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Double stems, different color notes and lyrics input woes

Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2018 10:40 am
by Stratso
Hello

I'm new to finale printmusic and I'm having several issues with the first piece of music I'm trying to arrange.

First I have several notes that have stems going both up and down. These notes are also not black (I'm color blind and don't know what color they, just that they are not black like the rest). Not all of the non black notes are double stemmed. I may not be using the right tool (selection) but when I highlight a note and hit L nothing happens to either the double stem notes or any other notes either. I can't find anything in the manual or online about this. Also everything I'm seen online so far must be for the full version as they are usually showing menu options that I don't have in my version.

Second issue is while attempting to add lyrics. The cursor jumps several notes with each push of the space bar.

Any ideas what's going on here?

Thanks

David

Re: Double stems, different color notes and lyrics input woe

Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2018 3:41 pm
by miker
David,

You are having these problems because of layers. Normally, if you just have notes in a single layer, the stems will follow normal up-or-down rules, depending on where they are on the staff. When you have notes in a measure in both layers one and two, then one goes up; two goes down.

Most of us can recognize the layers by color: one is black, two is red. For those with color-blindness, that's a problem. You can tell which layer you are in by looking in the lower left of the window, where the layer is selected.
Screen Shot 2018-01-29 at 7.38.58 AM.png
Screen Shot 2018-01-29 at 7.38.58 AM.png (20.42 KiB) Viewed 18407 times
Your issue with the lyrics is almost certainly caused being in a different layer than the notes you want to attach the lyrics, to.

Do you have any color recognition? The default layer colors can be changed, possibly to something you can see better.

If you can post a screenshot of a problem measure or two, we'll try to straighten you out!

Re: Double stems, different color notes and lyrics input woe

Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2018 10:02 pm
by Stratso
Hi Miker

Thanks for the reply.

I must not have something set right because in my interface I don't see a lot of the buttons, menu items or indicators that people keep referring to. Case in point, I don't see the layer indicated in the lower left of window.

Red/green is my trouble band. I can tell they are different. If I had to do a pop up quiz on it I would "guess" it was brown. For me colors that fall in that band all kind of look the same if they are off from the pure center of the color or as in this case they are just a tiny dot. But now that I know that it's not just a graphics rendering issue I can distinguish which is black and which is red.

Can I merger the layers? I don't need layers as this is just a simple piano and voice piece (I do intend to add chords later for guitar).

I scanned this piece in and then started to make the changes I wanted. I have only done some simple cutting and pasting to this point. How did I end up parts in different layers.

I've tried to attach a screenshot of my page but no luck. I used the upload attachment section below and it seems to work but nothing appears.

Thanks

Re: Double stems, different color notes and lyrics input woe

Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2018 10:46 pm
by miker
Since most of us use the full Finale (especially since PM has been discontinued on the Mac, and will not be developed further for Windows) you will get a lot of non-applicable answers. However, I know that the layer selector is there in PrintMusic Windows. It will look a little different from what I showed. Look in the manual for layers and you should see what to look for.

You will need to learn about layers. Not so much for the single line vocals, but they are necessary for anything beyond the simplest piano line. The fact that you scanned the music is a pretty good indication that layers are involved, and possibly (probably) messed up somewhere.

You couldn’t post a picture because you are new to the forum. After you have posted a couple of times, the restriction will be lifted.

Meanwhile, send me the document at wawoodman at aol dot com, and I’ll see if I can help get you straightened out.

Re: Double stems, different color notes and lyrics input woe

Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2018 9:56 am
by Stratso
Sent the File.

Then I went back and read all of the directions for scanning. Not an easy task given the way that it is broken up into little chunks and squirreled away in little secret hiding spots. :)

I then re-scanned the pages and did a couple of things differently and got a slightly better result. But I still have 2 layers and some places where in the sheet music there is one note but the scan puts the same note in both layers 1 & 2. I'm guessing that there is nothing that can be done about that with the lite version besides cleaning it up after by deleting the note in layer 2.

Now all I have to do is figure out how to delete a note from a layer. Back to the manual and online searches I go. :)

Re: Double stems, different color notes and lyrics input woe

Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2018 12:49 pm
by Peter Thomsen
Stratso wrote:… I still have 2 layers and some places where in the sheet music there is one note but the scan puts the same note in both layers 1 & 2. I'm guessing that there is nothing that can be done about that with the lite version besides cleaning it up after by deleting the note in layer 2.

Now all I have to do is figure out how to delete a note from a layer. Back to the manual and online searches I go …
You can not leave a note’s beat position “vacant”.
Deleting a note will make all the following notes for the remainder of that measure leave their position in the measure, and move left.

I would not delete the note, but rather hide it:
1) If playback is important, first change the note to a rest.

To hide the rest:
2) Select the rest, and hit the letter H key.

Re: Double stems, different color notes and lyrics input woe

Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2018 3:36 pm
by miker
As I told you in the email, the problem is layers, which scanning often misreads.

You have to be in the correct layer to delete a note in that layer. Double-clicking on a note with the selection tool will automatically select the correct layer. It also appears that a pickup was misread, so you need to deal with shifting notes, as well.

Unfortunately, the Lite version of SmartScore does nothing except scan, recognize, and export. You have no option to correct the recognized scan, before it gets exported as XML. You are going to have to learn PrintMusic pretty well.

There are no shortcuts. Even if you purchased the one of the full versions of SmartScore, you would have a learning curve, as well.

Re: Double stems, different color notes and lyrics input woe

Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2018 8:32 pm
by Stratso
Does the full version of smartscore do A better job of scanning or just give you the option to correct it before you export it?

Re: Double stems, different color notes and lyrics input woe

Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2018 9:21 pm
by miker
The scanning engine is the same. However, the editing ability is what you pay for, and believe me, it’s worth every penny. I have done hundreds of scores this way.

Re: Double stems, different color notes and lyrics input woe

Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2018 6:15 pm
by MikeHalloran
SmastScore X2 Pro does scan better than SmartScore Lite, included with PrintMusic. I think it’s well worth the $200 upgrade price.

Re: Double stems, different color notes and lyrics input woe

Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2018 6:26 am
by Stratso
I've upgraded to Smartscore X2 and will use it on my next project.

Thanks MikeR for all your help getting me up and running.

Re: Double stems, different color notes and lyrics input woe

Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2018 4:17 pm
by miker
You are quite welcome!