Notation slur bug + Other oddities

[simonluca]

Hello all!
So I tried for the first time the fabulous new notation editor. I found a bug and some other oddities. I toke the time to write them down, in the hope that it will help for the further development. Note: I’m a Sibelius user so all the XML export things I found are tied to that software.


SLUR BUG

- make a track, create a midi item, draw three notes, slur them
- copy that item in the track below (same time position)
- Open the notation editor showing both tracks. The slur goes from the first note of the first item to the - - last note of the second item.


MUSICXML EXPORT:

- chords consisting in notes having different notehead shapes are not properly exported. For example the standard notation for artificial harmonics in strings is “normal” + “diamond”. It shows nice in reaper, but if you export in XML sibelius doesn’t recognize it (violin measure 2).

- dynamics vertical positions are not exported properly in XML (at least not in sibelius). If the dynamic is over the staff in reaper, it is under it in sibelius, if you move it down in reaper, it disappears in sibelius.

- Flat accidentals are not properly exported. They all are converted to # (cello staff).


DYNAMICS

- The standard position of the dynamics is under the staff, not over it. To place it over it is mainly for vocal staff (and other rare situations) to leave place for vocals but 98% of the times they go under it.

- Dynamics should be moved more freely up and down. Now it’s possible to move them down until a certain point, but sometimes it’s not enough. the Lowest note on the violin is G3 and the dynamic overlaps the note (measure 1, beat 4 in the violin and meas. 1 b. 1 in the bassoon)

- Dynamics should be note relative. Now to draw a dynamic you have to click “somewhere” in an empty space.

- Dynamics should be voice relative.

VOICES

- Number of voices: It’s not rare that more that 2 voices on the same staff are needed. Standard is 4.

GRAPHICAL CONVENTIONS

This is somewhat difficult.
Some notes are not “notes”, they are just graphical conventions to explain the performer what he should do.
Example: again, artificial harmonic. Measure 2 beat 1 is not a D4 + G4. It’s the way you notate artificial harmonics (fingering). In real life It is just one note: D5. So: there should be a way to disconnect symbols (notated “things”) from midi events (or a way to interpret symbols in specific ways). Or at least an option like “do not play that symbol” or “do not draw a midi event for that symbol” or “this symbol is connected to that other midi event”.

[schwa]

The slur and musicxml export issues should be fixed for the next build. Thanks for the report!

[schwa]

Originally Posted by simonluca

- Number of voices: It’s not rare that more that 2 voices on the same staff are needed. Standard is 4

FWIW REAPER supports 3 voices. The only reason we didn't make this 4 is that we'd then need to add logic or options to figure out whether a given voice should be notated high or low on the staff. It was simpler just to define the voices as default, high, and low. This decision is in the category of having to draw the line somewhere on the feature.

[simonluca]

Thank you schwa!

Originally Posted by schwa

FWIW REAPER supports 3 voices. The only reason we didn't make this 4 is that we'd then need to add logic or options to figure out whether a given voice should be notated high or low on the staff. It was simpler just to define the voices as default, high, and low. This decision is in the category of having to draw the line somewhere on the feature.

I totally overlooked that the "default voice" is the third voice. Maybe to be more clear you should give it another name, like... ehm voice 3? Middle voice? If I see two options (low and high) and a "default" option i think that "default" is either voice 1 or 2 and that is set under some preference setting.

By the way usually voices are arranged like that:
Voice 1) High voice 1 (stem up)
Voice 2) Low voice 1 (stem down)
Voice 3) High voice 2 (stem up)
Voice 4) Low voice 2 (stem down)

If there is only one voice in the staff the stem follows the position rule (exactly as it does now in reaper). If you add a voice they start to follow the rules I mentioned. If you have a staff with voice 1 and 2, voice 1 is high voice, voice 2 low voice. But if you have a staff with something in the voice 2 and something in the voice 4 they both have stems down because they are interpreted both as low voices.

But more important than that is dynamics positioning, I mean that they usually go under the staff and they should be moved freely in vertical because they overlap with low notes. Am I overlooking something?

I think I understood why dynamics disappear in sibelius. I think that it expects them to be under the staff (because it's an instrument staff) and if you lower them in reaper, Sibelius lowers them even more and they just go out of visibility.

By the way thank you again, the notation is growing in a very promising way.
SL

[schwa]

Have a look at 5.29pre6 (in the prerelease forum) if you care to. It has fixes and improvements for many of these issues.

[simonluca]

Originally Posted by schwa

Have a look at 5.29pre6 (in the prerelease forum) if you care to. It has fixes and improvements for many of these issues.

Great!

Looking forward to download the next stable release and check it!

Tnx