NWC is $39US.This will register your version, and enable you to obtain free updates for all 1.* versions of Noteworthy Composer. (If you bought it back in 94, you would have now had five years of free updates, plus a great support network!)
The Contents page of the online help system will lead you to detailed ordering information, but in a nutshell, it can be done directly from Noteworthy Software via secure http at
http://NoteWorthyComposer.com/order.htm,
by phone, by fax/mail, or through PDSL (Public Domain and Shareware Library) in the UK.
1.4 Obtaining new updates of NWC.Go to http://www.ntworthy.com/composer/upgrade.htmThese are free for all registered users of version 1.* 2 Getting HelpThe NWC users community are a friendly bunch. Noteworthy Software have provided several support "nodes" and forums for discussion/help. It is best to "help yourself" by using the online help provided with the software. If you can't find something by using the contents, and are using Win 95/98/NT, try the Find page of the Search facility to find the phrase you are after. Other good places to get your frequently asked questions answered are
The Forum, the Newsgroup, the Mailing list and supportThere are several friendly places to ask questions and discuss Noteworthy topics. If you have a technical question, try and help yourself using the online help, user tips and news and forum archives. If you ask a question on one the venues below, just ask in one place, to save folks duplicating answers. The forum and newsgroup are often frequented by Noteworthy Software staff. Before asking publicly, avail yourself of the above resources and the common questions answered below, in section 3.2.1 The ForumThe online forum is a web-based message board.It is located at http://www.ntworthy.com/nwcforum/ It is intended for text messages only, and won't accept file uploads. 2.2 The NewsgroupThe newsgroup runs as a standard password protected internet newsgroup from a private host. Because news is accessed directly from a single host, this means that the news is always "up-to-date" (no propagation delays, and no lost newsitems), but you must be able to access the news server (it is not sent to the wider "usenet" network).For instructions on how to join the newsgroup, please see https://www.noteworthysoftware.com/newsgroup/signup.php Many, but not all, newsreaders are capable of reading from a news host that is different to your usual news host, but because conditions and software vary so greatly, it is beyond the scope of this document to provide more detailed advice. It may be helpful to post a question to the forum, including which newsreader you use and who your Internet Service Provider (ISP) is. Some ISPs have security arrangements which prevent using a "foreign" news host. In that case, you are stuck, and should try the mailing list or forum. Folks on the newsgroup (and the forum and the mailing list) are very friendly and helpful. Posting of Compressed NWC files for sharing, feedback, etc is encouraged on the newsgroup. Do make sure that you compress the file (save the file as a Compressed NWC file, (Standard NWC File v1.7 and later)), and please don't flood the newsgroup with too many in a day. Otherwise, usual newsgroup etiquette prevails:
Everyone on the newsgroup is encouraged to protect themselves from internet-borne computer viruses, worms etc by using a good antivirus program and KEEPING IT UP TO DATE. We rarely get any posted to the newsgroup, but it has happened. 3 Commonly Asked QuestionsThe three venues above receive questions that are asked fairly often. We'll try and answer them succinctly here.3.1 How do I move my notes up and down the staff?Select them, by dragging your mouse across them, or using the shift and right- and left-arrow keys. Then use Ctrl-Shift-Up or Ctrl-Shift-Down to move the notes vertically. Note that this will preserve notes' relative positions with respect to the staff, but not their relative pitches (ie it ignores key signatures).3.2 How do I enter chord members?Position to the right of the note where you want to put the chord, move up or down appropriately and use Ctrl-Enter.
And...?
Oh! You can remove chord members individually, by positioning to the right of the chord, move up or down appropriately and use Ctrl-Backspace.
3.3 How do I enter rests in chords?Select which way their "tail" will go (the right most buttons show quarter notes with tails pointing up or down), and enter a single rest. Then select the opposite direction and enter the note as a chord member. The main thing here is to enter the rest first.3.4 I've connected my keyboard, why doesn't it work?NWC will accept input from an external midi device, like a keyboard or some such thing which will plug into the MIDI IN of your computer's soundcard. If this is not working for you, ask yourself the following questions:
3.5 How do I get those great trills, mordants, glissandi and other marks on my page?NWC has a great facility to allow users to specify other fonts to use when entering text. Note that specifying fontfaces other than Times New Roman and Arial will make your NWC file less portable, as other readers of your score may not have the right font files. However, the NWC community uses a de facto standard font developed by Barry Graham of Melbourne, called Boxmarks. It contains rehearsal marks (hence the name), glissandi, arpeggio, trill, tremolo, turns and many other useful marks.
