Frequently Asked Questions

0.1 About this FAQ

1. Getting the Software

1.1 What is Noteworthy Composer?

1.2 Obtaining copies of NWC

Noteworthy software have created a free player (for NWC, Midi and RMI) files, called Noteworthy Viewer, as well as a free WinAmp plugin.

If you don't have web access, mail
NoteWorthy Software, Inc.
PO Box 211
Valdese NC 28690-0211
USA

1.3 What's the difference between the evaluation and registered NWCs?

• It lacks the ability to open or save any documents created by you or others.

• File->Open
• Open Backup
• Save
• Save As
• Revert
• Import
• Export
• History
• Edit->Paste as New File
• Edit->Copy
• Tools->User Tool

During your evaluation, you can open a built-in sample or template while trying the various features and functions possible in the editor.

1.4 Registering

The Help/About page of the evaluation program will lead you to detailed ordering information. It can be also be done directly from Noteworthy Software via secure http at https://noteworthycomposer.com/info/order.htm, and by mail.

1.5 Obtaining new updates of NWC.

2 Getting Help

• Online help
• User tips at https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?board=2.0
• The NoteWorthy Composer Userguide
  This contains an introductory tutorial as well as 10 chapters explaining many of the program's features.
• A command summary (updated in 2000) a printable NWC reference manual and tutorial, in Publisher, PDF and Postscript formats. - NB This command summary is for version 1.70 but most of it is applicable to higher versions.

The Forum and support

2.1 The Forum

• Talk politely when addressing folks. No flaming, please. If someone flames, it's best to ignore it or e-mail objections privately so as not to prolong the annoyance.
• It's okay to complain about aspects of NWC, but try and do so constructively if possible. It may be a Mercedes at a Volkswagen price, but it ain't a Lamborghini (yet). Often, however, if you are stuck when doing something with NWC, more experienced users will have already found a workaround, so it may well be worth your while to ask.
  
  If you are posting a wish, don't forget that Noteworthy Software have a special web page at https://noteworthycomposer.com/info/wishlist.php for you to provide that sort of feedback.
• When quoting other users, try and make the quotes brief and relevent to what you want to say. Avoid requoting whole postings simply so that you can say "LOL" (Laughing Out Loud) or "Great!".
• When posting unusual attachments, it may help to explain how it was produced, eg
  Alt+Prt Screen | Paste to MS Paint | Winzip etc. to aid readers in unpacking and deciphering.
• Refrain from posting large binary files (eg large pictures, MP3 or WAV files). A good alternative is to make the file available on the web somewhere and simply post a link to it. (Note that you can only paste links if your are registered as an NWC2 User or above)

2.2 NoteWorthy Help

2.3 The Newsgroup

3. Commonly Asked Questions

3.1 How do I move my notes up and down the staff?

3.2 How do I enter chord members?

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?

3.4 I've connected my keyboard, why doesn't it work?

• Is the keyboard turned on?
• Is the keyboard's MIDI OUT connected to the computer's MIDI IN? Often these can be reversed due to confusing naming conventions. If things don't work, try swapping around the leads and see if that makes any difference.
• Check Tools | Options | Record to see that the correct Midi Input Device is selected. It may be handy to switch on echo midi input (and make sure it echoes to somewhere that will generate a sound) just so that you can hear when things are working.
• Make sure that Midi Input Active (either the button, or the Tools menu entry) is ON.

3.5 How do I get those great trills, mordants, glissandi and other marks on my page?

• And here is how you do it:
• First of all download one of the Swingdings suite from the Scriptorium at http://nwc-scriptorium.org/helpful.html#Fonts.
• Extract the font into your Windows fonts folder. Win 95 and later should automatically install the font.
• In Noteworthy Composer, open (or create) your NWC file.
• Go to File | Page Setup | Fonts.
• Scroll down to User 1 (2 - 6) and modify it (Alt-M), selecting the font. You may need to experiment later with the size of the font, but start at about 12 to 18 for now. Click OK to save your font specifications.
• In the score, use the X command (Insert | Text) to bring up the Insert Text Expression dialog.
• Select User 1 (2 - 6) as the display font.
• In the expression box, enter the appropriate character that you want to use. You can use the character map to find appropriate symbols. Press OK.
• The appropriate glyph should appear on your score.

3.6 Hidden Staves, or, Okay, now I've got great looking trills, how do I make 'em sound?

1. going to the Contents tab of the File | Page Setup dialog.
2. An X marked in a staff's box in the Visible Parts list means that the part will be displayed. So simply change this by clicking in the appropriate box.
3. Whole groups can be displayed or hidden by checking/unchecking the Group in the Groups list.

