[answering me]
. . . For classic appoggiaturas, I redefine the note lengths with the MIDI tool. . . .
Can you explain that in more detail? I'm not getting what you're referring to here (I'd sure like a plugin to create on-beat appaggiaturas!).
Sure. Suppose you've got a quarter note appoggiatura followed by a half note, and you want it to play back like two quarters. Select the MIDI tool and double-click in the measure. At the bottom of the window you'll see a picture of the bar with handles on each note. (Not very good UI here, alas, especially if the bar is crowded.)
When you double-click on a note, it gives you a window with a field for start time and stop time. Both numbers are defined as EDUs. Thus, for the appoggiatura, you want to change the stop time to 1024, and for the half note you want to change the start time to 1024.
Any field left at zero will default to where the note would normally start or stop. That's why it isn't necessary to define the stop time of the half note. The appoggiatura is a little confusing; you'd think the intitial state would have shown a negative start time, but it doesn't. As far as I can tell, the global definition for grace notes is applied to any grace note which is unaltered in the MIDI tool, but once you alter it that overrides the grace note definition and it then plays like a normal note (with whatever alteration you entered).
Whatever the reason, the trick works. Determine the length of the appoggiatura in EDUs, and enter that number as the stop for the appoggiatura and the start for the note that follows.
. . . For cue notes, I turn off the playback in the Edit Frames box.
More info, please. If I could do this instead of setting key velocity to zero, that would be preferable. So far as I can see from it, though, you have to do it entry by entry, which is none too attractive. If I could turn it off measure by measure, that would be super.
As far as I know, you have to do it entry-by-entry. Yes, it's a nuisance, but I generally only need it for a couple of notes at a time. I use it in the voice staff when cue notes reflect different scansion in a second verse.
I assume you know how the Edit Frames box works, given your response to the other message about the Playback field there.
For a piece like that I put all the playback notes into a single layer for which I turn off spacing in the layer options. Everything in that layer is seen and not heard; everything in the visible layer is heard and not seen.
Don't you mean exactly the opposite of what you just said?
Oops, you're right. I mean vice versa.
When working on a file like this, I enter all the visible stuff first, then copy the entire visible layer into the invisible playback layer, then make the necessary changes to the playback layer. That way, all of the playback for the entire piece is coming from invisible notes, not just in some bars.
Well, I can't see doing it that way. If copying between layers were easier, perhaps. If you're doing notation in a style where you're like to have that throughout the whole piece (say a continuo realization), it makes sense. But for pieces where less than 10% of the measures have playback that is different from the visible notation, it seems a pain.
The piece I remember most vividly had those repeater beams through the whole piece. I copied all the music to an invisible layer, then passed it through the Rhythmic Subdvisions plug-in a few times. It was tricky, but once I got the right scheme worked out it was a huge improvement on typing them all out separately.
For pieces in which only a few bars need a playback layer, you might consider defining layer 3 as no-playback and layer 4 as invisible. Then you can use layers 1 and 2 for most of the piece, switching over the 3 and 4 for the bars that need altered playback.
Well, that's a pretty radical departure, and my problem with it would be that it's too easy for the two layers to get out of synch with each other (you change the visible layer and forget to alter the playback layer).
That's definitely a hazard of my method. You have to be well-organized and keep careful track of what you've done.
mdl
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