Rhapsody 4 #2/Rhapsody 4 - Issue 2.iso/!InstallR4/DATA/039

Text File | 2000-02-25 | 18KB | 459 lines

    Rhapsody 4 - Latest features (v4.09)
    ~~~~~~~~~~

    This file documents the latest changes and additions to Rhapsody 4
since the manual went to press.


    Mistakes in the Manual
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

p  26   line 12       !R4Convert does not handle Maestro files

p  35   line 8,14     the action of these keys is reversed ie 'P' starts
                      to play from the cursor, 'Shift-P' from here

p 135   line 1        for 'third panel' read 'second panel'

p 144   line 18       for SETUP read !SETUP

p 155a  line 12-15    the action of these keys is reversed ie 'P' starts
                      to play from the cursor, 'Shift-P' from here

p 155b  line 7        for 'p' read 'Up'

p 155b  line 11-13    these lines should read
                      Up     Move single note up one line
                      Down   Move single note down one line
                      Left   Move note cluster left (if possible)
                      Right  Move note cluster right (if possible)

p 155b  line 14-17    these lines should be deleted - ie the actions of
                      Page up, Page down, Copy and End are not defined.
                      (Page up and Page down do in fact mirror some of
                      the cursor key functions)

p 156    line 28      should read     Shift F10 Slur
                                      Ctrl F10 Triplet


    Block Align
    ~~~~~~~~~~~
    There is a new menu item on the Block menu - 'Align'
    This attempts to move incorrectly aligned notes into place.
    It should be used with caution as it is often impossible to guess
what was originally intended just as it is not always possible to
reconstruct sense out of a garbled sentence. Try making sense out of
this: 'Thisma kessen se'. Now remember - computers are not as smart as
you!
    As with all block operations, the original score is saved onto the
clipboard so it is easy to undo.


    New shortcuts
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    ^ïS  now swaps the stem direction of a single note in a cluster.

    Pressing F3, ^ïF3 or F11 brings up a save box for the score with the
cursor in it. F3 is the standard short cut for this but most users will
want to keep this key to mean semi-quaver. For this reason, three
alternatives are provided and you can choose which key you want using
the 'configuration' panel of the preferences window.


    Quick Edit Mode
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Quick Edit Mode is the mode where you click on a symbol in the
symbols window to insert it at the cursor. If you click on a note, rest
or accidental and there is an identical note, rest or accidental in the
score, that object will be deleted.


    Drop Edit Mode
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    On page 47 of the manual it says that holding down the SHIFT key
when clicking on a score inserts the object AFTER the slot which you
clicked into. This is no longer the case. In Drop Edit Mode, all the
slots are divided into a front 'half' and a back 'half' (They are not
necessarily of equal size - it depends on the current slot width). The
cursor shows the back 'half' in grey. If you click in the front half (ie
close to the note that already exists) you will add to that slot. If you
are inserting a note or a rest and you click in the back 'half' you will
add a new slot.
    This feature releases the SHIFT key which now causes the selected
object to be DELETED.


    Twin Tremolo
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~
    The implementation of this feature has been completely changed -
basically because I got it completely wrong! The example on page 77 of
the manual should therefore be ignored.
    What actually happens is this. If you apply the twin tremolo mark to
BOTH notes of a pair of crotchets, the crotchets will be displayed as
minims and will be joined by a pair of short semiquaver type beams. When
played, EIGHT semiquaver notes will be produced (ie of total length ONE
minim only).
    Twin tremolo marks may be applied to a pair of quavers, crotchets or
minims in which case 4, 8 and 16 notes will be sounded. R4 currently
only supports the semiquaver twin tremolo.


    Drag editing in Drop Mode
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    It is now possible to drag and drop symbols in the usual way while
in Drop Mode. This makes it much easier to correct a mistake.


    Quick edit mode
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    On page 47 of the manual it says that the action icons are greyed
out when Quick Edit mode is selected. This is not true. They can be just
as useful in this mode.


    Triplets
    ~~~~~~~~
    On pages 91 and 132 of the manual, triplets are drawn either round
or square. The round type is no longer used as it really implies a slur
and modern usage is to have both a triplet and a slur if that is what is
intended. The two styles offered by Rhapsody are both square with either
the number in a gap or above the bracket.


    New move note up/down icons
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Two new icons have been added to the quick edit panel. These appear
on the top row in green beside the icons which move a note left and
right. The new icons move a single note either on to the stave above or
the stave below. In addition, the stem direction is changed. These icons
will be found to be particularly useful when Rhapsody transcribes notes
(using the two stave transcibe options) on to the wrong stave.


    Hidden Staves
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    A new stave style has been added - hidden. This acts just like a
blank stave except that all notes and other symbols are printed in grey
on the screen and not printed at all on hardcopy or a drawfile. It can
be used to add comments or a non printing rythmic accompaniment to a
score.