So then the trick for for high quality display and performance is to create two staves; one which is decorated using a Swingdings font 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.

But if you are using a version 2.75 or later, then you can make use of User Objects which will allow you to place some of these functions directly on the staff and have them sound without having to use hidden staffs etc. For example, acciaccatura, trills, glissandi, arpeggio, tremoli , guitar chord charts and arpeggios can all be inserted as playing user objects and by the time you are reading this, perhaps many more !
If you would like to see the full range of User objects, go to the forum at https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?board=14.0 You can also watch a video about installing a user object https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6R-5V0FvMGg

For further information about installing user objects, see section 3.37 How do you install a User Object? which will tell you more.

3.7 What's going on with transposing?

• Make sure you have a key signature at the start of the staff. If you don't need a key signature, enter the C key signature (Insert Key signature - C major).
• Goto Tools | Transpose.
• Choose how many semitones up or down you want to go.
• Clear the Update staff box (unless you a writing for a transposing instrument, like some of the woodwinds and brass, and are transposing a part that you want to keep the pitch of).
• Click OK.
• This is normally enough. Sometimes, however, a little more work is needed. Enharmonic spellings may be incorrect. For instance, F# may be written as Gb. So there are additional options available - "Minimize sharp/flat count in key", "Favour Flat keys in ambiuous cases" and Favour Sharp keys in ambiguous cases". It's always worth checking after transposition and some manual changes may be needed,

3.8 What's a multipoint controller?

• Start by doing Insert | Multi-point Controller (or press L)
• Controller: Tempo. Well, that's obvious!
• Style: Absolute, Linear Sweep. For many effects, you will want a sweep to obtain a smooth transition. However, this can generate many MIDI commands, which may slow down the replay of your NWC file. This MIDI "traffic" can be reduced by making the Sweep Resolution larger.
• Time Resolution sets the "granularity" of the time offsets listed at the bottom. In this example, we could make it Quarter note.
• In this example, initial time offset is zero (we want it to happen straight away). Say the piece is to be at a tempo of about 80 quarter notes per minute. But because of the "stretching", the first beat of the measure is at about 60 quarter notes per minute, so that is what we set the controller value to.
• We enable setting 2, and set it at time offset of 1 (quarter note), and set the tempo back to 80.
• Because we're getting good at this, we decide to slightly adjust the last beat of the bar to be at tempo 85, as it feels as if we always speed up at the end of the bar.
• The tempo will remain at the last value set. This is worth keeping in mind, especially with pitch bends! (Sometimes you may need to string a few MPCs together to achieve a "zero-point" at the end of an effect).

3.9 Why don't my crescendo and my accelerando work properly?

3.10 How do I access the groovy sounds in the other sound banks in my spiffy new sound card?

3.11 Why won't my slurs work?

Notes are slurred by using the ";" key (or Notes | Slur command).
Notes are tied by using the "/" key (or Notes | Tied command).

3.12 Why won't my tied note turn off?

1. you tied notes across a bar line and the first note had an accidental (natural, sharp, flat, double sharp or double flat) and the second note is also supposed to have the same accidental, but you forgot to set it.
2. you have changed key mid tie
3. the second note in the tie may have been accidentally muted.

3.13 How do I beam in both directions?

So how do I layer staves over each other?

1. Ensure that Layering has been requested for the file you are working on. In the PageSetup/Contents tab, ensure that the allow layering box is checked.
2. You will now be able to layer any staff with the staff that is immediately below it.
3. Select staff properties (F2) and from the visual tab, check the Layer With Next Staff box.
   If Layer With Next Staff box in the visual tabs greyed out, check steps 1 and 2 above again and also check that you are using version 1.5 or later.

3.14 How do I add an accidental to a chord member

3.15 How do I make something invisible?

Why would I want to make something invisible?

1. to produce empty bars,
2. to avoid printing items which are included in the score to facilitate playback and
3. complicated tricks such as cross staff beaming.

1. Empty bars.
   This can be useful when layering tracks. Quite often long sections do not require a layered track, and this function can hide the full bar rests. Empty bars (or sections of bars) are also useful in piano music when one hand changes staff, or in vocal music when a part is ‘spoken’ instead of sung.
   Another use is in printing blank manuscript paper. Fill the staves with a number of invisible bars, and force a system break at the end of each. See section 3.21 for exmple files.
2. To avoid printing items which are included in the score to facilitate playback.
   If you want to produce a score that plays well, as well as looking great, there are certain expressions that you will need to insert. In piano music you may need a pedal marking for each staff, and possibly dynamics for each staff. Flow directions will also need to be repeated. Making all but one of each of these expressions invisible means that you don’t have to have separate scores for printing and playing. It also allows you to realise some ornaments without having to resort to a hidden staff.
3. Complicated tricks.
   The manner in which beamed notes disappear when rendered invisible allows you to do a number of tricks. New tricks are often posted to the newsgroup or the forum.

