This chapter presents a quick overview of Nightingale’s tools, menus and commands. It will give you a further idea of Nightingale’s capabilities. You’ll find much more on Nightingale’s tools and other features in the Reference section of this manual and you’ll find detailed information on each individual command in the Commands section of this manual.
Chapter Contents:
Philosophy of Key Assignments
Customizing Key Assignments
Nightingale’s Tool Palette
Rearranging the Tool Palette
Nightingale’s Menus
The Apple Menu
PHILOSOPHY OF KEY ASSIGNMENTS:
Nightingale uses a shortcut key equivalent for every symbol in the Tool Palette, and a Command key equivalent for many of the menu commands. The assignments of these key equivalents follow some basic rules, which will help you to memorize the association of a keyboard equivalent with a function or tool. If you prefer different Tool Palette shortcut keys (such as those used in another software program), you can change each of them using the NightCustomizer utility (see below).
Tool Palette shortcut key rules
The shortcut key equivalents for tools in the palette follow three basic rules:
1) Wherever possible, use the beginning letter of the symbols name:
• “q” for quarter note
• “m” for metronome
• “f” for forte.
2) If it is mnemonically intuitive, use a key that has on it a shape/symbol that is visually similar to the tool in the palette:
• the “4” key for the Time Signatures Tool
• the “7” key for the Chord Symbols Tool
• the “3” key–which has the # sign on it– for the Key Signatures Tool
• the “2” key for the Repeat Endings Tool
3) Where possible, group similar symbols onto one primary key, and use the Shift key to “raise” it one level, the Option key to “lower” it one level, and Option-shift to “raise” it two levels:
• the “f” key for the f
• “Shift-f” for the ff
• “Option-shift f” for fff
• “Option- f” key for mf
KEY COMMAND RULES:
The Command key equivalents for menu commands follow three basic rules:
1) Wherever possible, follow standard Macintosh command key assignments:
Cmd-q for “Quit” Cmd-s for “Save”
Cmd-p for “Print” Cmd-z for “Undo”
2) Wherever possible, use the first or second letter of the command as it appears in the menu:
Cmd-f for “Flip Direction” Cmd-b for “Beam Notes”
Cmd-t for “Transpose” Cmd-r for “Respace Measures”
3) Where possible, group two similar menu commands, or two commands whose names start with the same letter onto one primary key, and use the Option key to call up the less frequently used of the two:
Cmd-c for “Copy” Cmd-option-c for “Copy System”
Cmd-v for “Paste Insert” Cmd-option-v for “Paste Merge”
Special NOTE TO USERS OUTSIDE THE U.S.A./CANADA:
Macintosh users who are using non-U.S. system software may find that the shortcut keys listed in this chapter don't work as expected. Apple Computer remapped the Macintosh keyboard for U.S. System 7, so some shortcut keys may not be what non-U.S. users expect (based on the chart in the manual, etc.). You can look at the chart for the Palette Keymap in NightCustomizer to see exactly what key assignments are being used by the particular system software you are using. You can easily create and print out a “PICT file” by taking a “screen shot” of the Palette Keymap chart displayed by NightCustomizer, and then print it out for your reference, using System 7 Teach Text or some drawing program such as MacPaint or SuperPaint.
NIGHTINGALE'S TOOL PALETTE:
You select the tool used to enter a symbol (such as the 8th or the 16th note) directly from the Tool Palette by clicking on the icon for whatever symbol you’d like to insert in your score. Each tool also has a “hot key” (a shortcut key equivalent) which you type on the Mac keyboard.
Initial View of the Tool Palette vs. The Full-Size Tool Palette:
The Tool Palette appears in its abbreviated form whenever a new document is opened. The complete view of the Tool Palette is accessed by clicking on the “zoom box” in the upper right-hand corner of the palette, after which you return the palette to its original size by clicking again on the zoom box. You can reshape the palette to any size (above center) by dragging its “grow box.”
THE PALETTE TOOLS AND THEIR SHORTCUT KEYS:
More about the use of each of these tools and symbols can be found in Nightingale Help (under the Apple Menu) while running Nightingale application.
REASSIGNING TOOL PALETTE SHORTCUT KEYS IN NIGHTCUSTOMIZER:
New shortcut keys can be assigned for every tool in the palette, using the NightCustomizer utility. For information, see the file titled Using NightCustomizer accompanying the Nightingale Demo.
REARRANGING THE TOOL PALETTE LAYOUT:
The layout of the Tool Palette can be rearranged to suit your needs by pressing the Option key and then dragging any tool to another position in the palette. If a tool already exists in that spot, it will “trade places” with the tool you originally moved.