3.6 Hidden Staves, or, Okay, now I've got great looking trills, how do I make 'em sound?Another great NWC feature is hidden staves. These are entirely the same as all other staves, except that they are concealed from view when first opening files in NWC. Noteworthy Player will only conceal a hidden group if it is named "Hidden", or if it is the third, or fourth (or so on) group. ie Regardless of hidden status set by you, Noteworthy Player will display the first two groups, that aren't named "Hidden".Staves are concealed and revealed by
So then the trick for for high quality display and performance is to create two staves;
one which is decorated using Boxmarks but is not heard (click the Mute button, or use Tools | Mute), and
one which is the actual implementation of the marks (esp. arpeggios, glissandi, turns, etc), which is then hidden.
3.7 What's going on with transposing?NWC can transpose a complete staff (as opposed to selecting a whole lot of notes and moving them up and down with the Ctrl-Shift-Up/Down). This tends to work best for major keys. Minor keys may have trouble with "spelling" of leading notes (eg in Gm - which uses a Bb key signature - F# may be shown as Gb).
3.8 What's a multipoint controller?Multipoint controllers, or MPCs, are little streams of special midi instructions which NWC can squirt into a channel (or, with tempo - the conductor's track) to do special things like altering pitch, volume, stereo pan etc. This can be handy for special effects, as well as "humanising" performance with things like swing, portamento, hammer-on on a guitar, swell on sustained notes, etc. Note that some soundcards do not implement these features. For example, say you want to create a Swedish fiddle piece that's in triple time, but the first quarter note of each measure is long, followed by two shorter ones (a typical Swedish fiddle trick!) You can do this by creating one MCP for the first bar (see below for an example) and then copying and pasting it into the start of each other bar. This method can be used to do swing for jazz pieces, too. To fill out the MCP dialog entries, you may do:
Noteworthy Composer v1.70 has many new controllers supported now, including:
Modulation Wheel, Foot Controller, Portamento Time, Data Entry MSB, Balance, Expression, Effect Controller 1, Effect Controller 2, Effects (Reverb) Depth, Tremolo Depth, Chorus Depth, Celeste Detune Depth, and Phaser Depth. Note that these parameters may not be supported on all sound cards.
3.9 Why don't my crescendo and my accelerando work properly?Dynamic Variance (crescendo, decrescendo), and Tempo Variance (accelerando, ritardando, ritenuto) work by finding a "before" setting (of dynamic - ppp to fff - or tempo) and an "after" setting on that staff. So even though you get a default tempo of 120, and default velocity of f, you need to explicitly provide settings somewhere on the staff before your variance, and a "final setting" somewhere after it, for the variance to work properly.It is sensible to keep all tempo settings on one staff, as they are global (ie no matter which staff a tempo setting is on, it will affect the whole performance, even if the staff is muted or hidden). Dynamics are not global. If you want your whole brass ensemble to play crescendo, you will have to enter the crescendo mark (and dynamic or tempo marks) on each staff. Dynamic changes like this wont work on single notes or single chords. To obtain that effect (swell), use a Multipoint Controller (Sec 3.8). 3.10 How do I access the groovy sounds in the other sound banks in my spiffy new sound card?Each instrument that you assign to a staff (either through the Staff | Playback Instrument dialog, or though Inserting and Instrument Patch to change it later in the piece) can specify a MIDI bank select command to send as well. You will need to (carefully) read your sound card's manual to work out which banks to use.3.11 Why won't my slurs work?That depends on what you are wanting them to do. NWC uses the word slur for phrase marks (groups of notes that should be played together smoothly, or sets of notes that are sung to one syllable), and tie for notes of the same pitch which are held for the combined length of the tied notes.