3.16 What is "Expression Placement" all about?

Justify left

means that the expression will start where your insertion point is, and extend to the right.

Justify right

means that it will finish at the insertion point, and extend to the left.

Centre

means just that. It will centre on the insertion point.

‘Preserve width’

means that a space will be made in the score to fit your expression. If this box is not checked the text will go over or under the surrounding notes or rests.

‘Before or after other staff signatures’

dictates where the expression will be placed in terms of signatures which occur in other bars.

‘At next note/bar’

means that the text will be centred over the following note. This is useful for placing ornaments when using a font such as Boxmarks.ttf. If this is used with ‘Preserve width’ turned on there will be a strange looking gap before the said note.

‘Best fit’

is self explanatory.

3.17 How do I make the playback sound more legato?

3.18 How do I force a system break?

1. Select the barline you want to break at in the top system.
2. Type Ctrl+E.
3. Check ‘Force system break’.

3.19 How do I force a Page break

1. Place the cursor immediately after the barline(where you want the new page to start)
2. Press the boundary change key (']') Or select from the Insert menu
3. Select ‘Force new system (top staff only)’ and also check the ‘start a new page’ box.

3.20 Can I indent the first system of a piece, the way it's done in expensive printed music?

3.21 How can I create a blank manuscript?

3.22 Is there any way I can play back a collection of NWC files?

3.23 What tempo do I set for grave, allegro, presto etc?

3.24 How can I put headers and footers into a score?

3.25 How do I make a WAV or MP3 file of my Noteworthy masterpiece?

3.26 How do I convert to/from MusicXML

3.27 How do I make a CD of my Noteworthy masterpieces?

3.28 How do I crescendo or decrescendo on a single or set of tied notes.

1. By changing the channel Volume
2. By using a Multi-Point Controller (Volume or Expression)

1. Channel Volume.
   When you assign an instrument to a staff, by default it has a channel volume. This is normally set to the maximum 127.
   Whereas instruments such as a piano "velocity" to cause volume, (ie the force that a key is hit)
   Other instruments such as wind instruments use volume of air or pressure on the string and it is variable across individual notes or passages.
   For these instruments therefore, the use of volume in NWC gives a more realistic sound than velocity. So to change the volume of a single note or a tied note for these instruments, it is best to alter the channel volume. The only issue here is to remember that you have done that and that any following dynamic will be affected by whatever state you left the channel volume in. So it is probably better to remember to change the channel volume for the start of every placement of a dynamic.
   
2. MPC Controller (Expression or Volume) An alternative method is to use an MPC (Multi-Point Controller).
   With an MPC, you can be more creative however, it takes more setting up and you need to specify the times that changes happen (This is cumulative) and if the change is immediate of gradual (Absolute or Linear).
   

3.29 My collapsed section refuses to collapse

1. If you are collapsing a layered section, have you placed the collapse instruction on all of the layers.
2. Make sure that you have issued a "Collapse" and not a "Cancel Collapse" instruction.
3. A collapse will only happen from the first full system following the collapse instruction.
4. If your cancel instruction is such that display of the staff occurs before a new system then the whole of that system will be shown overriding the collase instruction.

3.30 How can I notate a glissando or a portamento.

3.31 What's with Ntuplets?

3.32 How do I display part of my song, the chorus, in italics.

• If you dont have it, install Romital font (from the link above)
• Download Rick's vbs program - rg_romitalclip.zip
• Extract the program
• From your lyrics line, copy (select and CTRL C) the section you would like turned into italics
• Double click on rg_romitalclip.vbs to activate the program.
• The system will tell you how many characters have been converted
• Paste back to your Lyric line replacing the original characters

3.33 How do add a tie to an existing chord member?

3.34 Why can I not beam a rest chord?

3.35 How can display one chorus for multiple verses and still have it highlighted?

3.36 What is a User Object?

3.37 How do you install a User Object?

4 The Scriptorium

• a set of printable help references written by Barry Graham (updated by Richard Woodroffe), very handy for the NWC beginner. In MSPublisher, PDF and Postscript formats. This is for version 1.70 but most is still applicable.
• auxiliary programs to help musical "tinkerers".
• an archive of NWC files (over 12000) to inspire Noteworthy Composers. These files are all presented with their creators' permission, and are of songs/pieces either in the Public Domain or being used with the copyright holders' permission.

4.1 Scriptorium Hints