You can drag unneeded tools into the right-hand portion of the palette so they are not displayed except when the palette is opened up to “full-size” (see below). Since each tool or symbol has a keyboard shortcut equivalent, you can select items on the palette even if you can’t see them. Thus, as you become familiar with the shortcut keys, you may want to rearrange the Tool Palette by dragging out of view any tools you don’t need to see anymore.
You can also reshape the palette using the “grow box” to make the visible portion of the palette smaller and smaller, so that it is eventually out of your way entirely.
NIGHTINGAL'S MENUS AND COMMANDS
THE MENU BAR:
Whenever Nightingale is running, a set of seven menus is displayed in a “menu bar” at the top of your Mac screen. The contents of each menu are displayed by pointing the mouse to a menu’s name, then clicking and holding down the mouse button.
While still holding down the mouse button, you can select a command displayed in the menu by moving the mouse down to the command’s name, and then releasing the button.
Note: Wherever a menu command is followed (to its right in the menu) by a “Command” symbol and some other letter/number/symbol, it refers to the key board shortcut or “command key” sequence used to call up that command directly from the typing keyboard.
REASSIGNING KEY COMMANDS:
The Command key equivalents for menu commands can be altered using a resource editing utility, such as ResEdit® or Resourcerer®. For information, see Appendix E, Modifying Nightingale with Resource Editors.
Hidden command: Cmd-period
Command-period is not listed in the menu bars, but is an important key command that interrupts or halts current activity:
• It cancels and closes dialogs throughout Nightingale
• It interrupts screen redrawing
• It halts all playback
• It halts lyric entry
FILE MENU:
The File menu handles the score files and the printed output. You’ll find the standard Open, New, Close, Revert, Print, and Quit commands here. You’ll also find commands to Import and Export MIDI Files, to Import Finale Files, to create PostScript Files of your score output, and to specify your Preferences for some of Nightingale default settings. Save Selection Notelist creates a text listing of any set of selected symbols in your score.
Note: If you see a small black triangle instead of the last few commands in this or any menu, it means there are more choices hidden from view.
To display them, move the mouse down further (with the mouse button still pressed) until the menu scrolls completely to its end, exposing its bottom-most contents.
EDIT MENU:
In the Edit menu, you’ll find the standard Cut, Copy, Clear, Undo and Select All commands, with separate commands for Cut and Copy Systems and Pages.
Nightingale’s unique and powerful QuickChange™ command allows you to select any objects in your score and alter literally dozens of their characteristics. Some changes made with this powerful command include:
• making objects in your score invisible
• notehead appearance (shapes, sizes, etc..)
• voice assignment
• stem length
• text alignment
• and many, many more
The Get Info command displays and allows you to change attributes of a more technical nature. If your score is complex and you need to fine-tune the details of the musical symbols, like the position of augmentation dots and accidentals you’ll find Get Info very useful.
Note: Get Info is generally reserved for experienced MAC users, and can be precarious. It is possible, for example, to alter the position of a symbol so that it is sent very far off the screen, after which it might be impossible to retrieve or delete.
Paste Insert lets you insert musical material between existing music.
Paste Merge lets you merge pasted material with existing parts.
Extend Selection allows you to select/highlight one or more symbols and then automatically select all objects above or below a given note or rest. With any symbols selected, you can go to Extend Selection, and all symbols on the same “sync” will also be selected.
Modifier Info is similar to the Get Info command, but is dedicated to note modifiers such as accents and articulations.
The Paste System and Paste Page commands will appear in the Edit menu only when you have copied or cut a system/page from your score to the Mac’s “clipboard.” The clipboard is simply the place in your computer’s memory where it temporarily stores information while you are moving it from one place to another.
SCORE MENU:
The commands in the Score menu let you set up and edit the layout of the system and the page.
Master Page calls up a separate menu of commands (see below) which let you control the general layout of your score.
Work on Page Format lets you change the layout of individual pages and systems in your score. When selected, this command shows system boundaries and allows individual staves to be dragged up and down on the page.
It also calls up a separate Format menu with commands which allow special “hiding” of staves.
Hide Staff is used, for example, in an orchestral conductor’s score when several parts are resting for an entire system, or perhaps for several pages. The Format menu stays visible as long as Work on Page Format remains selected (with a check next to it). To hide the Format menu again, go to the Score menu and remove the check next to Work on Page Format by pointing to it (with the button held down), and then releasing the button.
Left End of Systems lets you specify all at once what is displayed at the beginning of the first system (such as how and where the instrument names will appear) and all subsequent systems.
Define Text Styles lets you specify the text styles for any symbol that appears as text, such as rehearsal marks, chord symbols, and measure numbers. You can also assign characteristics for four standard text styles that you use when you enter text with the text entry tool (with the “A” icon) found in the tool palette.