    Guitar Chords
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    It is now possible to have slots which contain only guitar chords.
Indeed it is possible now to write a score with nothing in it except
guitar chords. In order to make it play at all, however, it will be
necessary to give it a (silent) rythmic accompaniment using a 'hidden
stave' described above because guitar chords by themselves have no
rythm.


    Headers and Footers
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    The manual states that these can be left, centred or right aligned.
The icons which enable you to do this have been added to the headings
window.


    Export of PMS files
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Rhapsody4 will produce text files suitable for loading into the
professional music typesetting program PMS with certain limitations.

    The following features are supported:

      Notes and rests (including simple tuplets) (but not including
    stem direction which is left to PMS to decide)
      Hairpins (but position is ignored)
      Accents, trills and bowing marks
      Repeat bars, 1st and 2nd time bars
      Clefs
      Key signatures
      Time signatures
      Dynamics
      Directives
      Whole bar rests

    Note that it is not currently possible to translate successfully
music which has two independent parts on a single stave. This is because
Rhapsody uses a slot by slot approach using stem direction to
distinguish the parts while PMS notates each part separately (either on
a separate stave or separately within each bar). If a score contains
just a few instances of two part writing, these bars will appear to PMS
to have too many notes. These bars will have to be edited by hand to
eliminate the error.


    Import of Optical Manuscript files
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Rhapsody4 will import OM files. The only  features currently
supported are:

      Notes and rests
      Clefs
      Key signatures
      Time signatures
      Repeat barlines


    View scale
    ~~~~~~~~~~
    Two more scale values have been added for your convenience: 300% and
400%.


    Resizing staves and systems
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    While not wrong, the manual is not vey helpful about this.

    If you resize a stave using the red handles in the linear format
mode, you can alter the spacing between staves. It is not so obvious but
if you increase the space above the first stave or the space below the
last stave, this will affect the way the score is formatted because it
will alter the total height of the systems. So if your format looks
rather cluttered and you want to have fewer systems on a page, rather
than altering the system sizes and repaginating, increase the stave
heights at the top and the bottom and reformat the score instead.


    The ESCAPE key
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    When entering dynamic markings, the ESCAPE key switches the don't
print icon on and off.

    When entering text, the ESCAPE key may be used to switch autospacing
on and off.
    SHIFT-ESCAPE copies the text under the cursor (if any) into the text
input icon. (ie a short cut for 'Fetch')
    CTRL-ESCAPE key clears text input icon.

    Pressing ESCAPE always stops playing and any form of capture.


    Entering text
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    When entering text, SHIFT-LEFT and SHIFT-RIGHT now move the caret to
the end of the string and then move the cursor left or right by one slot
instead of to the beginning or end of the bar.


    Mistakes when printing
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    In the interests of speed, Rapsody4 takes a number of shortcuts when
printing a score on the screen. This can sometimes cause items to be
left unprinted or not printed correctly. Normally this should not cause
problems as the itmes will be printed correctly when the whole screen is
redrawn.

    In some circumstances, however, clefs, key signatures, stems and
beams can become flagged as already printed when in fact they need
printing again. To recalculate these flags you need to tidy the
offending part of the score (or the whole score if necessary) using the
Block->Kern or Block->Unkern menu options.


    Stave names
    ~~~~~~~~~~~
    If a stave name or abbreviation contains a vertical bar character
(|) it will be split at that point ie 'Sporano|Alto' will be printed:

        Soprano
           Alto


    Sound on moving the cursor
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    When entering notes with supplementary accidentals, R4 now plays the
correct note on moving the cursor and when inserting.


    Scores with clefs missing
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    If you find that some scores do not print the clefs on some or all
of the systems when formatted, this is because the score was created
using a blank score which did not have a vital flag bit set. This bit
has been correctly set on all blank scores.
    To correct a score which continues to show this fault, simply
overwrite one of the very first clefs with an identical clef. This
reconstructs the clef slot with the flag bit set.
    A similar bug related to suppressed staves on a system has been
corrected.


    Repositioning systems
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    A number of people have been annoyed when re-positioning systems by
Rhapsody's habit of repaginating the subsequent systems. You can now
prevent this by holding down the SHIFT key when dragging a system
around.


    Indenting individual systems
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Also a number of users have requested the ability to change the
automatic indenting and padding of sytems. To meet their need a dialogue
box has been added to the 'System'->'Reformat system' menu item which
allows you to specify left and right indents for one system only.
    If you wish, for example, to align the first system with all the
others, set the LH margin to 32 (this allows some space for brackets etc
and is the default value) and the RH margin to zero.
    If you want the system to be as short as possible (ie not padded out
to the full width of the page, first set the LH margin to the desired
value, then set the RH margin to 'Maximum'.
    Note that when you click on OK, Rhapsody will reformat that system.
This process may require the addition or removal of a bar so you must
expect the subsequent systems to be reformatted as well. As usual, begin
at the top of the score and work down.