Notes are slurred by using the ";" key (or Notes | Slur command). 3.12 Why won't my tied note turn off?Most likely because
3.13 How do I beam in both directions?Layering allows you to superimpose one staff directly on top of another (v1.50 and later). In fact, you can layer as many staves as you like up to the limit of the number of staves allowed on the screen at one time - currently 32 (v1.70).So how do I layer staves over each other?
a) Vertically displace a rest, either up or down on the staff. b) Horizontally displace a note by up to three positions c) Horizontally displace an accidental by up to seven positions These three functions can be achieved by highlighting either the note or the rest and then pressing Ctrl-E and following your nose ! There are numerous effects that can be obtained by layering including bi-directional beaming, complex timing patterns, dual language lyrics highlighted at the same time, complex chord patterns with rests, chords with rests of equal value. ( i.e. a sixteenth note tails up with a sixteenth rest directly underneath it). 3.14 How do I put a lyricist's name on the top left?Just insert text on the top stave as the first item and give it a Staff Position of about 20, Page Text Font, and uncheck Preserve Width. You will have to experiment (using Preview) to get this text aligned with the right hand name. And don't increase the Upper Vertical Size of the top staff.3.15 How do I make something invisible?Any note, rest, expression or barline can be made invisible by highlighting it and typing Ctrl+e. Under ‘Visibility’ choose ‘Never’. The item in question will appear light grey in the editor, but will not print. Sometimes you may want something to only print on the top staff of a score (like rehearsal marks, general directions etc). In this case, choose "Top Staff Only".Why would I want to make something invisible?The main reasons for doing this are
3.16 What is "Expression Placement" all about?In v1.70 and later, when you enter a text expression, you have a number of options as to how this will be placed in the final score. These will be hidden when you enter a text expression (X command, or Insert | Text) if you have Smart Properties Insert set in Tools | Options | Editor.
3.17 How do I make the playback sound more legato?Use ‘Insert | Performance style | Legato’ for each staff.3.18 How do I force a system break?
3.19 How do I beam across a rest?With difficulty. Lets say you want to put ‘eighth-note, eighth-note-rest, eighth-note’ (or even ‘quaver, quaver-rest, quaver’ depending on which side of the Atlantic you want to do your beaming) and that you want to beam the two eighth notes.
3.20 Can I indent the first system of a piece, the way it's done in expensive printed music?Yes. ‘Page Setup | Options | Staff labels | First system’ puts a label in front of each staff for the first system of a piece. These labels are the titles you can give to staves under ‘Staff | Staff Properties | General | Name’. If you would like to indent the first system without placing labels, simply name the staves using the character Alt+0160. (This is the non-breaking space character in Times New Roman, NWC's default font for printing this information).3.21 How can I create a blank manuscript?Either print blank_12.nwc or print blank_15.nwc. Both require NWC v1.70 or later.The file, blank_12.nwc, simply has twelve empty staves, and has File | Page Setup | Options | Extend Last System selected. This is very elegant, but has a joining line on the left. The file, blank_15.nwc, uses hidden rests and hidden bar-lines to create fifteen staves of completely empty staves. 3.22 Is there any way I can play back a collection of NWC files?Yes. Probably the most elegant way is to use WinAmp 2, a freeware media player available at http://www.winamp.com, for which Noteworthy Software have created a plugin that will make NWC files one of the file types that can be played by it. The plugin is available at http://www.noteworthysoftware.com/composer/winamp.htm.Alternatively, you can use a batch file. Simply copy the text below, create a batch file (eg PLAYLIST.BAT), paste the contents into it, put your desired playlist files into the directory, and execute the file... 3.23 What tempo do I set for grave, allegro, presto etc?Metronome markings for different tempi specifications (crotchets/quarter notes per minute):
3.24 How can I put headers and footers into a score?NWC lacks a header/footer feature in its document print process. This can create chaos if you drop your portfolio of manuscripts because pages past the first do not include the title or anything else helpful. Here's a workaround:
3.25 How do I make a WAV file of my Noteworthy masterpiece?There are several approaches available. The most straightforward is to "Play" the NWC file whilst recording with some wave file editor like CoolEdit, WaveStudio, or even SoundOLE (this has a 60 second limit which can be overcome by recording twice). This step requires a soundcard with full-duplex (can play and record at the same time). The advantage here is that most folks like to tweak the recording anyway (with reverb or whatever).
An alternative is to save the NWC file as a MIDI file (NWC command File | Save As), and the use a MIDI file "renderer", which creates a WAV file directly from a MIDI. See http://www.musicmasterworks.com/midi_to_wave_converter.html for more info or look for TiMidity or AudioCompositor (http://home.att.net/~audiocompositor/index.html).