Measure Numbers lets you specify how measures should be numbered and where the numbers will appear.
Page Numbers lets you specify how pages should be numbered and where the numbers will appear.
Add System and Add Page are used when you are entering music with the mouse. When you are recording, Nightingale automatically adds systems and pages as they are needed.
Flow In Text/Lyrics is Nightingale’s powerful song lyrics tool. It also is used to place special and/or lengthy performance instructions anywhere in the score.
Respace Bars allows you to select a region of measures and specify how dense their spacing should appear.
Realign With Selection will visually clean up notation that has become misaligned vertically, without necessarily compacting notes/rests to the left toward the front of the measure (see the Remove Gaps in Voices command under the Edit menu.
Reformat Systems lets you select a region and specify how many measures are allowed per system, and how many systems per page.
Justify Systems can be done automatically when you use Reformat Systems. Any time you want measures in a selected region to spread out and fill up the entire width of a system, select this command.
Auto Respace Measures can be turned off/on, depending on whether you want Nightingale to automatically position the notes/rests in a measure when you add a new note or rest. If you have worked very hard to position notes and beams in a measure, you may want to retain current spacing while adding new material. Of course, even with auto respacing turned off, you can invoke Nightingales spacing tables with the Respace Bars command.
Move Measure Up/Down lets you move selected measures to the next or previous system
Move System Up/Down will move systems to the next or previous page, without affecting anything else.
MASTER PAGE MENU:
A separate Master Page menu is called up when you engage the Master page command. It remains visible as long as Master Page remains selected (with a check next to it). To close the Master Page menu, deselect the Master Page command by going to the Score menu, and pointing to Master Page (with the mouse button still held down), and then releasing the button.
Add Parts Above or at Bottom and Delete Part/Staff let you specify your score’s size with up to 64 staves on a page. Click on a staff to add a part above it. To add a part below, be sure nothing is selected.
Group Parts and Ungroup Parts let you specify which staves will be connected by a square bracket at the left-hand edge, and where barlines will extend between staves.
Staff Size lets you choose between nine different preset staff sizes ranging in total height from 10 to 28 points, and one staff size listed as “O” which can be set to any size you choose.
Margins lets you set the top, bottom, left and right margins of your page, effectively controlling staff width.
Instruments is the command you use to specify the name, range limits, transposition, and playback MIDI patch, channel, and “balance velocity” (individual dynamic control to balance an ensemble) for each of the parts in your score.
NOTES/RESTS MENU:
Set Duration lets you select/highlight a region of your score and specify a specific rhythmic value to be given to all notes and rests.
Remove Gaps in Voices takes a selected/highlighted region of notes and rests which may be awkwardly spread across several beats, and compresses them toward the front of each measure. Some objects may shift to the left and attach to a different sync.
Insert by Position can be selected before note entry so that notes/rests in one voice can be placed anywhere in a measure and will remain stationary on a chosen “sync.” For example, any gaps left between notes due to the omission of rests during manual note entry will be left in the position where you placed them, provided they are attached to a sync with another note/rest above or below.
Clarify Rhythm will rewrite rhythms in a selected region to make them notationally more standard according to the meter. Nightingale will, for example, clarify your rhythms according to the “imaginary bar line” rule (letting the performer see the two halves of the measure).
Set Whole/Multibar Rests lets you select a whole rest anywhere in your score and manually change it to a multibar rest of any length. When individual parts are extracted from the score, Nightingale automatically collects multiple measures of rests in a parts, and creates multibar rests for you. These can also be manually changed by you. Visual appearance (thickness, style) of multibar rests are user-controlled via the NightCustomizer utility.
Fill Empty Measures will place a whole rest into any measure left blank in a selected region of your score.
Transpose Chromatic and Transpose Diatonic affect all notes and chords in a selected region.
Transpose Key lets you click on the initial clef, key signature or time signature of a staff/part, or several at once, and transpose the selected staves/parts from beginning to end all at once. Use this if you have written a concert score, and then wish to switch it to a transposed score, or for transposing an entire composition at one time. Individual extracted parts can also be transposed, independent of the original score.
Enharmonic Respell affects all notes and chords in a selected region.
Delete Redundant Accidentals will drop any accidentals already implied by the key signature, differentiating between “hard” accidentals deliberately placed by the user, and “soft” accidentals which have been created by Nightingale in the score in the course of editing.
Remove Modifiers deletes all accents, articulations and fermatas from notes/rests in a selected region, so you can more easily make corrections.
