Software at your service

[TimSharrock]

Oh, I see. You mean in notation software! (Sorry - I couldn't resist.)

To see a more recent edition of the same piece, see http://www.ssg.org.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=199

[admin]

I cannot, on a very brief look, see why it's not working - it'll be a permissions issue, somewhere.
I'll look at it properly later on and fix it.

I think that's fixed. It was a permissions problem - at the Nix level, rather than the forum software.

Ho hum!

(oh, that's like a bear noise [think Winnie ther Pooh]. Better think of another noise...
Ah-ha! Think "oh what bear's do in the woods, allegedly!", instead )

[Nick Baty]

Ah-ha! Think "oh what bear's do in the woods, allegedly!", instead

They leave porridge as bait in their hideouts so little girls – who should not be allowed out alone – are tempted in!

[musicus]

It's as well that you said "allegedly"

[docmattc]

At the risk of getting us back on topic (but possibly leading us astray) does anyone still use Rhapsody on RISC computers? I retired mine only about 5 years ago.

[Lakelark]

Sibelius is beyond the budget of a pensioner, so five years ago I invested a whole ten pounds in MAGIX Notation2 (no longer available, it seems). It does very well, but cannot do four-line chant, for which I use Gregoire, again with fine results. Notation2 files can even be read by Sibelius! One thing I would like to do is to transfer Notation2 MIDI files to an MP3 player. I have tried several downloaded program(me)s without success. Is there a Wizard out there with any ideas on this?

[Southern Comfort]

At the risk of getting us back on topic (but possibly leading us astray) does anyone still use Rhapsody on RISC computers? I retired mine only about 5 years ago.

Did anyone ever use Mosaic (a Mac programme) ? The printed output was excellent and elegant, but there were a few glitches ─ e.g. with dotted quaver - semiquaver - quaver in 6/8, it was impossible to get the semi-quaver beam-stub on the correct side of the stem. Haven't heard of it for years now, but the Australians used it a lot at one time. And of course I haven't had a Mac for years either (thank goodness ).

[musicus]

Sibelius is beyond the budget of a pensioner, so five years ago I invested a whole ten pounds in MAGIX Notation2 (no longer available, it seems). It does very well, but cannot do four-line chant, for which I use Gregoire, again with fine results. Notation2 files can even be read by Sibelius! One thing I would like to do is to transfer Notation2 MIDI files to an MP3 player. I have tried several downloaded program(me)s without success. Is there a Wizard out there with any ideas on this?

MIDI, as I am sure you know, is not audio (which MP3 is), so a conversion is involved, either within the program or externally i.e. via another piece of software. An example of the latter method would be to use something like Cubase (or Sonar, or any number of sequencing programs). There are various ways to do this, depending on what hardware and software you've got, but the procedure might be as follows:

1. Create MIDI file in your notation program.
2. Load MIDI file into your sequencer program.
3. Assign virtual instruments (i.e. software instruments available within the sequencer) to the MIDI tracks (presuming that your MIDI file contains more than one track, each on a separate MIDI channel).
4. Still in the sequencer program, internally route the output of your MIDI tracks to new audio tracks.
5. After any necessary mixing, bounce the audio tracks down to a stereo track (still in the sequencer)
6. Export the stereo track to MP3 (if necessary, via an audio file converter program, such as the free Audacity (or something better).
7. Bob's your uncle.

You can see how much work the sequencer program is doing here. It may well be that the more basic versions of Cubase (Sonar etc etc) don't have all this functionality (especially step 4) - I am not at work yet, and cannot check - in which case you are faced with spending as much money on a version that does as you would on Sibelius!

The beauty of Sibelius (and, probably, Finale, etc etc) is that it can do all of this, apart from step 6:

1. Create score in Sibelius.
2. Export score to audio file (aiff) - (the quality of the software instruments in Sibelius 6 is very good)
3. Use Audacity or iTunes (both free) to convert aiff file to MP3.

Another, cheaper approach is:

1. Create MIDI file in your notation program.
2. Play it (out loud) via a free or cheap program, through loudspeakers.
3. Record the sound using a cheap MP3 recorder/player (tens of pounds, not hundreds)
4. Export the MP3 file from the player/recorder via USB

(I reserve the right to edit this all later in the light of my brain having properly woken up!)

As I said, there are more ways than this to skin the cat, and other people might well be able to suggest better ones.

[musicus]

At the risk of getting us back on topic (but possibly leading us astray) does anyone still use Rhapsody on RISC computers? I retired mine only about 5 years ago.

No, but I remember it. Great fun, and quite versatile. I wish I still had my BBC Micro and Archimedes computers. (I had the original Sibelius - Sibelius 7 - on the Arch, which set my employer back £700. Plus ça change.)

[PaulW]

I am having increasing need for software to print plainchant...

I got round to playing some more with the Finale plugin that produces nuemes. I had forgotten just how fiddly it is to get the layout looking decent, and I have to report that running in Finale 2008, the plugin occasionally causes Fianle to crash - but then the version of the plugin I have was written for Finale 2003 (though there appears no update for later versions exists). In as much as it allows the words and the notes to be associated, and therefore moved as a group, it is a step up from using Meinrad fonts; I'm not convinced that the appearance is better than Meinrad. I suspect that, whichever way you go, setting out chant is going to take time and effort to get it to look good. It is not something that modern notation programs really cater for.

[Gabriel]

And St Meinrad font used in Adobe InDesign

Regina.jpg

[Nick Baty]

Coming back to Musicus's request, here's Sibelius, saved as a tif. (For service sheets I would usually save as a pict.)

[Gabriel]

Ho hum!

Just to note that the images are not displayed unless you are logged in

[admin]

Just to note that the images are not displayed unless you are logged in

That's deliberate

The solution is: log in...

[Southern Comfort]

I got round to playing some more with the Finale plugin that produces nuemes.

But what on earth is that cantor line in the second staff? "To the Queen of the English, salvation and long life" That's not the original text by a very long way Also, the 'pointing' of two out of the three saints would have Dom Laurence Bévenot rolling in his grave (it should vary according to the textual accent of each saint's name).

May I deduce that this example has been done with tongue in cheek, to show what neumes look like in Finale? If it wasn't and is entirely serious, may I suggest taking a look at Sing the Mass D27 (page 218) for the official SSG version of this chant? (In modern notation there, but the notes are all correct and show how differently-stressed saints are treated.)