3.26 How do I make an MP3 file of my Noteworthy masterpiece?This can be a little trickier, as you need something that will encode MP3, which normally involves software that you must actually pay for, or adding another step which will take a wave file generated from the above hint, and convert it to MP3. Most high quality wave file editors will have high quality MP3 codecs (that will encode MP3 for you - look in "Save As", or read their help file). There are several freeware MP3 encoders now available on the net.
Alternatively, save the NWC file as a MIDI file and use a MIDI renderer which saves to MP3. With the right plugins, you may be able to convince WinAmp 2 to do this. MusicMatch has also been suggested as a good application for this.
3.27 How do I make a CD of my Noteworthy masterpieces?Follow the steps for 3.25 above for each song you wish to put on the CD, and then use your CD-writing application (something like Nero, or Adaptec's CreateCD is good. Most CD writers come with some form of software for creating audio CDs.) for the final step of burning the tracks onto CD.4 The Scriptorium and NWCRingMany Noteworthy Composer users have been so enamoured with the software that the newsgroup was created by Noteworthy Software to allow users to send in NWC files to share around. This led to us wanting a place to keep them, and hence the Noteworthy Composer Scriptorium was born. Also, whilst talking so much, it became obvious that users wanted to showcase their NWC files in their own way, so the NWCRing was also born. It is basically a linked "ring" of users' websites which contain something peculiarly Noteworthy (NWC files, help files for Noteworthy Composer, etc). Noteworthy Software's website also contain a list of users' links, which can take you to some very interesting sites. This is at http://www.ntworthy.com/composer/userlinks.htm4.1 The Noteworthy Composer ScriptoriumIt is a website hosted by vpmag from http://www.vpmag.com, and located at http://www.vpmag.com/nwcThe "Scripto" contains many many useful things for NWC users, including
4.1.1 Scriptorium HintsThe Scriptorium also has some hints on how to produce NWC files for public performance/consumption at http://nwc-scriptorium.org/submit.html#hints4.2 The NWCRingThe NWC Ring is a webring (www.webring.org) for NWC users. To join the ring, visit http://q.webring.com/hub?ring=nwcring&id=13&hubThe main idea of the NWCRing is to provide something for NWC users; either NWC files, documentation. Sites with just midi files are best added to Noteworthy Software's User Links page, at http://www.ntworthy.com/composer/userlinks.htm 5. History of this documentMost recently updated 7th May, 2001 |
| Date | Ver | Author | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| 29/4/99 | 1.0 | Initial release | |
| 5/5/99 | 1.1 | Added Sec 2.2 Common Questions | |
| 2/6/99 | 1.1.1 | Poked it to see if it was alive. Made trivial format changes | |
| 2/6/99 | 1.2 | Added Layering (3.2.13) courtesy of Richard Woodroffe | |
| 2/6/99 | 1.2.1 | Changed address of Scriptorium | |
| 2/10/99 | 1.3 | Added Lyricist (3.2.14) tip courtesy of Peter Edwards. Made URL's explicit for the text version. | |
| 18/7/00 | 1.3.1 | Minor format changes to conform with new Scripto format. Replaced "Artware" with "Software" to reflect NoteWorthy's name change. | |
| 8/9/00 | 1.4 | Added 3.2.15-3.2.20 tips courtesy of Jason Walker. Updated multipoint controllers and some other features changed with v1.70 | |
| 14/9/00 | 1.4.1 | Added 3.2.21 tips courtesy of Haymo van Wyk. Updated many points courtesy of Haymo van Wyk. | |
| 27/11/00 | 1.4.2 | Added 3.2.22 | |
| 7/5/01 | 1.4.3 | Add some points to newsgroup etiquette. Update some numbers. | |
| 26/8/01 | 1.4.4 | Add some points about viruses. Update newsserver address. | |
| 3/12/01 | 1.4.5 | Added tempi, courtesy of Cyril Alberga | |
| 6/12/01 | 1.4.5 | Added 3.2.24, courtesy of Al Stevens | |
| 15/02/02 | 1.4.6 | Added 3.2.25-27, Rendering to files, MP3s and CDs | |
| 13/04/02 | 1.4.7 | Updated nwcring link | |
| 17/07/03 | 1.4.7 | Modified 3.2.25-27, Rendering to files, MP3s and CDs and references to Winamp |
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