    Joining staves across a blank stave
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    The restriction which prevents you from joining staves together
across a blank (or other kind of) stave has been removed. It is possible
therefore that some scores which previously had unjoined blank staves
will now be printed with joined staves. When this is the case, the 'Join
stave to one above' flag must be unset.


    Dragging stave and slot handles
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    When dragging the handles on a stave or a slot, a small window now
appears stating the new stave height, depth or slot width. Stave heights
and depths are in units of stave lines, slot widths are in OS units
(approximately 180 to the inch).


    New Capture icons
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Between the 'Play' icon and the 'Trabscribe' icon the single
'Record' icon has been replaced by three buttons which, from top to
bottom, switch directly into a) step capture, b) semi-real time capture
and c) real-time capture modes.


    Stave loudness
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    It has always been possible to play a single stave on its own by
setting the 'Loudness' of the stave to 'SOLO' using the 'Alter stave'
dialogue box but this was not very convenient. You can now change this
instantly by clicking on the setting which is listed at the front of
each stave underneath the stave name and voice information. Clicking
with ADJUST cylces through the four settings in the opposite direction
to SELECT.


    Inserting clefs and key signatures
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Normally, when inserting clefs and key signatures, Rhapsody
automatically shifts subsequent notes and changes subsequent accidentals
so as to keep the music exactly the same. There are, however, occasions
when it is desirable to enter a clef or a key signature without changing
subsequent notes. This can now be done by either using the ADJUST button
when clicking on the panel icons or holding down SHIFT if using the
keyboard.


    New re-tail routines
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Two new entries have been added to the re-tail menu - 'Auto beams'
and 'Broken beams'. These options are applicable to both marked blocks
and whole staves.


    Time signatures
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Time signatures can now be added to barlines, in which case they are
automatically printed over the bar line. This greatly improves the
appearance of scores with many time signature changes.


    Marking a whole stave or score
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    CTRL-\ has the effect of expanding a marked block across the whole
score. To mark a single or selection of staves, mark the desired staves
in the usual way, then press CTRL-\.


    Deleting symbols
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    When deleting a symbol, R4 looks first for a symbol similar to the
one selected. If it does not find such a symbol, R4 now deletes whatever
is at the cursor position. If this is unsuccessful, R4 will delete the
first non positional symbol it finds underneath the cursor (eg a clef,
key signature etc.)


    Slurs and slur directions
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    The positioning of slurs has been improved. Normally slurs are
positioned opposite the stem unless there is a second note on the stave,
in which case the slur is printed on the same side of the stem. The
default position can be overridden by using the ADJUST button on the
'swap tie direction' button in the quick edit panel.


    Stave data
    ~~~~~~~~~~
    Instead of printing the stave data at the beginning of the score,
the data is displayed in a seperate pane attached to the (linear) score
window. This means that the stave data is always visible, even when
editing the score in the middle. Clicking on the data will bring up the
reassign window and cycle through the stave loudness levels just as
before.


    Packing factor
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    When formatting a large score, it often happens that the last page
is not quite full or only contains a few bars. Instead of going through
the whole score adding or removing bars here and there, it is now
possible to adjust the 'packing factor' ie the extent to which Rhapsody
attempts to cram in bars. Increasing the factor will cause more bars to
be packed in where possible. Decreasing it will spread the notes out
more and fill more space.


    Formatting scores with 'empty slots'
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Some confusion has arisen over the function of completely empty
slots. Normally scores will not contain such slots and the ability to
add them is simply for convenience while editing. On the other hand,
these slots can be used to prevent Rhapsody from lumping together
otherwise empty bars and to add extra spaces in a score. Since empty
slots are difficult to see, they are now indicated with a red *.


    Tremolo chords
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Instead of just playing the top note, Rhapsody now plays the top two
notes alternately. Whether it plays the lower or the upper note first
depends on the setting of the top-to-bottom and bottom-to-top icons
which appear in the main panel when the tremolo symbol is selected.


     New score pane
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     Instead of printing the score data at the front of the score, Rhapsody
attaches a new pane to each linear format window. This means that score
names are always visible, even when editing large scores. Clicking on the
pane brings up the relevant stave data window as before. In addition, the
main heading and copyright notice are displayed at the top. Clicking on
these also gives access to the relevant window.


     CTRL-SHIFT-CLICK
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     Clicking on a score with both CONTROL and SHIFT held down alters the
scale of the window. The SELECT button doubles the scale and the ADJUST
button halves it. The cursor is centred.


                                                          25 Feb 2000