GROUPS MENU:
Beam by Beat is Nightingale’s automatic beaming command which will beam a region of selected notes and rests with respect to the meter.
Beam Notes allows you to beam together any selected notes/rests, without regard to meter or barlines.
Break Beam Before will visually split a beamed group of notes that have at least two beams (i.e. 16th notes or smaller), so that their primary beam extends to all notes in the group, but the secondary beam will end before the note you have selected.
Flip Fractional Beams will change the appearance of a group of beamed notes containing a mixture of 8th notes with smaller notes (16ths, 32nds, etc.). In mixed and/or syncopated groups, the primary beam of the 8th note will extend the length of the entire beamed group, but secondary or fractional beams will extend only between appropriate notes. Some fractional beams extend only from one note but do not connect with the stems of other notes. To change the appearance of how these notes are organized rhythmically, you can point the fractional beams in different directions.
Create Tuplet automatically devises the correct tuplet for any group of selected notes/rests.
Fancy Tuplets lets you choose the way a tuplet will be notated, including the display of ratios used in modern notation (i.e.:“4:3”), and whether the tuplet notation will include a bracket, at times when it normally would not.
Create Octave Sign places above or below selected notes a dotted octave bracket and a numeric indication ranging from 8va to 22va (or 8va bassa to 22va bassa).
Multivoice Notation lets you point the stems of different notes that are on the same staff in opposite directions to visually distinguish independent, contrapuntal voices.
Flip Direction flips the stem direction of any selected region of notes.
VIEW MENU:
Go To lets you tell Nightingale to jump to a specific page, measure or rehearsal number.
Go to Selection will tell Nightingale to show on the screen whatever page and measure has selected material in it.
Reduce/Enlarge are Nightingale’s very speedy “zoom in” and “zoom out” controls which don’t require waiting until the screen is redrawn between commands (if you use the command-key equivalents).
Look at One Voice lets you choose one voice in your score to view, dimming all objects belonging to other voices. This is handy for editing when you want to affect only one voice at a time, particularly with more than one voice on a staff.
Look at All Voices reverses the Look at One Voice command.
Show Duration Problems will place a gray field on any measure where the notes and rests add up to more than a full measure (as indicated by the time signature).
Show Sync Lines will turn on sync lines so they are displayed constantly.
Show Invisibles displays all invisible objects in your score which you have deliberately created using the QuickChange™ or Get Info commands. An invisible first barline is also displayed at the beginning of each system.
Show System Boxes displays the system boundaries constantly.
Pianoroll will change the display of your score from conventional music notation to a limited type of graphic/linear representation of the pitches and durations of the notes.
Redraw Screen and Show Clipboard are common Macintosh commands clearing away graphic errors and displaying the contents of the clipboard, respectively.
Show Palette restores Nightingale’s Tool Palette if you have closed it during your work session.
The bottom section of this menu displays the names of all documents that have been opened during this work session (i.e. “Your Current Score” or “Nightingale Demo Score”). Choosing one brings its window to the front.
PLAY/REC MENU:
Play Entire, Continue Play, Play Selection, Record Insert, Step Record Insert, Step Record Merge, MIDI Preferences are all discussed in Chapter 3, MIDI Playback and Recording.
Transcribe Recording is used after real time recording to tell Nightingale to quantize and apply rhythmic values to notes played into the score through MIDI recording.
ALL NOTES OFF is a standard MIDI command used as a “panic button” to send a “turn off” message to any notes playing over your MIDI instrument which for some reason became “stuck” and fail to turn off by themselves.
MIDI Preferences lets you set the MIDI controls for the recording channel, master velocity (volume), and numerous other parameters for recording and playback.
Metronome lets you select a recording metronome. You can choose to hear a beat over your MIDI instrument (you specify the channel, volume, pitch and duration), or through the internal speaker of the Mac (only a click is available internally).
MIDI Dynamic Prefs lets you create a table of dynamic settings to tell your MIDI instrument/sound source how to interpret letter dynamic markings in your score.
Transpose MIDI informs your MIDI instrument that the notes as you view them in your score are already transposed. If this command is selected (a check mark appears next to it), your MIDI instrument will playback (and record) with each part’s specific transposition settings in mind, giving you a correctly-transposed playback from your score, and correctly adjusted MIDI recording into your score.
APPLE MENU:
The Apple menu contains all the various desk accessories you may have installed on your computer, plus access to the About Nightingale window, which tells you about Nightingale’s creators and contributors, and the Nightingale Help utility. If you have installed the PatchBay either as a desk accessory (for System 6 users) or as an Apple Menu Item (for System 7) you should see it in this Apple menu (see the Installation Guise Sheet).
The Apple menu also tells you what applications are currently running.
