"Joey Goldstein" <nospam@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:fp9td7$kgr$2@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> One of the things I've always been able to do when using the old C-Lab
> Notator, Emagic Logic and Apple Logic Express software for
> notation/composition, is to time ****ft short (or longer) passages of
> music to the left or to the right *in time* by simply dragging the notes
> to the left or right.
> With Logic, you first set an overall increment of 1/4s, 1/8s, 1/16s or
> whatever, then select the note content with the mouse and drag
> the notes to their new location in the time flow.
>
> I've got an old copy of Sibelius 3 running on my Mac and I've been
> mucking about with it lately trying to see if something similar is
> possible, and it doesn't look like it is. Dragging a note or notes
> simply moves its placement on the page but not its metrical position.
> In order to move the notes' metrical position I have to use Cut and
Paste.
>
> Am I missing something?
> Is there a simpler way to do what I need to in Sibelius?
> Is Sibelius 5 any better for this type of thing than Sibelius 3?
Being for notation, and not playback, you can't really "drag and drop" a
note to a new metric position. Partly this has to do with the way they
keep
calculating and updating the correct number of beats in a measure (because
typically you've already selected a note value - though you're right,
sequencing software seems to do this without a problem - other than
strange
ties, dots, and triplets all over the place!).
In Finale (and I assume Sib), you might think of each element as a "place
holder" and in order for you to put something in "place 2" (let's say the
second quarter note), you need to have something in "place 1" first. In
the
old days, Finale wouldn't finish off a measure for you (fill in the rests
to
fill the "places" you didn't put notes in) but now if you exit the measure
with the Speedy Entry tool, it will "fill in" those places with rests
automatically - so it must be constantly calculating on the fly based on
the
note values you've selected.
I think you're thinking of something more like the Graph/Piano Roll
editors
in most sequencing software that will allow you to simply drag a note/MIDI
event to a new location - even across barlines. See, it doesn't matter
there
because you're dealing with pure length in time. And even in their
notation
windows (I've used Cubase's), they'll let you go across barlines and beats
and such, but not being designed for notation, it usually gives you
notationally insane results. But in notation programs, they're constantly
having to deal with the barline as a physical stopping pont (but I admit,
this would be a sweet feature - drag a whole note from beat 1 to beat 3
and
it automatically puts a half rest at the beginning of the measure and ties
it across the barline!).
In Finale, there's a way around this. You can use the mass mover tool and
in
the edit menu tell it to select partial measures. Then you can choose
whether you want to copy and replace (which will write over existing
notes)
or copy and insert (which will move things after the insert point down as
many beats as you've inserted). When you select partial measures, you
select
a beat or a division, so in 4/4, rather than selecting the entire measure,
you can select 1, 2, or 3 beats, 4 of course, and even 5, 6, 7, etc. To
get
8th notes though you'd have to change your 4/4 meter to 8/8 (which you
could
do, but tell it to display 4/4, so no one's the wiser). All you do is drag
your selected beats to the destination point (the only drawback is that
you
can't drag into your selection - in other words, you can't select 3 beats,
and drag it down one beat later - you have to go "outside" of your
selection
range - so if you want to move something one beat, you can only select one
beat's worth of time :-( ).
I don't know if Sibelius has a similar feature. Finale has had Copy and
Insert or Copy and Replace (and you can even choose which elements you
replace!) for as long as I can remember. The select partial measures is a
more recent addition, but long enough ago that I bet the majority of users
out there don't remember it not being there. Sibelius, being so
feature-similar in many respects may have incor****ated a similar feature.
By the way, being able to move notes horizontally bu just dragging is also
somewhat new in Finale (comparatively) and boy was that a wonderful
inclusion - you used to have to go in and do a lot of editing just to move
notes around. They simplified it immensely - and then they included the
ability to do rests as well, thank God.
In a pinch Joey, you could always ex****t to a sequencer, do the
adjustments,
and then re-im****t back in. Or maybe Sib 4 or 5 has added the feature if 3
doesn't already have it (and you haven't tried this work-around yet).
Best,
Steve
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